Teacher Discussion Forums

Greetings everyone,

I've just started teaching a BEC Vantage course at a financial institution. Both of my classes are made up of IT professionals. Are there any sites and / or texts I can purchase to supplement my lessons? I'm looking for materials geared towards the IT industry.

Thanks and best regards.

Well, seeing as if no one around here has ever taught IT professionals, I'll go ahead and list some things I came up with on my own...just in case someone needs help in the future.

1) ACM.org: A great site that has newsletters and the like. I'm going to try and use some of the articles for class.

2) Wired Mag: Clip some of these stories out, they're pretty good also.

Check out

http://newsdirectory.com/magazine.php?cat=4&sub=&c=

It's an online newsdirctory which features all kinds of computer magazines. You'll be sure to find something there that's geared towards the interests of your students.

Hi there,

How are you getting on? I've been teaching in an IT company for the last six months. I'll get back on here with some links as soon as I can.

I have some materials of my own that I don't mind sharing if you can do the same

Serendipity, thanks for the info. Bobs, I'm slowly limping along. I don't have that much but I'm willing to share also.

Hey Indigo, you still with the IT guys?

What's your lowest level and how are you getting on?

I have taught IT Pros all over the world as part of my job and they speak a language all their own. It helps if you can speak it as well. First off, you need to know what IT they are (ie Windows software, network hardware, Linux, desktop applications or backend server guys) Once you have established this then I can point you to the right area of instructional material. Good luck

Shannondoah Pitts

The guys I teach are in all areas- project management, pr, hr, promotion, sys admin, programming web and desktop applications, etc.

They work on all platforms, programming in .NET, Java, DELPHI, etc, basically covering everything under the sun.

Funnily enough, I find the situation quite the opposite. They claim to be 'totally proficient' in their own terminology, which they may be, though I doubt it. If I could get them to accept that making 'engine' rhyme with 'vagina' sounds ridiculous, it would be a breakthrough. Getting them inot a discussion about work is nigh-on impossible, they seem to think they don't need improvement in that area which worries me!

They're totally apathetic when it comes to learning- not wanting to put in one iota of effort. The best class is with one student who's working on an English translation of his site. We spend our lessons translating and checking his translated work. I've never seen a student go away happier.

Most of the rest have a 'we don't know what we want, but it's not this'-type attitude. Base lessons on working language and work situations, and they complain that they 'are already k-nowin-g all of zees', and just need to know how to make small talk with clients. Give them general English and they'll complain that it's not related to their work.

Anyway, establishing 'what IT they are' isn't really an issue with them, but if you know any good quality materials that get these techie guys going, I'll be a v.v.v. happy man!

Hi,

My guys tend to know the technical vocabulary but do not have the confidence or language skills to string it all together into professional dialogue. I got linux experts to answer the exam questions in English and explain to me why that is the answer, that was tough but they managed it and were impressed by their own technical knowledge and English.

I designed a webquest for another group that needed to learn presentation skills, meaning that they could explore English sites to make a group presentation including handouts in English. Again challenging but it went down well.

I bought a couple of books from Cambridge University Press called Infotech, there is a student and teacher book, it is OK but I found more comfortable developing my own materials and most importantly I used the language in the sessions to develop more material.

Lastly, keep it light humoured and make it 100% relevant.

Good luck and get back to me off list with language levels and the area of IT they are working in, if you want to exchange materials.

Look at this site. It's got lots of generally accessible links and some up-to-date teaching material:

http://englishforit.net/