We started today with a quick report about our individual weekends and what we had done.
I then asked the students to make organised plan of their weekends.
Examples of useful sentences and words were given and after the students had copied this material, they carried out the task.
This was a very positive task and provided interesting feedback on the students ability to tie together separate sentences to create tangible paragraphs.
After lunch we worked with Business Basics.
We focused on telephone calls and for this the student had to create dialogues and enact out there dialogues against one another.
This groups level of confidence is building up steadily and these students are well able for challenging material.
And I find when these students are challenged, they mentally involving themselves in the work more readily, than when the material perhaps is more mundane.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your detailed report, I’m sure it will be of use for Markus tomorrow. I will be with this group from Tuesday onwards and looking at all the reports written by all the trainers that have been working with them, I can see they have been going from strength to strength. Your very right when you said this group prefers a challenge and when you give them one they show great enthusiasm and really take the bull by the horns! I am teaching the ‘Air-cargo’ group in Eilenburg tomorrow but will pop my head in and say hi. Again thanks for letting us know what you’ve been up to and I wish you a great week.
Today was my first day with group.
I spent some time today Introducing myself and also learning a little about my students.
I found this group automatically very positive, friendly and welcome.
After this Introduction, We discussed what the students felt was importing for them to learn and what they believed was their weaknesses.
We began with the Business Basics Book and started working on Business Planning.
Today we first discussed what is important for a good weekend.
We set out ideas of each others weekends and then made dialogues in groups of 2 discussing the pros and cons of each others ideas.
We then continued on with Business Basics and started to clarify what the students felt were weaknesses in their knowledge.
After this we clarified words such as they, us, our, and the students created new sentences to demonstrate their understanding of the words.
We finally read a small text taken from the BBC and translated that text.
It’s very nice to be back with this highly motivated and dynamic group after 5 weeks. I was very please to realise the progress each individual has made, and also as a group they have really knitted well together to become a strong team. As Ian mentioned previously this group can really face a challenge and actually I would say they thrive on it, which is why I planned to throw a really good task at them.
We began with a session of ‘Pictionary’ to revise vocabulary and spelling as well to lift the spirits in the room by adding a pinch of fun to get them in the right frame of mind for the impending exercise.
I then gave them their challenge, it was to get into groups of three and create a company . I told them they must invent a new product based on the theme ‘something that makes everyday life easier’, then they are to seek financial backing from a panel of investors by creating a presentation. I explained the structure of a typical presentation:
-Introduction
-Main body
-Summary
-Questions
I explained the golden rule of presentations which is ‘Say what your going to say, say it then say what you said’.
I also gave them some signpost language to help their presentations flow, and I had a short session of motivational training to help put them at ease.
They got to work and created their products which are:
-A fridge device which warns of food that is reaching it’s expiry date
-A foldable travel microwave
-A vacuum controlled wardrobe which helps create more space for more clothes.
To help them I showed them a couple of episodes of Dragons’ Den’ which is an English TV series, it has a panel of very high profile businessmen who are approached by budding entrepreneurs who need investors.
We analysed as a group each presentation looking at the language, the structure and the important points covered, the group found this very useful. Tomorrow the groups will give their presentations and of course there are nerves as well as excitement amongst the participants but I’m very sure they will really prove their abilities with this task.
Just a quick note to let you know I’ve received the following email from Thomas: Hallo Torsten,
wir sind die Englischklasse der AFI in Eilenburg.
Unser Lehrgang ist am 2.10. beendet.
Wir können ab 14:00 Uhr eine Bowlingbahn in der Nähe der Schule für 2 Stunden nutzen. Ist das möglich?
Die Lehrer, die möchten, sind herzlich von uns eingeladen.
Tschüß,
Thomas
I think this is an excellent idea and I’ll be there! Scott, I know you are in Delitzsch that day but maybe you can somehow join us too?[YSaerTTEW443543]
This week has been a great and interactive experience for the group. As always with this group they have proved their English skills and dynamism through the challenges I have set them.
You can see in my previous post that I asked the group to prepare a business presentation, using the guidelines and structure I gave them. They did this with fantastic enthusiasm which produced absolutely super results. The presentations themselves, were at such a high level I explained to the group even a native would be proud.
The next exercise was based on the theme ‘Job hunting’, I began by showing the group the website www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk which is the unemployment centre of England and also the largest database for vacant jobs. I took them through the search process explaining new vocabulary and phrases as the came up such as, different job catergories, shift patterns, term-time, salry Vs wage, pension, national minimum wage etc. Each ss then found a job relevant to their profession, skills and qualifications, and individually they worked through the advert translating any new words or phrases.
Now it was time to apply, so I created a letter of application template on the board including the basic format and structure. Using this they then completed it using the information from the advert and their CV.
This led us nicely onto the next task, to translate their CV’s into English. I showed them some example CV’s which were in English and German to show them the translation of things such as schools, training, qualifications and of course the headings of each part of the CV. I also explained some rules to consider when creating a cv, one of the most important is the 10 second rule, which is based on research that says that a prospective employer only looks at a cv for 10 seconds. As we know this we must keep our CV short and sweet but very high impact. So in my opinion one of the most important things to have on a Cv is a personal profile at the very top. This is a short paragraph written in the 3rd person (to avoid sounding arrogant) and it contains mainly personal quality adjectives such as reliable, enthusiastic, punctual, ambitious etc. First we created a list of these adjectives on the board, and each ss picked 10 that best described them. At this point I suggested the group used the example CV’s I gave them to translate their own which they did without too many problems. They mentioned they found this useful as it gave them something to take with them which may be important in the future.
Using these the group were able to translate their own CV’s without any problems.
