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ESL Projects English Team Trainers
21

Hi Ralf,

You have an excellent sense of humour – “Teutonic thoroughness” describes the group’s brilliantly. One of their activities on Friday will probably be to sum up what they have learned about Ireland. I’m also planning to have them give a presentation on a company or entrepreneur. They can use the Internet to come up with ideas and information and then they should cover a number of aspects such as the company’s success principles, their ethics and attitude towards innovation and new technologies, etc.

By the way, what did the group say about the economy in Eastern Germany?

Thanks a lot,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: An electrical technician[YSaerTTEW443543]

22

Hello again,

I had a very good class today. We went on a class trip to the Mittlelbau-Dora work Camp memorial. We spent the morning, talking about what type of things they expected to see, and what questions they would like to have answered. The morning at the museum began with a movie, in English, and was followed with a walk around the indoor exhibit. Afterwards a guide took us around the camp. The tour guide was bilingual and gave the tour entirely in English, only resorting to German to explain technical terms. The class told me that over all they understood more English than they thought they would. They were surprised but also happy with their ability to understand.

We talked a bit while walking around, but we were mostly awed by the space.

In the morning, before leaving, I went over these following questions with the class, to serve as talking points for class with Zane tomorrow:

  1. What did you feel when walking through the museum?

  2. What was the most shocking thing that you noticed at the museum?

  3. Why do you think that the Nazis thought it was OK for the camp to be built?

  4. What achievements were gained from the camp’s work? Do they make it OK?

  5. Can you think of anything similar that has happened, or is happening, in other countries?

  6. Do you think this will happen again in the future? If so, how can we prevent it?

  7. Why is it important to have such museums? What do people gain from visiting museums like this?

  8. Do you think you will visit similar museums in the future?

I think a good topic of discussion may be the idea of shared guilt, that even the United States and Russia are not free from the stain of the concentration camps, as huge leaps in technology and medicine were possible due to the dehumanization of various peoples.
(I hope there isn’t someone from the class reading this, as I have spent the past week and a half explaining that when using the word “people” no “s” is necessary.)

I was also amazed by the German idea of “total war”. The United States and United Kingdom as well, were forced to this state of operation, but for the British, it was a matter of self preservation, and for the Americans, the propaganda films showed a belligerent aggressor slowly decimating his neighbors and possibly crossing the Atlantic. As I watched the German propaganda films, it only mentioned that it was important for the people to work together defeat “the enemy”. There was no mention of “right” or “wrong”, or “Good and Evil”. I found this to be the most amazing part of the exhibit.

I told Torsten about the TV series “Band of Brothers”. Last Sunday it aired on television in the afternoon. I believe there are 8-10 episodes, so I imagine it will be airing for a few weeks. I think that Thomas, Reinner and possibly Gudrun would be interested in this information.

Torsten mentioned to me that he thought the museum may focus too much on the impressive technological feats accomplished by the Nazi’s and not enough on the thousands of people who were cruelly treated and murdered.

A very interesting trip, and as I will be spending an indefinite amount of time in Germany and Austria, I know I will visit many beautiful castles, and natural wonders, but I am very apprehensive about visiting an actual “death camp” where the sole purpose was to kill.

A bit of a sober entry, I know, but I am sure that this visit will fuel conversation within the class.

On a happier note, Sandra received word that she has found a new job. I failed to ask about Leslie, but I’m sure we can find that out in due time.

OK, signing off for the night.

Bye,

Ray

23

When I started working the Grimma group this morning I didn’t realize they had been composing the essays without a trainer present as a sort of group work. All of them wrote on the same topic (growing old and demographic change in Germany) so their texts were quite similar in content (topic related data and the difficulties of providing appropriate care for elderly people) and in length (1-2 pages). Ines was the one who most entered in discussing the problem and presenting an opinion.

After breakfast we practiced listening comprehension using a VOA report on McDonald’s’ strategy to compete against Starbucks and starting with a true/false question test which was followed by a discussion of the company’s ability to become more than a fast food restaurant chain which was generally denied.

