Hi Daniel, Roberto, Torsten and other Team trainers,
Firstly I just want to point out I have created this thread as there has been some confusion as to which link was for which of the 2 groups we had running in Eilenburg. This is for the ‘Marketing group’, which is made up of approx. 15 ladies who are doing a year course, obviously in marketing, with some regular English lessons included.
I had one day with the group on the 21st of September and I just want to update you all on what we did. The group is made up of mainly ‘absolute beginners’, with the exeption of one young lady who is creeping to A2 level.
So I began the day with them by introducing myself and English-team, to begin with in German, then in English. I then created a hand out with English/German introduction phrases and asked the group to introduce their partner. This is when realised some of the group were really struggling with the very basics of English.
Don’t get me wrong they carried out this task quite well with some guidance.
After this task I decided to go right back to basics including the English alphabet, pronouns,the present simple, and of course the 2 most important verbs ‘To be’ and ‘To have’. To finish the day and to still keep it quite simple as to not over challenge them, we created a mind map on the board related to ‘Marketing’. This was a good exercise to help build their vocabulary, highlighting words such as flyer, billboard (hoarding), product placement, research, target market, etc
All in all it was a good day, but we must be careful not to over challenge this group as they do have the tendancy to switch off and lose interest.
I can confirm most of what Scott mentioned above and, all in all, had a good day teaching the group, too.
I’ll post a more detailed report next week when I’ll do their next lesson with them.
The course being almost entirely made up of absolute beginners we reviewed the alphabet and did some spelling exercises which they said they had not gone through before. Then we repeated most of what we had been reviewing last week, e.g.: pronouns; be-verb; some other basic verbs; statements, questions and negatives in the present simple; family relations; numbers. We managed to incorporate this in a number of exercises either listening comprehension tasks, gap filling or question/reply speaking practice.
Though the ladies seem to be amusing themselves quite successfully sometimes many are still eager to benefit as much as possible from this course. Most important is to bear in mind Scott’s correct conclusion that we need to be careful not to over challenge the group.
I spent a wonderful active day in Eilenburg with the marketing group on last Friday. Some of them (about 4) were not in class because they were ill. I’d like to summarize the most important aspects I covered on Friday 23:
we reviewed the most important pronunciation rules in English. In this context, we concentrated on the pronunciation and spelling of some vowels and some letter combinations (-ti, -si, -ture etc). Then I asked every participant to pronounce properly and clearly every syllable and every word.
we also reviewed general language vocab, among other things, places in a city/town, colours, family, people and friends, meeting people, food, English-speaking countries, money and job etc…
we read, analysed and translated into German some useful sentences regarding the marketing sector. Here are some of them:
When you place an advertisement on these special (advertorial) HUSUM WindEnergy/Windcareer job fair pages you will attract the concentrated attention of almost 2 million highly qualified readers.
Remarks:
Pronunciation: place, page, age,concentrate a like in same, fame, lake etc.
special, attention: ci or ti like sh in shoe.
Different ways to pronounce the English vowel a: place/attention/attract/qualified /almost etc.
Pronunciation of th: these, the. Voiced versus voiceless consonants: this versus think
the ending -er added to verbs: read > reader, teach > teacher, write > writer etc.
I gave them these sentences to them because I wanted to practice both reading aloud and understanding sentences regarding the marketing sector. Since they are still beginners, they got the translation of the English sentences into German.
The most important target group of the projected promotion and marketing campaign are the young and above all for Italy the workers, notably those between 30-40 years of age, the so-called young adults.
Remarks:
Pronunciation: most, like in coast, soap, stone, home…I reminded them this rule: German ei e.g. in Seife, Stein, Heim, meist, Eid, Eiche, Reihe, allein etc. can correspond to English /o/, written oa, oe, o, ow: soap, stone, home, most, oath, oak, row, alone etc.
Pronunciation of the word: campaign, g is silent, and -aign- like in main, rain
The superlative form: important > the most important. Use of most with long adjectives (instead of the suffix -est).
Opposite adjectives: old and young, cold and warm, dark and bright/light etc.
the words promotion and marketing. Pronunciation of promotion and its meaning. We compared the prefix pro- in promotion with pro- in progress. Pro- means in both examples a movement forwards: like vorwärts in German, similar to Vor-, Fort-, vorder-: Förderung, Fortschritt.
the word “adult” and its pronunciation of the u, like in cut and a like in cat. The meaning of minor/major and the expressions: under age, of (full, legal) age. The verb “to be born” and the noun “birth” - ending -th for abstract nouns, like in death, growth, length, youth, width etc.
