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3 TYPES OF ESL LEARNERS THAT WILL BOOST YOUR EARNINGS

3 TYPES OF ESL LEARNERS THAT WILL BOOST YOUR EARNINGS

3 TYPES OF ESL LEARNERS THAT WILL BOOST YOUR EARNINGS

Budget? Check. 

Business plan? Check.

Curriculum? Check.

If you’ve completed these tasks, then you’re well on your way to launching a successful ESL school. However, a critical piece of the puzzle is still missing: Your prospective clients. Who are they? What do they need, educationally and otherwise? How do you attract them? Answering these questions can make the difference between running a lucrative business and merely breaking even. 

Three types of ESL learners have the potential to make or break your school’s yearly earnings:

  • Business English learners

  • Online learners

  • Students studying for the TOEFL test 

Each one has unique goals, expectations and pain points deserving special consideration.

Business English Learners

English is the lingua franca, or common language, for both international business and higher learning. For some people, the advantages of speaking English are starkly apparent. The British Council reports that men in India who speak fluent English earn 34 percent more on average than those who don’t speak English at all. 

The economic impacts aren’t limited to personal earnings. According to a 2012 survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit, almost 70 percent of executives said their company’s expansion plans relied on having an English-speaking workforce 

WHO THEY ARE

Business English students are usually working adults seeking to get ahead in their careers. They’re busier than most students, English teacher and trainer Gabrielle Jones explains. They have full-time jobs, and work comes first in their lives. They’re also incredibly goal-driven, and they’re accustomed to setting and achieving personal objectives.

WHAT THEY NEED

Authentic Learning Materials

Business English students are usually immersed in an environment where most of their colleagues speak English at varying degrees of proficiency. As a result, they already have access to a wealth of potential learning materials.

Instead of relying solely on a textbook, Jones advises, invite students to bring you emails, corporate newsletters and other workplace realia. Teachers can use the Your Agora platform to transform these materials into ESL lesson plans that are custom-tailored to students’ learning and professional needs. Don’t forget to include multimedia resources. TED Talks offer a robust library of videos on current and compelling business topics.

Flexible Scheduling

Business English learners often require classes outside regular working hours. Don’t be surprised if they expect to take courses in the early morning, during the lunch hour or in the evening, Jones says. Be prepared for last-minute cancellations when students have unexpected events in their professional or personal lives.

Staffing teachers at irregular hours can be both taxing and costly, particularly if you accidentally schedule too many or too few instructors at one time. Use employee scheduling software to ensure you have sufficient coverage. Create a cancellation policy that requires students to pay some or all of the costs of a class when they cancel on short notice. This policy helps you cover the staffing costs associated with unscheduled cancellations.

HOW TO ATTRACT AND KEEP THEM

Provide Structure

Even though they may be adults, business English students still crave structure. Minh Tran and Peter Burman, of EF Education First, insist that business English learners need firm deadlines, clear objectives and regular study times to be successful.

Create an Online Learning Community

Leverage the popularity of social media platforms like FacebookTwitter and WhatsApp to your advantage. Tran and Burman found that students who participated in a social media group with their instructors and classmates study up to three times more than students who don’t.

Cultivate a Professional Atmosphere

Make sure your teachers are mindful of what they do, say and wear in the classroom. Business English learners put a high premium on professionalism, Jones says.

Online Learners

English is now a mandatory course in many primary schools around the globe, writes Christie Van Tol, former course coordinator for the University of Toronto TEFL Online program. Many parents and children are opting for a more convenient option: Learning English online. Internet-based ESL programs allow children to take English classes at home with teachers half a world away.

In China alone, the demand for online education is staggering. The market here could grow as much as 20 percent annually and is expected to reach $41 billion by next year, the South China Morning Post reported.

WHO THEY ARE

Online learners can be of almost any age. In China, there’s a high demand for online ESL classes for students between the ages of 5 and 12, Forbes reports. However, some adult learners prefer to take online courses, too.

