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Unlock is a series of academic English courses developed by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, designed to equip students with both the language skills and critical thinking abilities essential for academic success. Tailored as an “academic‑light” programme, Unlock integrates academic-style content with real-world context and engaging materials, including authentic, motivating videos. This unique design ensures learners build analytical skills—such as analysis, evaluation, and opinion formulation—while using practical, relevant language tasks that mirror real-life communication and study scenarios.
Unlock Academic English Teacher Training combines expert-led instruction with hands-on workshops—available both online and face-to-face—designed to maximize the impact of the Unlock course in academic English classrooms. During the training, participants will explore the pedagogical rationale and best practices for using the curriculum, engaging directly with the course structure, video content, guided practice tasks, and assessment tools.
Under the guidance of Cambridge University Press–accredited trainers and often including contributions from the author(s) of the Unlock course, this programme delves into effective lesson design, critical‑thinking scaffolds, and practical classroom strategies. Attendees participate in interactive workshops, where they role‑play student-teacher scenarios, analyze sample units, co-develop lesson adaptations, and activate digital features via the Cambridge One platform.
By the end of the training, educators will possess both the theoretical understanding and the practical skills to deliver Unlock confidently, skillfully facilitating academic skill development through engaging, real‑world content in diverse classroom settings.
Author and Trainer
🎓 Expert Trainer & ELT Consultant
With over 25 years of experience in ELT, Chris Sowton has worked with major institutions including Cambridge University Press & Assessment and the British Council. He has also taught at prestigious universities such as Cambridge University and King’s College London.
Chris has authored or co‑authored more than 20 ELT books, including notable series such as Cambridge’s Unlock and Prism. His latest publication, Teaching in Challenging Circumstances, offers practical, classroom-ready strategies for educators in difficult environments and was shortlisted for a British Council ELTon Award.
He has conducted teacher training and educational research across countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Nepal, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, India, Somaliland, China, and Indonesia—supporting teachers in diverse and often challenging contexts.
Chris is the voice behind two British Council podcasts: “The Climate Connection”, which examines the intersection of language education and climate issues and “Teaching English”, offering practical teaching advice and global ELT insights
Course Structure & Progression
Component structure and functional verification
Unlock is a five-level (Pre-A1 to C1), research-informed academic English skills course that combines scaffolded reading, writing, listening, and speaking tasks with integrated critical-thinking development. Each level typically includes 56 instructional hours, extendable to around 90 hours with digital tools like Cambridge’s Classroom App and Online Workbook.
Critical Thinking & Academic Skills Development
Thinking Built into Every Task
Each unit embeds a principled approach to critical thinking based explicitly on frameworks like Bloom’s Taxonomy, with measurable objectives and opportunities for self-evaluation. Students learn to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and create through speaking and writing tasks, preparing them for academic contexts.
Research-Led Language Focus
Corpus-Informed, CEFR-Aligned, and Learner-Centered
The course content is aligned with insights from the Cambridge Learner Corpus, Academic Corpus, and English Vocabulary Profile, ensuring language and task design respond to real learner needs and frequent error patterns. Academic vocabulary is systematically taught using corpus-informed word lists aligned with CEFR levels.
Video & Digital Integration for Engagement
Authentic, Motivating, and Interactive Learning
Every unit begins with a motivating Discovery Education™ video that introduces real-world academic topics, prompts discussion, and fuels critical thinking. These authentic visuals are supported by digital resources—eBook, interactive Workbook, Cambridge One tools, and Presentation Plus software—to enhance both classroom teaching and independent study. Research indicates that video exposure boosts writing performance by enriching ideas, vocabulary, and motivation.
Online Message