Hello, I am Angela. I started the course for 8 weeks because I want to improve my English. I met former colleagues again in this course. Our group was very concentrate and the learning has been fun.
At the beginning of that course was my English very bad. I understand a little and had many problems with the grammar. Speak and hear English all day was tiring but very helpful. Now I understand better and I can speak and write a little bit more. I hope to help the English-test side to further improve my English.
In the future I will read the spotlight, watch english TV and speak with my daughter.
She was one year in the U.S. and speaks good English.
I am Ute. I started this course in Eilenburg for 8 weeks to improve my English. I hope is helpful to find a new job. In the beginning I found speaking and understanding very difficult. We had different trainers with different dialects of English. And they spoke only English with us. I had not so many problems with the grammar. I like the learning in our group. We had much fun together.
Sum up I can say the time together was very well. I learnt a lot of English and I will learn more English. My daughter can help me. We can speak English together. And I can help my son with his homework.
Hi everyone, I`m Nancy from the course in Eilenburg. This is our last week.
We had a total of 8 weeks here. I was very surprised that I met former colleagues from my last job.
I want to improve my English to find a new job. I thing it is somewhat better. But one problem it’s
really the grammar.
I think we are a good group and we had a very good time and a lot of fun here.
In the future I will watch English TV or DVD to here and learn English. Also I think the English-Test
can help me.
My name is Jenny. I’m 22 years old and I live in the near from Jesewitz. I’m in the course from 10.09.09 to 02.10.09.
I learned English in the school and in the vocational training.
I’m in the course, because my English is not so good. This language is very important and difficult for me, but it helps me for the everyday life. English is the world language.
My problems in English are grammar and vocabulary, but my English is better than before.
The teachers of this course are: Scotti Graham
Torsten Daerr
Ian Spring
Roberto
Daniel
Ulli
We have a lot of fun everyday in this course. It was varied. In the group are 5 woman and 4 men. It was a very good group. We help us one another.
Hello, my name is Gitte. I’m 45 Years old. I learned English in the school, different courses by evening school and learning by doing in my 2 last jobs.
I’m in the English course from 10.08. to 02.10.2009 in Eilenburg. My motivation for this course was myself. When I went the job centre on may 2009 I registered my for this course. The English language is in my opinion very important for me to find a new job as a secretary.
On the other side – English is the language you can need everywhere. (job, holiday, internet)
The teachers of this course – Torsten Daerr, Scott Graham, Ian Spring, Uli, Daniel and Roberto. We were 10 people in our class. That was very positive. The age was between 23 – 50. That was very good.
The Equipment of the school was good. The technique in the classroom was o. k. But it was not so good, that the book we couldn’t keep. So we couldn’t write in the book and couldn’t noticed important details.
The pronounciation of all teachers was very good. They were every time trying hard to speak clearly. For my is listening and understanding easy. The grammar is very – very difficult.
Resume:
For me was the course very good. My English is on a better level, and my grammar is a little bit better. :lol:
Thank you very much for joining the forum! It’s great to have you on board. Can you please do me a favour and check which book you have been using in Eilenburg? Is this one: amazon.com/Business-Basics-C … urcours-21 ?
I’m asking because in Nordhausen we have been using a slightly different version and we need to re-order the audio CD.
Hi guys.
I think it is really great you are here on the forum and I wanted to say hello and send you my best wishes again for the future.
It was a delight to teach your group and hopefully I will have the pleasure of meeting you guys again some day.
Hi, my name Jens and I visited this course to improve my English knowledge. My English before this course enfolded only phrases and some vocabulary. Now, at the end of this course my English is much better and it was a very good possibility to increase my English level. The teaching manner was well and we also had a lot of fun. All in all this course was very useful and we did have a good time. Thanks an all teacher and maybe we will see each other.
Jens Sigismund
member of the course from the 10th Aug. - 2nd Oct.09
I like this education. The education is friendly.
We to had good students and good people.
This ratio is fir the short time, very good.
I am happy the people and the teacher have learned to know to have.
I am happy to have met the other people and teachers
I have learnt better English for my next trip on holiday or for other jobs.
My problem is remains the words and remembering the words.
Greetings from the Eilenburg group. Thanks for your message and friendly welcome.
In answer to your question, during our course in EB we used ‘Business Basics’ from Oxford. It is the International edition by David Grant and Robert McLarty. The date the book was published was in 2006. The I.S.B.N. number printed next to the barcode on the back of the book is 978-0-19-457780-9.
Thank you very much for your great feedback. We also enjoyed working with you a great deal and we wish all the best for your future. We hope you are going to use our forum in the future too!
Best regards,
Torsten
PS: A special thanks for looking up the Business Basics audio CD information – that’s very useful![YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Country scene[YSaerTTEW443543]
This week has been very interactive with emhasis on using English as a tool. As last week I have been setting the group tasks such as:
I gave them a briefing as if I was their Director and they were my P.A., they were to plan a business trip for me to London for a conference. There was a strict criteria for them to follow including budget, times, events, locations and transport, and in their groups they created a printed plan for me.
We also revised making telephone calls, I gave them some useful basic phrases then left them to create dialogues to highlight the fact when we want/need to make a call we can plan it and also use the internet to get advice. Each group had to make a different type of call;
Group1, Booking a flight
Group2, Reserving a hotel room
Group3, Reporting their passport as missing
We’ve also:
written reviews of services
spoke about ambitions and dreams
watched English TV programmes (and discussed them)
researched about cultural and law differences
Reviewed important grammar
We spent quite a lot of time looking at www.english-test.net to really show the group the benefits the site can offer.
On Wednesday the group did a test I had created and the results were quite pleasing.
I have really enjoyed working with this group and wish you all lots of luck in the future and hope to see you about.