Children enrolled in online programs often take their courses at the end of the school day or on the weekend. Students’ parents often enroll them in courses because they want them to have more opportunities later in life. However, the students themselves may have little or no personal motivation for learning English. Extrinsic rewards can be helpful tools for keeping them engaged until they develop intrinsic motivations, like feeling a sense of accomplishment.

WHAT THEY NEED

Engagement

Looking at a teacher through a webcam isn’t nearly as engaging as being in their physical presence. Online ESL schools use a range of technologies and techniques to overcome this disadvantage.

  • Interactive classroom environments equipped with movable objects, built-in audio and other dynamic elements can easily capture students’ attention. When used thoughtfully, these elements can also improve the quality of the lesson itself.

  • A sophisticated learning management system (LMS) that allows teachers and students to hear, see and write to each other during class is an ideal tool for keeping students motivated, writes online English teacher Sylvia Guinan.

  • Expressive and high-energy teachers skillfully use online classroom tools. They use physical props to illustrate meaning. They move closer to the camera to create the sense of immediacy.

Community

A literature survey by Kebritchi, Lipschuetz and Santiague found that higher education students felt more isolated in online settings than they did in brick-and-mortar classrooms. The solution: Creating a “community of learning,” which both shapes students’ self-identity and positively impacts their learning.

HOW TO ATTRACT AND KEEP THEM

Thoughtful Use of Multimedia

Interactive games, videos, pre-recorded songs and other multimedia can keep students engaged and motivated. Just make sure they serve a clearly defined learning purpose. “Multimedia used in the wrong way can be a detriment to the learning process,” Kebritchi, Lipschuetz and Santiague warn.

Use technology to cultivate community. Use an LMS that allows you to put students in virtual groups where they can practice their English together. Guinan recommends creating a social media group when appropriate to let students congregate and share ideas. Always be sure to mediate the page and respond promptly to any signs of cyberbullying.

Investing in the Right Equipment

Schools need a range of high-tech tools — including computers, webcams, headsets and high-speed Internet connections — to host online classes. These tools are often quite expensive, but they’re worth the investment.

TOEFL Test-Takers

WHO THEY ARE

The Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, is an assessment of a student’s ability to speak and comprehend English in academic settings. It’s often a college admissions prerequisite for international students who wish to attend universities in English-speaking countries. More than 10,000 universities and other agencies in more than 130 nations recognize TOEFL scores, according to the Educational Testing Service.

The TOEFL test is specifically for students 16 and older. However, other tests target younger learners. The TOEFL Junior is designed for students ages 11 and older, while the TOEFL Primary is tailored for students as young as 8 years old. Both assessments are intended to help parents and teachers monitor a student’s progress in mastering English.

For many parents, studying in an English-speaking college is the gold standard for their child’s education. In China, for instance, upwardly mobile families are keen to send their children to universities in the West because they believe their children will receive a higher quality education there. And since getting a good score is a strong predictor to gaining admittance into the student’s first- or second-choice school, preparation for the TOEFL test is a top priority for college-bound students and their parents. 

WHAT THEY NEED

The TOEFL assesses students’ abilities in four key areas: Reading, listening, speaking and writing. To adequately meet test-takers needs, your school must provide specific strategies and study tips for each of these domains.

Reading

In the reading section of the test, students read three to four passages that can cover a broad range of academic disciplines, including the humanities and biology. A battery of multiple-choice questions tests their reading comprehension.

Students must have sufficient background knowledge to understand and respond to the reading passages. Research shows that prior knowledge is a critical prerequisite to reading comprehension. Learners should also be proficient in active reading strategies that can help them identify and assess a text as they read it. The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning recommends students use these techniques:

  • Ask pre-reading questions to activate prior knowledge.

  • Identify the thesis of the text.

  • Sketch out visual aids, like mind maps or flowcharts, to help you organize the information.

  • Briefly summarize each paragraph in your own words, being careful to identify the main idea.

Listening

In this portion of the test, students listen to several recordings of dialog from a university context and answer multiple choice questions based on what they heard. The listening samples can include recordings of classroom lectures, classroom discussions, and conversations between students and instructors. Since each audio passage is played only once, strong note-taking skills are critical for success.