Then I explained some word formation patterns to them that I had them apply in a gap exercise before doing more vocabulary work reading a BBC text on EMI the record industry in general and showing some forms of company organisation in this area.

24

On Thursday I had my first experience with the Bike Systems group. It was far more intense than working with the smaller Bildunszentrum group. Perhaps it is because I am new, and the participants need to get more comfortable, but from the start it looks as though that it will be very difficult to foster continuous conversation. There is only one person in the class who is willing to speak, and often has to serve as a translator to the class, of English, and of grammar concepts… even German ones. This class needs a lot of preparation; I think they prefer to be taught grammar concepts and rules, rather than to just practice speaking. I will have to change this philosophy, because although I think I was able to successfully convey 1 or 2 grammar points, they really won’t be of much use unless they are actually speaking. Today I will try to focus more on interviews and discussions about job searches. Everything must be heavily regimented, as no one is really eager to share. We’ll see how well the class’ concentration holds today, Friday…

That’s all,

25

Hi Ray,

Just a quick note regarding the bike systems folks. As you have noticed, they need to review very basic things such as the alphabet, the numbers, their personal details, the question words, colors, measurements, directions, etc. Try to limit your instructions to a bare minimum, use the same phrases again and again, ask very basic questions such as “What day of the week is today?”, "What is the opposite of ‘black’? etc.

This is more about psychology than it is about language. Most of those folks have never been in a situation where they had to try and communicate in English. Now they have this opportunity and they should try and see it exactly as that – a chance rather than a problem.

More on that soon.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Vehicles in line[YSaerTTEW443543]

26

Hi Daniel,

So your second essay discussion was another success story, that’s great to hear. You might want to integrate a writing task into every session, for example you can split the group into small teams or pairs and have each of them create a different letter. To give the entire task an even more realistic touch you can have the group create a company. Once the company is set up, have the teams write a sales letter, a marketing brochure, a letter of complaint, a request for information, a proposal, etc. After each team has written their letter, they can read it to another team so that team can respond to it in writing. It will be your job to assist the teams in writing their letters making proposals as to the contents, style and register.

By the way, your idea to use the VOA report on McDonald’s vs. Starbuck was excellent and I wanted to ask you how you are replaying the MP3 file. Are you using your own MP3 player or the one provided by the school?

Another question I wanted to ask you is if your “How to pass LCCI” book has finally arrived. Please let me know what you think of it. Oh, one last thing, BZ has come through with the new course for the warehouse folks and I’ll send you the schedule via email.

Have a great day in Grimma.

Best regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Sailing[YSaerTTEW443543]

27

Hello dear trainers at the Nordhausen BZ Schachtbau group, regarding the present credit crunch situation in the US economy and the probability that this will touch also the EU and other economies I think it will be very useful to discuss this issue with this very open minded group. This will stimulate the motivation to learn economic and financial system vocabulary.
Best regards,
Uli

28

Good Morning Mr. Uli,
This is Ray from the BZ group. Reinner asks, "what is so important about financial market today, Did you lose some money? : )

P.S. Gudrun asks, “When will you come back?”

29

hallo Torsten, thank you for re-arranging my forum access; now I can write immediately in this box. Good luck . Have a great day . Best regards Uli

30

Hi Ray,

Are you OK for the Bike System folks for tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday? Please remember to move over to Avena tomorrow.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Changing a flat tire[YSaerTTEW443543]

