Job Discussion Forums

[andrew_gz]

Greetings!

I confess, I feel lost.
I have taken on a group of employees for a trading company.
As part of my duties I am expected to appraise their abilities.

I am not sure what to do.
How do you go about this?
Do you have any ideas or suggestions?
Perhaps a link or a set of questions.

As well, if you had to teach a mix of Business (particularly trading and fashion) and General English, which text would you use?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you!
Andrew

[Steppenwolf]

You don't even tell us what you are supposed to teach them! It could be spoken business English, it could be IELTS, it could be - horribile dictu! - literature...

[andrew_gz]

Thanks Roger.
Does this help?
"Get them talking!", says the boss. "And let me know how they are doing."

[eslstudies]

That was Steppy, not Roger.
Try an IELTS type test, and teach towards that. Try http://international.holmesglen.vic.edu.au/ie_speak.htm
for an outline. Or you could teach them job application and interview techniques, culminating in them submitting a resume and cover letter, then fronting for an interview. Worked for me.

[mondrian]

Don't forget that you have to pass them all at the end of the course.
So gear your lessons with that goal in mind and not reach for "native speaker" status.
This is China!

[tw]

[andrew_gz]

Thanks for your thoughts eslstudies. I have been spending some time on understanding more about IELTS. And I will develop an interview lesson.

mondrian I appreciate your comments. This program is meant to be ongoing as employees come and go. I have divided them into two groups. (based largely on management�s instruction and student�s self-evaluation) There is no test to teach to at this time.

Thanks tw, as I mentioned there is no exam. Any thoughts on where to go with this?

I guess on the one hand I was hoping to find a test of some sort that I could apply to all the students. A test that would give me a fairly accurate assessment of each student�s abilities and a means of comparison.
On the other hand I figured this exercise would require some work..
So, I guess my question remains.
Does anyone have anything I can use in my situation?
A set of questions, criteria, measurement tools�

As I mentioned there is no text book for this course. It would surely make my job easier if there was. So I ask again which text book and ideally which text book series would you recommend?

The students are mainly 20 something Chinese girls who are employed as designers and merchandisers who have some contact with customers and English must be used. The company trades mostly in the fashion industry but does have a line of sundries. (dollar store items)
I meet with each of the two groups twice a week for a total of three hours. I do have a few students who are attending both group sessions.
The class size of the first group is about 7 students and the second is 11.

I have been given the freedom to put together any program I choose.
I want to do the right thing by my students and the management.
So, I am willing to pursue any ideas you might have to that end.

Thanks,
Andrew

[kev7161]

Spoken English exams are so easy to prepare and administer. Granted, if you have 60+ students, then they can easily be time-consuming.

1. Think of 10 open-ended questions, esp. pertaining to subjects you've studied over the term.

2. Each answer to the question gets a score of 1 to 5 (half points okay, such as 3.5). 1 being very poor, 5 being excellent. No answer or an "I don't know" would get a 0.

3. Base your score on the following criteria: Pronunciation of main learned vocabulary, enunciation - - can you understand them clearly when they answer, full sentences used, variety of word choices, inflection (nothing worse than listening to a droning voice), breadth of response (obviously, the more they talk - - if it's sensible - - the better their score would be). If you want to be really fair, have another teacher (CT? FT?) sit in and listen and let THAT teacher do the scoring.

4. Write your score (1-5 beside each question) - - they can get up to 50 points - - and you're done!

5. If you want it more like a "conversation", then adjust so you ask a question and student answers, then he asks you a follow-up question based on the topic at hand, and then volley that back and forth for X amount of time. If the student can hold up his end for, say, 5 minutes, then you grade accordingly.

What I wouldn't be adverse to doing is giving my students 15 possible questions, then choosing 10 of them. Let them practice their answers on their own or with each other - - who cares? You're grading them on their "Spoken English" skills.

If you are grading on "conversation" skills, then I would also give them a list of possible topics you'll be talking about, or refer them to their text and let them study up. Yes, speaking should come naturally, but how much of a hard-ass do you want to be? They can pre-study for all their other tests, why not this one as well?

[kev7161]

If you don't have a text book, why not have each student write on a slip of paper what they want to learn about in the area of spoken English? If it's a customer relations job, then I'd imagine phone skills, politeness (excuse me, please, thank you, please hold . . . and so on), item descriptions (clothing, do they know the english difference between cotton, polyester, wool, silk, etc.?). I would definitely look at what they're selling and teach them how to effectively describe a variety of their products - - vocabulary would include sizes, measurements, color, materials used, shapes, who is the items geared for (children, men, women, teens) . . . . geez, what else?

A fun classtime activity would be to teach them about infomercials (yes they have these in China!) and then have individuals or small groups put some together using the items they sell.

Anyway, back to the slips of papers - - hopefully their ideas will guide you toward some sort of curriculum. If not . . . yikes!

[andrew_gz]

Wow, Kevin thanks for spending so much time on this.
I am definitely going to take your advice.
And thanks to your help this shouldn't end up a "Yikes!"


Thanks everyone and keep those contributions coming.

[tw]

Teach them business English, especially common telephone phrases. Get them used to hearing tag questions and embedded questions and providing answers for enquiries. Also, teach them how to handle customer complaints and giving directions, e.g. where a particular item is located and how to get to that section of the store.

Also, teach them vocabulary related to their profession.

[englishgibson]

yeah...OP, i thought it was a business English kinda gig....still wonder what material you'be been usin' ... sorry if i missed it somewhere on this thread

Business English books such as Business Basics or Market Leader series of books have goals and the assessment that you're looking for might as well be in those books...but it seems that you've been sent to teach "ANYTHING" you want if that's the case, i'd say your contingency plan should consider the IELTS assessment criteria and eslstudies advice ..however, there are many other assessment criterias and conclusions to whether the students are elementary, interemendiate or advanced

OP, are you supposed to issue the end of course "certificates" there???

peace to chemployers expectations of their laowai employees
and
cheers and beers to our students' oral English