Speaking

This part of the test requires students to verbally answer questions using the information they gleaned from written and spoken passages.

Students should be well versed in proper English grammar, intonations and syntax. They should also have sufficient speaking confidence to readily and fluently answer questions. One of the best methods for achieving this, ESL entrepreneur Marc Anderson writes, is to give your students as many opportunities to speak as possible.

Writing

The final portion of the test requires students to write long-form responses based on information they read and hear. Test-takers also must write an essay that draws from their personal beliefs and experiences.

In addition to being proficient in spelling and punctuation, students must also be able to quickly organize their thoughts, so they can provide compelling and cohesive written answers in the 50 minutes allotted for the test. The Harvard College Writing Center recommends using this three-step process for writing an outline:

  • Step 1: Decide what you intend to say in your essay.

  • Step 2: Put the supporting details for each of your main points into general categories. Then, identify which categories can be combined or eliminated.

  • Step 3: Put the categories into the order that best supports your thesis.

  • Step 4: Organize relevant details within the categories, starting with the most general and progressing to the most specific.

HOW TO ATTRACT AND KEEP THEM

Offer Different Types of Preparatory Courses

Some students want to start studying for the TOEFL six months or more in advance. Others will prefer a shorter, more aggressive timelines. Offer courses designed to fit both long- and short-term deadlines to attract a broader range of students. Don’t forget to offer preparatory programs for the TOEFL Junior and the TOEFL Primary.

Tailor Instruction to First-Choice School

There are no predetermined passing or failing grades for the TOEFL. Instead, each university and college sets its own minimum score requirements. Before classes start, sit down with the student and identify the score they’ll need to get into their first- and second-choice schools.

Highlight Your Successes

As your program takes off, be sure to keep statistics of how many of your students have passed the TOEFL and gained admittance to their target university. This data helps prove value, and it will help you attract new clients.

 

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ESL CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT SERIES: WHO ARE YOUR STUDENTS?

ESL CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT SERIES: WHO ARE YOUR STUDENTS?

ESL CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT SERIES: WHO ARE YOUR STUDENTS?

Here at Your Agora, we understand the Curriculum Development process can be tedious and confusing, especially when you’re starting an ESL school. Through our series on ESL Curriculum Development, we will walk you through the important steps in this process to ensure your successful school will have the best curriculum possible!

In this article, we will address the first two steps ESL educators should take when developing a curriculum for their ESL school or ESL program. Educators should begin by identifying their audience before moving further into the research and development process. Below you will find some helpful tips on how to accomplish these objectives.

Understand Your ESL Student

There are several steps educators must take in order to understand the type of audience making up their ESL classroom. This can either be done as part of school planning or after the classroom is compiled. We will focus on how to determine your ESL audience during the planning process, but these steps can be applied to an active classroom.

Here are the first four questions to ask yourself about your audience:

WILL YOU BE TEACHING CHILDREN OR ADULTS?

First of all, the most basic question is if your curriculum will be for adults or for children. These two audience groups vary in the most basic ways, and there are also very important distinctions to make between these two groups of students, such as:

  • Testing – young learners often are studying for basic ESL assessments, or for university entrance programs if they wish to further their education overseas. On the other hand, adult learners are typically studying for assessments to further their professional careers or for immigration purposes.
  • Lesson planning – adults can sit through longer, more intellectually strenuous lessons while young learners require shorter classroom time.
  • Appropriate games – games always make learning fun no matter what age your student is!
  • Personal issues – with young learners, mental and social development are two of the more important aspects to keep in mind. Adults will have different anxieties, discipline, types of motivation, and independence due to their higher level of development.

WHAT ARE THE NATIONALITIES OF YOUR STUDENTS?

Determining the nationalities of your students is important for cultural and social purposes. Different countries often require different types of testing and sometimes even instruction. The two basic types of English used for instruction are referred to as British and American English, but we will talk more about those later in this article.

