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[sisyphus]

What do you think are up and coming trends within the EFL/teaching/training industry. I want to introduce some new things to offer within my language school etc. I was thinking of Soft Skills Training in english? Childrens courses, kindergartens? your thoughts ..
The Sisyphus

[spiral78]

I think you're on the right track with soft skills.
I hear communications skills tailored to fit specific contexts (we do this already to a very high degree where I am) are coming more and more into demand.
Intercultural Communications is also a rather 'hot' topic where I am - we integrate overt analysis of ICC into many courses. It can be quite interesting to students to read and discuss how people in different countries do things.

In the CR, (you're in Prague, right?) I think kiddie stuff will become more and more popular. Parents are aware of how much easier it is to learn languages at a young age and I think they'll do whatever they reasonably can to give their children a head start. I guess this is already pretty hot in Prague, but there is probably a growing market in smaller cities as well.

For your older Prague students, maybe something along the lines of 'Studying In English' (as opposed to 'studying English'? You can look at things like research skills, the value of doing research and reading sources for academic papers in English. I also have some cool lessons on how to rate sources for academic writing, and critical thinking skills in English. The Canadian government has produced some interesting materials on the topic of detecting opinion, bias, and slant in English texts (this sounds very dry, but in fact is great fun - our 19 year old students enjoy these bits~).

What else? I think the combination of communications and language is where the world is going in the big picture. Anyone agree?

[sisyphus]

Spiral thanks for reply, I think youre absolutely spot on, seems to be a growth in kids english etc, kindergartens. Ive done some academic writing teaching at University and a hell of a lot of Corporate english, its interesting to get peoples thoughts on new trends, future possibilities...cheers