31

Hi Torsten, hi everyone else as well,

Regarding your first question: I use the player they have at the school. It plays MP3 even from CD-RW’s. For the second question: yes, I finally got the book on Saturday and I find it quite useful because besides exam questions and model answers it contains answers from previous candidates and discussions of reasons that a particular answer received a particular mark.
This takes me to something else: I’ve been told today that the exam they’re supposed to take is not LCCI-Englishnfor Business but IHK geprüfter Femdsprachenkorrespondent which consists of a translation from English into German, another one from German into English, writing a business letter and a reply, a summary in German of something they are to twice, a business related conversation and a phone call, with instructions given in German for everything but the conversation task.
A good deal of the topics I’ve covered so far are part of the section we are to study with them anyway. Frau Kaant said the topics to prepare had been divided into a section we are to do and another one they’re to study with Mr v. John another trainer.
Something I was told last week is that students should be tested regularly so that IFU could get an impression of their development. So I started with a test this morning: an exercise that had them explain some business terms, another one requiring the rewording of sentences and at last writng a memo.
After breakfast I did listening exercises again and used last week’s VOA report on Blu-ray vs HD-DVD. Then I divided the class into two groups and had each prepare a presentation one group holding the opinion that people will have a choice regarding these new standards and the other one holding the opinion that people won’t. This turned out to be quite difficult and a bit disappointing.
Since some of them still have problems with some aspects of grammar I did some exercises on the passive voice afterwards.
At last we translated the first two paragraphs of a BBC report on the Detrit auto show
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7196931.stm
and asked them to summarize the rest of it. I’m not sure whether they will have done this tomorrow but it’s something you can ask them about, Ralf.
I’ve neglected speaking practice a bit so it might be a good idea to intensify this. Here especially Christin and to a lesser extent Susan and the brown-haired Doreen need encouragement.
That’s it for now

Best Regards,
Daniel

32

Hi there,

Grimma went really well.

Here’s what I did:

  • word-memo game
  • students introduce their neighbours
  • pronunciation drill exercise
  • several aspects of present continuous, future tenses and simple present
  • general conversation skills (cultural dimension of “how are you” etc)
  • prepositions of place
  • giving directions
  • basic telephone and email skills

They’re good people, looking forward to seeing them again.

Next week I’d like to watch “Cruel Intentions” with them.

33

Hi Ray,

Just a quick note to let you know the TOEIC test with the Nordhausen group will take place on Monday, February 4. I left some photocopies on the desk for you – those are TOEIC reading materials you might want to go through with the group on Monday. We did a complete set of TOEIC listening comprehension questions on Thursday and Friday and it turned out that the group needs a lot of listening practice. Maybe you can use audio files from voanews.com next week or read business related articles to the group so they can practice their listening comprehension.

Please do the bike systems group next Wednesday again and I’ll work with the BZ folks.

By the way, you can buy a Sachsenticket for 19 euros to get to Nordhausen.
Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Dental treatment[YSaerTTEW443543]

34

Hi Uli,

The Halle group today and tomorrow consists of only 6 women since the rest of the group is preparing for their pharmaceutical exam. Today we reviewed the basics – the alphabet, spelling words like ‘car’, ‘dictionary’, ‘shop’, ‘job’, etc. We also reviewed personal questions such as ‘Where are you from?’ etc. Tomorrow I suggest you introduce some basic retail sales vocabulary such as the different departments of a department store, payment methods, words like ‘discount’, ‘sales price’, ‘special sale’, ‘coupon’ etc. Please go slow, have the group ask you to spell words they don’t know and try to stick to English. This means, they may ask you questions in German if they feel uncomfortable speaking English and you can answer them in English.

In addition, please review basic things such as the numbers, the weekdays, the months, greeting customers in a store, etc. You might want to bring some clothing items or any other items you can buy in a store and explain what the items are all about. Basically you should go through all the vocabulary you need if you are a customer in a department store. For example, if you visit the Walmart website, you will find a lot of words and phrases the describe typical items and products of a department store.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A happy child[YSaerTTEW443543]

35

Hi Torsten, many thanks for your good and very constructive advice for my tomorrow class WITH THE SIX KARSTADT LADIES. I SHALL CONCENTRATE in these fields for enabling these Ladies to cope with English speaking customers in their next department stores. Have a nice day. Best Regards, Uli

36

Hi Torsten,

In today’s Jena course I concentrated on interview training the whole day. First I asked folks to think of their strengths. I introduced my mind-mapping concept to help them come up with adjectives describing themselves. Then I had them think of possible questions and answers in interview situations. After the break, we had role-play situations which went really well. Only Andreas had a blackout, and I don’t think my efforts to console him came off all that well.

