This semester, we invited Distance Education and Language Expert Dr. Karen Meyers to come and teach  the staff and faculty members of SOU starting from 24 September 2014.

Dr. Karen Meyers was born in Belgium, holds a PhD in French, and has native-like proficiency in English. Until she came to SOU, she was working as a Coordinator and Senior Lecturer Linguistics and Modern Languages in the Institute of Distance Education, University of Swaziland. Three different language training courses were organized at SOU, namely Oral English, Practical English Writing and Basic French. During Dr. Meyers’ class, students not only had the chance to be immersed into an authentic language environment, but were also vigorously guided to participate in class activities. Dr. Karen Meyers not only taught them language abilities, but also showed them examples of Western culture. In this semester, a special class was meticulously planned and organized on Christmas Day. During the special class, Dr. Meyers firstly introduced the origin and history of Christmas to the students, and then organized a gifts exchange session between the students. Finally, all the students enjoyed a Christmas movie and this allowed them to learn various cultural elements related to Christmas.

The language training program has been a fruitful program for all participants. SOU will continue this language training program in the coming 2015 semester.