Baldor is proud to announce a new family of Brushless DC Motors, designed to provide customers the advantages and benefits of brushless technology
Remarks:
be proud to, be proud of and the abstract noun: pride. Pronunciation of proud, ou like in loud, shout, out, foul, announce
meaning of announce and announcement.
pronunciation of design: voiced s like in zero, -ign like in sign, pint, fine, provide etc.
meaning of provide, advantage and benefits. Advantage and disadvantage: the prefix di-, dis- often designates the opposite meaning of something.
the word customer, meaning and pronunciation. How to pronounce technology.
Have you always wanted to see your own face or those of your loved ones on a billboard in your town?
Remarks:
Ending -ed for past participles. The verb to want.
Pronunciation of face, a like in page, age, fame etc.
The word: billboard (hoarding)
Trend analyst and futurist Matthias Horx shows why there’s a lot more to megatrends than just a marketing gimmick.
the word gimmick and its pronunciation.
the conjunction than: comparative
the idiom: there is something to that/it.
In addition to these sentences, we did oral exercises in class:
Where would you like to be now (if you were rich)? The use of “would like to”.
Do you know where my pencils are? where my milk is? where the coffee is? (things in class)
How old is your brother?
Have you got (noun) ? etc.
We spent the last hour in the afternoon watching some pictures of New York and reading online some useful marketing words (computer room).
I spent the 2nd and 3rd of November with the marketing group.
It seems that their schedule for the 1-year advanced training is now intensifying the english part.
During these two days I spend quite some time on repetition with them. Everything they had learned so far. I wanted to make sure that they have a solid foundation of vocabulary and grammar.
I used a simple competitive game-show-like game and split the group in two groups. They took quite well to that.
As things are now, they should have memorised most of the vocabulary they dealt with.
They know the basic principles of simple present, present progressive (continuous) and simple past. Even though, it is still difficult for the group to keep them apart and switch between them, though they are doing a lot better than they are willing to admit. (They would like to have a cushy job.)
November 2nd:
reviewed topics that the other trainers did (mainly vocabulary)
verb “to do”
reading (aloud) and translation of “An evening in the pub” -> from Beginner’s repetitorium
pronouns
simple present -> question/negative/positive
formulating questions -> speaking exercise
singulars/plurals
November 3rd:
singulars/plurals
big exercise on simple present/progressive, past
continuing with “An evening in the pub” -> from Beginner’s repetitorium
introduced the clock
definite article
listening comprehension tasks
With this group it is important to bear in mind what the group dynamics are like. Both Sandras (especially the one in the front row) and Nicole are a little bit ahead of the others with their english skills. They’re the first to finish their exercise most of the time and therefore do need some additional tasks or exercises. I tried to have Nicole help Ilona and have Sandra help Ina + the three people behind her. With the exception of Sandra (from the first row) they are a possible source of disturbance if not engaged with a somewhat challenging task.
Now, there are 2 other special cases with different characteristics which require some special attention. Ina and Nadine.
With Ina the problem is that she is nearly completely refusing to learn. She struggles with very very basic stuff and is therefore demotivated to cooperate.
I tried to give her some special attention during the exercises with little to no success.
Nadine on the other hand is a trouble spot (too bad she sits in the last row). She is able to distract people around her and change the climate in the room completely.
Be warned!
(This may have sounded a little bit worse than it really is.)
Thank you very much for your update. Yes, at times it can be a challenge to motivate every group member and keep the program dynamic. What might help is if you split the group into small teams assigning a team leader to each of them. Also, make it clear to the group that you will respond in English most of the time. If they ask you a question in German, repeat the question in English and then answer it in English. If at all possible, try to rearrange the desks and chairs so that the group members are facing each other rather than looking at you.
Let me know if this helps.
Thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: The transporter[YSaerTTEW443543]
this is a late update on the english marketing group for november 9th.
On this day we finished with the text “An evening at the pub”. The group translated everything correctly but some still have huge problems reading it. The pronunciation is very difficult for some of them.
Here a basic outline of the other topics we covered on that day:
Revision: marketing vocab, time expressions, grammar
Roleplay: Greeting and introducing persons to each other using “let me introduce you to …”
-> speaking exercise
Vocabulary: seasons, months, items at home
Grammar: simple present, simple past, present progressive
-> still an issue (must be revised at all times)
yesterday (December 11th) we concentrated a lot on possessive adjectives and pronouns. After various writing and gap-filling exercises I asked them to translate sentences from german to english using possessives.
They did quite well on that but it definitely needs revision.