Anyway, all in all twas a good day for everyone.

Talk soon,

Ralf

37

Hi Ralf,

Thanks a lot for your great work – I look forward to sharing with you the next series of the “high potentials” sessions in Jena. The next round might start at some point during February and I’ll send you an outline of the program I have in mind this time around.

Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Working out[YSaerTTEW443543]

38

I have been recalcitrant in my responsibiltities, and I apologize. Everything is going well, I have been splitting the BZ group, with Torsten and that is going well. Working with the participants from Bike Systems is quite a challenge. They definietly do not go home at night and practice. Although I know that they do not see this class as anything more than a minor diversion, they all do seem to care about learning a bit of English for one reason or the other. I don’t have high expectations, and try my best. I have resorted to going over basic vocabulary and plenty of spelling, to practice the alphabet. I need to occupy every second of the day with some type of activity, exercise or game. Once involved, the class is very goal orientated, and is willing to stay late into their (few) breaks to finish a puzzle.

I have taken Torsten’s advice and began using VOA for listening training. After one article, the class as a whole announced the difficulty in understanding the lyrics. I then picked a couple more songs (Paul Simon’s America, and Don McClean’s American Pie) I figure that listening to music is good excercise, and that listening to regular dialogue will be much easier in comparison.

On Tuesday we will focus on more one on one dialogues, and then some role playing. OK, that is all. I need to hight-tail it out of Avena and return to Pension Lapp.

39

Hi Ray,

First I’d like to offer my commiserations - NH is a dire place, but you may obligingly cast yourself on the devil’s mercy since there is a light at the end of every dreary tunnel, however dim it may seem. I’ve been to NH many a time, and some of the best times I’ve ever had I experienced very shortly after leaving the place. Freedom feels so much better once you’ve left the nick :wink:

Most learners find 8 units instruction in a foreign language hard to digest, so I usually refrain from giving homework assignments.

That’s right. Dig into that. Ask them whether they feel like belonging to “those in the know”, this prestigious league of foreign language hepcats.

I know what you mean. It’s difficult to see progress at times. But even when your students think they’ve made little progress, they’re often not aware of all the new words, phrases, structures and grammatical knowhow they’ve acquired. Two steps forward are usually followed by one step back.

I imagine that you show a lot of commitment and dedication to your work, but you seem to demand a great deal of yourself. Having people work in pairs or small groups takes some weight of your shoulders, and there is always room to have your students discuss topics (even if they are not related to your core theme) as long as they stick to English.

I love discussing lyrics. I often take one song and have my students translate, analyse, rephrase and contextualise songs. I can remember using “Norwegian Wood” by The Beatles for a 4 unit-filling seesion.

Good luck to ya and enjoy the merits of civilisation once you’re out :stuck_out_tongue:

40

Hi Torsten, today our Halle group class with the Karstadt Ladies went excellently. We followed your kind advice and concentrated on some basic retail sales vocabulary such as the different departments of a department store, payment methods, words like ‘discount’, ‘sales price’, ‘special sale’, ‘coupon’,”we are on sale”, “cash payment”, credit card payment, whole sale and retail sale , export & import etc. such as the ordinary and cardinal numbers, in addition, we have reviewed basic things like the weekdays, the months, the seasons of the year, welcoming resp. greeting the customers in our department store, etc.

The Ladies are very interested to express their ideas as simple as possible and we have managed to do so. Tomorrow and after tomorrow we shall continue in the same cooperative atmosphere.

Have a nice day.
Best regards to Slava. Now I can enter the forum without any delay. Thank you.
Uli