Job Discussion Forums

[quoi_de_neuf?]

Hi,

I'm teaching Business English (via a language school) to a senior manager in a multinational company. He's told me on numerous occasions that he really enjoys English lessons, and I feel happy with my planning and delivery. However, his level doesn't seem to be improving and this is a concern, particularly as he's going to need English for future conferences etc. His reading and listening comprehension is good, but oral communication lets him down... Always the same mistakes!

Any advice?

Thanks in advance,

Quoi d'un oeuf

[willraber]

I can't offer a professional opinion, but from my personal learning experience, I've found that I learn in stages, or plateaus, instead of at a constant rate. I've also noticed that, at my age, it takes me longer to learn something new as compared to my wasted youth. Patience and persistence pays off for me.
Will

[mesomorph]

Sounds like the old Formative Assessment needs to be implemented more effectively.

You have to find out why he is not progressing and then implement strategies to turn this around.

You have to assess his learning style and how much motivation he has to learn.

This could be done with a questionnaire.

With questions like -

1. What are your objectives?
2. How do you see yourself achieving these objectives?
3. Which lessons do you learn the most in and why?
4. How much homework do you do?
5. What could the teacher do to improve your learning?

Do this tactfully and don't make him feel like a retard.

You have to assess your teaching style. How well does it suit his learning style? How much do you motivate him to learn? These are not questions designed to make us feel bad about ourselves but to become the most perfect we can be.

Ask yourself -

1. What is his learning style?
2. What is my teaching style?
3. Are the two compatible?
4. How much do I help him to learn?
5. What could be done to improve the effectiveness of the my teaching and his learning?
6. Has he learned a language before?
7. Does he know how to learn a language?
8. How can I help him learn this language?

Re-invent yourself and himself.

Use small, measurable, realistic, achievable targets for this reinvention.

Where do we want to be and how do we get there?

[Teacher in Rome]

"Oral communication" is quite a wide area. Can you analyse a little further where his weaknesses are? For example, does he have difficulty in socialising skills and general chit-chat, or does he find it difficult to give presentations, contribute in meetings, telephone etc? If you (and he) know where the problems are, you can then concentrate on these and practise them.

Are you working from a book? I can recommend using something like Market Leader and taking bits from it that give him useful phrases for specific tasks. Get him to role play as much as possible and concentrate a few phrases at a time.

How about his use of vocabulary? Is his speaking hindered by lack of the right words and expressions? This could also be an area to concentrate on.

I think it's also really important to review as much as possible - especially if you are teaching lots of new vocabulary and expressions.

[Glenski]

I'm with Teacher in Rome.

Just what mistakes is he making? Help us to help you.

Also, how often do you see him in class, and how often does he study outside class? HOW does he study outside class?

He may enjoy the lessons, but that may be only your charming personality. Don't make things easy on him just to be friendly. Negotiate this with him to be sure he knows why you are going to be tougher, and how.

[quoi_de_neuf?]

Thanks for your replies - the last two posts were particularly helpful.

My trainee can get by in social chit-chat, but lacks vocabulary to sustain conversation outwith his 'comfort zone' (OK talking about his job, interests etc). We've worked a lot on vocabulary and methods of learning and retaining vocab, but this is still a problem.

Have been using the Profile series (incl. DVDs), and previously used In Company.

Teacher in Rome: thanks for your suggestion of more role play.. I think this is a good one, so that we can review important functional language for meetings etc.

Glenski: examples of repeated errors.... "Come on" (instead of "Come in"), "Last weekend I went in my country house", "I can't find the good word", "I must to discuss about this in next week's video conference", will/going to, present perfect simple and continuous..... Those errors are off the top of my head.

I see this trainee once a week for 1.5 hours each time. He rarely works outside lessons, because he has very little time. Nevertheless, he is motivated and does work outside class when he can (this is often on the train, between meetings). I've made flashcards on a mini flipchart for him to have on his desk, so he can aim to learn / revise language items.

Your help is much appreciated

QdN

PS I am relatively new to this game, please be gentle!

[Glenski]

Once a week for 90 minutes is like my university students. They retain zero without constant influx and reuse of the language. Same thing with my old conversation school students. Only about <10% did anything outside class, and only those students improved in the slightest.

Point that out to him from the start. No nice guy. This is solid research and basic intrinsic knowledge. ie, common sense.

Vocabulary is remembered only through a lot of practice and repetition. People don't retain new words unless they use them 5-15 times.

So, get him some ring cards (no notebook lists! Too easy to remember the list order instead of the word meanings) and have him make a chart of looking at the cards 3-5 times a day MINIMUM. Yes, a chart. Put it in a notebook that fits in his pocket (or on a PDA if he uses one). Be tough, but make it easy for him to do this way.

Errors. Well, you said he rarely studies outside, and then you said he makes an effort. Sorry. This is totally contradictory, and I suspect either or both of you is being far too kind here in judging what he does outside class. He is NOT motivated if he doesn't do what is needed!

If you are able, correct him immediately after he makes a mistake. Tell him in advance you are going to do that. Be a drill sergeant at it. But, you also have to force him to make the mistakes fairly often in each class so he has a chance to get it right eventually. Push! He's a boss and will appreciate getting advice FROM a boss in this regard (or he's not truly serious). He's the one who need the practice using the language, so you should speak as little as possible. Have him make mini-presentations to you. Stop him dead to rights in the middle and point out his errors. Then, have him start from the beginning and do it until he gets it right.