Later I had them listen to this audio lesson:
[url]http://www.english-test.net/esl/lesson-plans/do_does_1.html[/url]
and write everything down they would understand.
Some of them were able to write down about 80% of the text correctly and others
maybe about 40%.
We discussed question words like what, who, when etc. and practised them in a game of Jeopardy where I would provide an answer and ask for the corresponding question. This proved to be somewhat difficult for them although the questions were very easy. → needs more attention
Among other things we revised their vocabulary, time expressions, tenses and sentence structure.
As December 18th was their last training day before christmas break, I decided to
engage them with easier tasks based around the christmas topic.
For starters we played ring-a-word where you have to circle words on the whiteboard real quickly. It is played in teams and whoever circles the correct word first, wins the point.
Then I had them fill in a time expression table with questions and answers about their daily routine.
Later, we translated a text about the origin of the word christmas and its traditions and
the remainder of the day was spent with games and songs.
After I accompanied them on the guitar to “Jingle Bells” they had to fill in blanks in a lyric sheet. All of the tasks were handled by them without much struggle.
It was quite obvoius that all of them were already in a mood for holiday, so it was better not to overchallenge them on that day.
As this was their first session in 2010 and a gap of one month between this and their last one, I decided to revise a lot of the topics we already covered before moving on.
I was also planning to introduce the future with “going to” but sadly I found my suspicions confirmed that they had forgotten much and done little during the holidays.
I dismissed the idea because of that.
We started with a small game to get warmed up and then dealt with a worksheet on adjectives.
Since the Computer room was empty, I used this opportunity to show them some good english websites for learners that they can use.
Some of them registered on english-test.net, others saw no value in that because they felt that they were lacking the time to do the tests at home.
Hi dear trainer colleagues,
many thanks for the excellent hints how to shape the Eilenburg class. I shall continue this was next Monday, 25th January 2010.
Best regard
Uli.
I’d like to inform you on my last two English sessions with the Eilenburg class.
Monday, Jan 25
I started the day with a review of important grammar and vocabulary aspects such as:
some modal verbs, word order in a main clause, verbs to be/have, other important basic verbs. Here is a summary of the main points covered on Monday 25th:
relevant telephone phrases
polite phrases when making a phone call
modal verbs Grammar exercises
preposition by. Future with -ing. Present simple versus present continuous
I had every participant to figure out a name for a company. Thus, I wanted to encourage them to be more creative in class. One group in class was supposed to create a company (supplier) that develops a product (wine e.g.) that another company (customer)
should buy provided that they come to an agreement. Relevant words: order, offer, delivery, complaint, agreement, despatch, sell, buy, pay etc. We made then phone calls in order to:
place an order
submit an offer
despatch or deliver the product
voice a complaint
We repeated and repeated these telephone skills all day.
thank you for your suggestions. Here is my update on my last session in AFI Eilenburg.
First of all, I’d like to inform you that Ina was not present on last Friday 5th. I also noticed that she was reluctant to learn English at all, but she is not the only one who belongs to this minority in class. To my mind, there are different ways to motivate them. One of my favourite ones is to show them the simple aspects of English and give them enough time to immerse into this language again. e.g. by means of brainstorming, visualization exercises, shaping an “English-speaking and feeling atmosphere with an open window to the international world”. This is the way I see my role as a trainer, I mean, as someone who is willing to motivate people to achieve their goals when it comes to learning e.g. English both during and after their training. I realized for example, that Ina was not interested at all and fell asleep in class. She slept at least for one or two hours. In the afternoon, she seemed to have a better receptiveness in class though. She was awake and was able to answer my questions and even responded to some questions voluntarily that I had directed to the whole class. My question here: if I had forbidden her to sleep in class, would it have had the same effect?
Apart from brainstorming, games (hangman, odd-man-out, cards), I like when we change our sitting positions: e.g. from face-to-face to back-to-back. Thus, we can practise different communication skills in a vivid way in class.
All in all, I’d like to cast a light of optimism on this course and further classes and I know that this is of course a challenge for both trainers and learners.
Here is my summary for Feb 5 (Friday):
Review of phone phrases
Review of modal verbs: can/could/might/must/should
English at the office: appointments, arrangement, schedules, dates
Expressing time: what time is it? Days, months…
Taking and leaving a telephone message
present perfect: grammar exercises (oral): How long have you been + -ing…?
prepositions since and for
sectors of economy. We emphasized the tertiary: service sector (advertising, marketing, logistics…)
use of the most of and most of.
present simple versus present continuous. Stative verbs: love, hate, see …
some important basic verbs listed in the three common forms (e.g. speak spoke spoken)