Educators understand that a student with a complex linguistic history may have more trouble adapting and learning a new language. If this is the case with many of your students, be sure to create time for your educators to learn about their student’s complex relationships with language.

WHAT’S THE AVERAGE LEVEL OF YOUR STUDENTS?

Determining student levels for existing classes can be fairly simple. Here are a few methods teachers use when assessing student levels:

  • Testing
  • Creative classroom activities
  • Good old-fashioned rubrics

The testing method can have pros and cons. Some educators believe ESL assessment tests to be slightly inaccurate depending on the anxiety levels of the student. However, testing does provide clear, unbiased data about student performance levels.

Different types of activities can be utilized by educators as informal assessments. For example, verbal activities, such as role-playing, are good for students of all ages and can allow the students to use their entire vocabulary and conversational skills. On the other hand, non-verbal activities, such as charades, can be used for both levels to display a different scope of their understanding.

By creating a rubric and assessment criteria from the beginning of your ESL curriculum development planning period, you will provide a natural way for your educators to understand what level their students are at and where they need to go next. If you have made the mistake of not creating a rubric from the start, no fear, you still have time to craft detailed, easy to use rubrics for your classrooms.

While these steps can be taken for an existing classroom, you can also work through this list while planning your ESL school or a new type of curriculum, which we will discuss in the next article of the ESL Curriculum Development Series. If you are in the planning stage, be sure to identify what type of assessment materials you will be providing for your educators within this curriculum.

Determine The Needs of Your ESL Student

Once you have pinpointed who exactly will be in your ESL classroom, then you can begin to determine what the needs of your audience will be. These needs can be either academic or personal depending on the age levels of your students, as mentioned earlier.

WHAT ARE YOUR STUDENT’S PERSONAL GOALS?

Having your students establish clear, personal goals for their course of study can help the students work through the process of learning English by way of clear, attainable steps.

Find a way to answer these questions for your student audience:

What are their career goals?

For students who are trying to decide how they will make money, or adult learners who are already employed, their professional goals can drastically change their course of study. Sometimes students need to achieve a high level of fluency more quickly in order to reach their necessary targets. As mentioned earlier, the career goals of students will change what type of testing they will be preparing for during their course of study.

What are their academic goals?

Much like professional goals, a student’s academic goals will also change the testing they are preparing for, as well as the types of English they are studying. If a student is planning to attend a university in another country they will often need to reach a higher level of fluency before it is time to apply and take the entrance exams.

What are their domestic goals?

Immigration can also be an important factor to consider when determining a student’s personal needs. In addition, a student who is currently residing in an English-speaking nation will also have different personal needs and concerns.

STUDENTS LEARN THROUGH GOAL SETTING

Understanding the personal goals of your students is extremely important so your educators will be able to help motivate their students towards attainable and clearly defined personal, academic, and professional objectives.

Through this method, students are able to clearly visualize the outcomes and purposes behind the hard work it takes to complete each activity included in your ESL curriculum. Their personal goals, when integrated into the academic goals of your curriculum, will help them feel as if their time spent in and out of the classroom is fruitful and well spent.

Setting clear objectives based on the goals of your students will improve and simplify your feedback as an educator. This allows your teachers to spend more time doing what they do best: teaching.

WHAT TYPE OF INSTRUCTION DO THEY REQUIRE?

In order to answer this larger question, as you begin preparing your ESL curriculum, be sure to answer these three small questions:

Will you use British or American English?

Many ELT professionals these days believe the distinctions between these two types of English should be taught, but the instruction should stick to one primary type of English so your students will be able to speak and write consistently.

The differences between the two versions of English are not limited to vocabulary. The cultural differences, common phrases, grammar, and dialects also vary. In addition, much like every other point in the section, certain standardized tests require the students to have a complete and consistent grasp of either British or American English as an ESL student (such as the IELTS test).

During this time, refer back to what the career and personal goals of your audience members are, especially if your school is not aligned with specific standards or takes a personalized, one-on-one approach to learning. This way, you can either create, or simply swap out, certain portions of your curricula for the needs and aspirations of your students rather than just the standards of their region.

