13 reviews
"Extremely welcoming and a fantastic time while learning."
"Just GREAT"
CIAL is a well-established language school, teaching Portuguese for more than 40 years.
It holds several national and international accreditations, which guarantee the quality of the teaching and services provided by the school. To obtain these recognitions the school must comply with strict regulations relating to school premises and facilities, teacher qualifications, teaching quality, administration, and welfare.
CIAL is located in Faro's city center, walking distance from the sea and the historical center. The school's excellent location and its wide variety of courses make it an ideal location to study Portuguese in the Algarve: students can choose from general Portuguese courses, Portuguese for professionals and vacation courses, and can decide between part time, full time or extensive courses. CIAL has 6 classrooms, terrace and student lounge, computer room, self-study materials, resource center, and library and free wifi internet throughout.
Textbooks and other course materials such as Mp3 files are INCLUDED in the course fee.
The school organizes social/cultural activities weekly, FREE, to invite students to practice their Portuguese skills while visiting popular points of interest in and around the city.
CIAL's approach is based on communicative language teaching methodology, placing emphasis on language for communication. Lessons are planned to include a balanced combination of activities to help students learn and practice the four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Course levels are linked to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), and learning objectives for each course are expressed in can-do statements.
Classes are progressive from the starting dates, but apart from absolute beginners, who must begin on the published starting dates, students can join a class at any time if vacancies exist at the suitable level.
Groups have a maximum of 8 participants (12 for Easter and Christmas Courses) so that monitoring and assessment are continuous and personalized.
Individual and Private Group courses are programmed according to the students' specific requests including different professional and cultural themes if requested, and students are welcome to bring documentation they may need to work on.
Over the years CIAL has developed teaching materials, now published and used worldwide including textbooks, DVDs and CD Roms.
CIAL employs only qualified teachers. All teachers are native speakers, hold a university degree and have followed CIAL's Teacher Training Course. Refresher courses are held regularly to bring staff up to date in new techniques and materials. All the teachers are friendly yet highly professional.
CIAL won the prestigious 'Star World Language School' award in 2015 after being shortlisted in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2024
