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Frequently Asked Questions 1. Some people at my company are willing to help teach English to non-native English speaking employees. Why do we need to hire an outside company when we can use our own employees to provide English training? 4. We are aware of some other ESL classes offered in the community. Are they any good? 1. Some people at my company are willing to help teach English to non-native English speaking employees. Why do we need to hire an outside company when we can use our own employees to provide English training? Many companies have tried this without much success. A number of problems may arise with this approach:
2. We have employees of various backgrounds who want to take English language classes. Do we need to provide separate classes for the Spanish-speaking employees and the Bosnian employees? No, all classes are taught in English and often consist of people from various language backgrounds. 3. Our non-native English-speaking employees are all at such different levels in their English language skills. How can you structure your classes to accommodate these differences? We can either break the classes into different levels, or we can structure classes in a way that is conducive to learning at all levels. When we make our initial assessment we analyze the needs of your workforce and design the classes around those needs. For example, we worked with a company that had mostly Bosnian employees. We selected to break them into two levels based on our initial assessments. However, many of them carpooled to work together, and didn't always carpool with the person at their level. Since the different level classes were on different days, they had a problem. We ended up allowing them to attend the classes that were most convenient for them. Ultimately, all were happy with the class being effective and challenging. In the final evaluation all participants ranked the class in the excellent/good range. 4. We are aware of some other ESL classes offered in the community. Are they any good? Well, some are and some aren’t. Many classes are being taught by well meaning people who simply don't have ESL or perhaps any teaching experience. The other problem is that many employees simply don't have the extra time or money to attend classes at an institution away from their worksite. And, classes are generally generic in nature -- no consideration is given to the needs of that individual in their job environment. Our classes are taught by excellent experienced teachers who conveniently teach classes at the work place, while keeping in mind the corporate or environmental culture of your organization. This gives students exactly what they need, when they need it in a comparatively fast time frame. Our classes are very relevant. We communicate often with management to evaluate the success of the program, so that any problems can be addressed or improvements made on an on-going basis. We work for you and our goal is success. Sometimes if there are cultural issues that are becoming a problem, we can address them in class instead of the company having to address issues with individual employees. We become part of the team 5. ESL Educational Services cites successful training experience with people from over 20 different countries. Is your staff proficient in all of those native languages?
Absolutely not! The ESL teaching process is based upon an immersion of the student in the English language. It is of no advantage (and often a detriment) for the trainer to be proficient in the native language of your employee. We would be happy to demonstrate the process to your organization.
English as a Second Language. |