How interactive should your lessons be?

The interactive aspects of your lessons will vary depending on several factors. One of these factors can be age, but adults benefit from interactive or “hands-on” lessons as well when grasping more advanced, or sometimes even basic, concepts within the English language. The length of your lessons, however, will affect the amount of interactive activities you can incorporate into the time you have with your students. If you are teaching short lessons then you should consider keeping activities or other forms of interaction to a minimum, and provide more out of class exercises for your students.

What are the personal needs of your students?

This question is especially important for younger ELLs because they will often require shorter more engaging lessons, whereas adults can sit through long, less interactive lectures without disengaging. Also, if your students are especially young, they will need more breaks throughout longer lessons, so be sure to incorporate appropriate stopping points throughout the material.

On the other hand, if you are teaching adult learners with busy schedules and families, you should aim to create a more flexible curriculum which can be adjusted according to your students’ schedules.

WAYS TO FILE

Beginning to Design Your Curriculum

Now for the fun part! At this point, almost all of the preliminary steps in curriculum creation should be completed. You are now on your way to finally digging deep into the world of curriculum development. Before you do so, however, let’s go over a few more steps which will help this process go even more smoothly!

CONSULT EXISTING CURRICULUM FOR INSPIRATION

This is an important step. Not only can you be inspired by much of the wonderful and comprehensive ETL curriculum on the market today, but you can also find the flaws in existing materials in order to make yours even more competitive.

Through Your Agora’s interactive teaching platform, you can consult with educators from around the globe about the pros and cons of certain teaching materials. This will help you create the best curricula for your platform and audience without researching every type of curriculum on your own. Use the friendly world of ESL education to your advantage!

HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE TO CREATE YOUR CURRICULUM?

This is an important question you should keep in mind while conducting your research and assembling your team. Do you have an entire term to create a new type of curriculum? A month? A week? This will drastically impact what approach you will take when creating your materials. If you have a limited amount of time, return to the researching phase to legally gather more existing materials to adapt to your curriculum.

If you have longer, however, you should have ample time to create the bones of your curriculum as well as other creative activities and assessments. This will allow the educators at your institution to dedicate more time and attention to their students, and will, hopefully, increase student advancement because your materials will be better tailored to suit your ESL school.

HOW LONG WILL YOUR PROGRAM BE?

At this point, you should have the answer to this question. Depending on your platform of instruction and the type of services your school offers, the length of your terms will vary widely. If your services include long and short terms, consider creating the longer version of the curricula first. By creating the longer version first you can break up your longer materials into short, concise segments to be used as supplementary or primary materials during your short-term ESL courses.

Often the lengths of English courses vary widely depending on if they are for General English skills, Test Preparation, Intensives, or ESPs.

If you take the time to complete each of the preliminary steps during your ESL Curriculum Development process, then you will be able to provide well planned, comprehensive materials for your students and educators during the term of your ESL program.

Before you begin creating your ESL curriculum, look more closely at Your Agora’s comprehensive teaching platform. Your Agora provides features which make creating and managing your ESL courses easy. The best part? It’s entirely free for students and teachers! 

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The main benefits of students learning English at iTTi school of English/ Yes Academy

The main benefits of students learning English at iTTi school of English/ Yes Academy

The main benefits of students learning English at iTTi school of English/ Yes Academy

Once these students choose to study English courses in this respected school it is because they want to enhance career prospects and business as surely English is the World’s most widely spoken languages also it is used in many parts of the world, and is the language that is common to people who have a first language other than English.

However, when it comes to business , travels and matters of trade, English language tends to be the common currency and as such by studying English through a respected English school as iTTi school of English/ Yes Academy , it is obvious that you can expect to be able to conduct business transactions, write and respond to diverse documents such as: emails, memos, contracts, agreements and reports and possibly pursue a career in business.

Furthermore, the greatest benefits of studying English is that your career prospects, and employment opportunities can vastly increase and graduate students from this school can speak English fluently and definitely are highly sought after by companies of many types, including international companies ,and when seeking work, proficiency and confidence in speaking and understanding English can give these learners a distinct advantage.