You might want to have him do the presentations extremely slowly, more than usual just to give his brain time to think of what he's doing, then you speed up the pace during the lesson. This is very hard to moderate, but if you take charge and keep his rhythm under control, it might be useful.

Show PowerPoint (or paper if you don't have a projector) text for him to read aloud with you (then let him slide into reading alone, sort of like helping a kid ride a bike, pushing him as he pedals, then suddenly realizing he is on his own). Do this with what you want him to practice. Then give him stuff with choices to make right after that, maybe the exact same stuff he just read, maybe different stuff, but practicing the errors he might potentially make and forcing him to choose (well, remember first, then choose later if it's the first time he has seen the text).

Don't know how you are teaching will vs. going to. This is not as easy as it seems because most native speakers learn this without direct teaching of the differences.

Give him alternatives to "I can't find the right word", and tell him during one lesson he can only use one of those.

He'll get tired (so will you), so take a break or 2 and totally relax (but keep the conversation in English). Don't forget to compliment him on any sign of success, but the onus is on him to practice, practice, practice. Good body builders and musicians don't get good by studying on trains or between meetings. He also needs to find the right time of day that works best for him. Some people say just before bed is a good time to look at words to remember, but this shouldn't be the ONLY time, and if he's exhausted, it's a waste of effort.

[Jetgirly]

Just to throw something else out there- I had a creepy older male student who became REALLY inappropriate around the time his wife gave birth. It didn't take a psychiatrist to see that he was feeling neglected with the new baby around and wanted female attention. He would always show up early and hang around the staff room door trying to get my attention, and he would try to follow me home under the guise of "protecting" me after work. He would deliberately do poorly in class (sometimes resorting to baby talk... "Wife no talk me now have baby! Booo!") and talk about how stupid he was, pouting at me in a most pathetic manner while hoping I would stroke his ego. He also failed the test at the end of the book THREE times when it was blatantly obvious that he could have easily passed. Each time he failed, he went to admin and asked to take the class again with me. I knew he was faking a low level of English because his English went from beginner to upper intermediate the second he walked out of the classroom. It was so creepy and weird and uncomfortable. Do you think there may be a possiblity that your student has an unhealthy attachment to you and is worried that if he improves too much he may not get to see you anymore?

(PS - I had lots of weird students, but this guy was the only one to become stalkerish. It definitely wasn't something that happened all the time!)

[Kootvela]

If your student is a pre-intermediate and up, it may be the plateau effect instance.

[MO39]

I wonder how old your student is. If he's in his forties or older, improving his speaking skills may be very difficult at this stage in his life unless he's willing to put in a lot more time than 90 minutes a week.

[mesomorph]

[MO39]

[Teacher in Rome]

I agree with Glenski (mutual agreement club?!) that once a week is just not enough to make and maintain progress. Could you persuade him to have lessons twice a week, but for say an hour each? That way he could have exposure to English more frequently, and you could do more review / checking activities.

If you have a lot of aspects to concentrate on in terms of error correction, such as prepositions, tenses, vocabulary choice etc, you might want to tell him that you will only concentrate on one aspect in every lesson. So during one lesson, concentrate entirely on preposition use, and at suitable intervals during the class, point out the mistakes to him and invite him to correct them. Next lesson you can go over these again. Then the following lesson, concentrate on tenses, etc.

I think it might also be helpful to target those errors that are really important and which hinder understanding. Faced with a number of mistakes, I'd probably let something like "I can't find the good word" go. Likewise "discuss about", although being a bit irritating, is not going to cause confusion. If necessary, prioritise what you are going to correct.

One final thing about correction, is that it should only be done when appropriate. If you are trying to promote fluency, don't correct him every time he makes a mistake. It's frustrating for him and for you. Let him get to the end of whatever task he is doing, then point out some of the more glaring things. If you're doing an accuracy activity, obviously you can interrupt more frequently.

Jetgirly - your ex-student sounds a nightmare. Personally, I don't think you should have been put in such a difficult position. Couldn't you have asked the school management to transfer him to another teacher? I've only ever once had to ask the school to change my timetable as I had to teach a creepy one late in the evening. They were very understanding btw. There's no reason why a teacher should feel endangered or uncomfortable with her student!

[quoi_de_neuf?]

Thanks for your really helpful advice everyone!

Jetgirly - sorry to hear about your experience. Glad you came out of it OK. Fortunately for me it's not this case with this guy - he's a nice guy, about 55, who (by the way) doesn't booze up at lunchtime! I've actually been in a similar situation to Jetgirly, but with a young trainee - age isn't always a factor!

Teacher in Rome: Unfortunately, we can't change the format to two hourly sessions per week... c'est la vie!
Targeting the most important errors is a good idea (how would you personally go about this?), and I certainly agree with you about the nature of error correction (fluency v accuracy).

Glenski: Your ring cards idea is great! Also, my trainee [i]does[/i] use a PDA, so this could be a good option.. thanks very much for that tip. As for his motivations... I said he doesn't work much outwith lessons... this is because he travels all over the place during the week, so snatches time for English on the TGV when possible. I've put podcasts on his MP3 and given him web references. When he has a few days in the office, he does work on his English... However, I do agree with you that I could take a more "drill sergeant" approach in lessons and be less of a softie!

Once again, I really appreciate your posts
MERCI BEAUCOUP!!!

[Jetgirly]