In the end,our students at iTTi Algeria school of English,will be awarded with international accredited proficiency level certificates recognized worldwide, that will allow them to apply to foreign universities around the world.

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Bringing the World Together with English that Matters

News iTTi

Bringing the World Together with English that Matters

SpeakWrite International English Institute is the newest iTTi School of English franchise to the growing International chain of iTTi Institutes world-wide.

The Past
SpeakWrite has been teaching English to students throughout Peru since 2012. Once having over 1400 students before the COVID-19 quarantine, Speakwrite Center of Language proficiency had to close its doors in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19.

The Future is here!
However, we are excited to announce that the former Director of SpeakWrite Center of Language Proficiency has opened a new institute Speakwrite International English Institute, and we now provide even greater certification and quality assurance.

SpeakWrite is joining forces with the World-Renowned iTTi School of English and will be doing business as SPEAKWRITE – iTTi SCHOOL OF ENGLISH. As a result, Speakwrite is now able to provide an International certification for all levels of English from A1 to C2.  

What does this mean?  In addition to the beautiful Institutional English certificate from SpeakWrite that has been recognized for years by the Ministry of Education in Peru and major Universities and Educational Institutes, your English can be certified in the United States and/or England with an official Certificate signed and sealed by iTTi’s main office in New York, NY USA.

Quality of Teaching
Speakwrite will continue to provide the highest quality of teaching by bringing in the best of the best teachers. SPEAKWRITE – iTTi SCHOOL OF ENGLISH currently has four TEFL Certified teachers. Our future teachers will be TEFL/TESOL certified through iTTi’s internationally recognized and certified Program to become English Teachers. Sure, the world is full of teachers but being a teacher doesn’t guarantee that one can teach English.
An iTTi certified teacher is an internationally certified English teacher qualified to work anywhere in the world. This level of teaching quality is what is making the iTTi School of English certificate recognized by more and more universities around the world.

Our certification will soon be in the same conversation as IELTS and Cambridge exams.

SpeakWrite is combining the power of the SpeakWrite live classroom technology with the accredited courses provided by iTTi School of English via its 

News iTTi

Platform that is monitored by EALTA (The European Association for Language Testing and Assessment) as part of the course accreditation partnership.

SPEAKWRITE – iTTi SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LOCATIONS
Since becoming an iTTi School of English, SpeakWrite went from 17 students to nearly 50 in less than a month. We have students from:

• Peru

• Bermuda

• Columbia

• Venezuela

• Japan

• Madagascar

• Italy

• England

• Holland

• Spain

• Germany

• Canada

• Mexico

• Even USA

We are receiving so much interest globally that we are proud to announce that SpeakWrite will be opening physical offices in England, Canada, Italy, and even the US in 2021. All offices will be under the direct supervision of SPEAKWRITE International English Institute-iTTi School of English.

Employment Opportunities
There are literally hundreds of thousands of well-educated Americans that are without a job. SpeakWrite is currently involved in a recruiting process by offering qualified Americans to become iTTi School of English Teachers and be able to work from home teaching English to students all over the world.

News iTTi

The CEO/Founder of SpeakWrite International English Institute
SR. Stephen Bucholtz took over in 2011 as the Director of University of Technology-Arequipa Language Center. In 2012, he changed the name of the Institute to SpeakWrite Center for Language Proficiency. In 2013  he changed and redesigned the English system and, as a  result, grew the Institute from under 100 students to 

over 1400 students.   Since 2012 he has taught over 2,000 students and certified over 1,800 students at all levels of English.  

A specialist in TOEFL Preparation, Sr. Bucholtz has prepared over 500 students since 2012 and has over 300 students who have achieved 100 or higher on their TOEFL exam.  His program has gained international notoriety as he has TOEFL students from Holland, Italy, Peru, and the US.

Now as the CEO/Founder of the new SpeakWrite International Institute, he is expanding SpeakWrite across the globe. 

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