English Trainers wanted: Eilenburg August 10 through October 2, 2009

[Torsten]

We are looking for English trainers for the following course.

Location: Eilenburg
Dates: August 10 through October 2
Times: 8:00 until 3 pm every day, 8 units per 45 minutes from Monday through Friday
Purpose: teach basic business English to beginners

The level of the group is between A1 and B1. You can share the course with other English Team Trainers. This means you can do any number of days or weeks, preferably at least two days in a row over the entire period of time or at least for more than two weeks.

For more information, please contact me here on the forum or via email.

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC short conversations: Talking about arrival times

[Torsten]

Hello everyone,

The Eilenburg group consists of 5 men and 6 women who work together very well. We covered a lot of the exercises outlined in 'How to Start a New Course' (differences between English and German, the alphabet, be-verb, pronouns, possessive adjectives, phrases to use in the classroom, frequently used verbs, the numbers, the question words, the days of the week, the months and frequently used adjectives including their opposites). Since we have the book (Business Basics) we also used that as a basis and have covered most of the first two units. Daniel, please review all of the items I've just outlined, especially the simple present (statements, questions and negatives).

This morning I gave each member a piece of paper with two words on it. (We had discussed those words before). Then everyone took turns explaining their words in English. First I gave some examples of how to explain a word and as everyone was speaking I put some of the keywords they used on the whiteboard.

I've also asked the group to create their own media library so they can start listening to English audio materials on a daily basis when they are at home or in their cars. Most of the group members took to that idea and some of them brought their audio English courses and we listened to some of them. Please continue with this to keep the group motivated to learn English outside of the classroom.

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC short conversations: Business interview

[Daniel]

Hi Torsten,

The group is very concentrated and motivated, indeed. All students kept working with great commitment during the entire day.

After some general introduction we did a number of exercises on the present simple that also incorporated most of the other items you outlined above. Everyone participated considerably in forming sentences of all kinds and improved continuously asking questions and making positive/negative statements. We also carried on with Business Basics and covered pages 21 to 23 involving days of the week, times and distances. In the afternoon we worked on explaining frequently used verbs that students had picked at random out of my magic plastic bag and read some jokes for English learners:

Why is 2x10 the same as 2x11?

Regards,
Daniel

[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten and other fellow English-team trainers,

It's been an enjoyable and productive 2 weeks with this eager and dynamic group. The members of this group have really began to work well together, helping and advising each other when needed. During the past two weeks I have really challenged the group, not only with the tasks but by throwing them out of their comfort zones and regularly mixing them up.

As normal I have carried on working through the book 'Business basics' as well as using some of my own handouts. I have also been trying to promote self learning by bringing in English magazines, books and articles.

As well as constantly reviewing things and talking about random topics as they arose we have covered:

Present simple
Distance and frequency
Telling the time
Cardinal numbers
Countable and uncountable nouns
Much/many, some/any
Useful language for the airport
do and have in questions.
Denglish words used everyday in Germany
Idioms
Reading cooking recipes
Prepositions of location, direction and time
Asking for and giving directions
Format of formal and informal letters/emails
Using 'Like' and 'Would like..'
Telephone phrases, taking and leaving messages
Rooms and furniture in the house
Different forms of transport, advantages and disadvantages of each

Past simple regular and irregular verbs.
Sounds of ed ( 'd, 't, 'id)
Suggesting, ordering in a restaurant
Created a list of most common ingredients
Reporting on holidays
Time expressions
Welcoming Visitors
Lots of Question and answer sessions using different topics
Weak forms
Use of 'Have to' and 'should'
use of 'used to'
Verb and noun colocations

Present continuous
Present continuous Vs present simple, Present continuous vs past simple
Reporting on company projects
Reporting on financial trends

We briefly looked at the simple future forms of 'will' and 'going to', as well as past and future continuous but not in any great detail.

I have really tried to mix up the last 2 weeks by using role play, eliciting, listening exercises, handouts etc

As I said before they've been a great group, and I look forward to work with them soon.

Have fun

Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Torsten]

Hi Scott, Daniel and Ian,

Many thanks for your great work -- today we had a representative from the employment agency who collected some feedback on the job we have been doing and everyone in the group said that they are very happy with our work.

Ian, can you please cover the following:
- telephoning (we did some role play exercises today and you can continue using the exercises in the book plus your own ideas)
- review of the tenses (Scott has started this and of course it needs constant reviewing, I concentrated on the simple past and present continuous)
- exchanging ideas on job hunting (please ask everyone in the group to tell you about their activities and career plans as they have been very active)
- cross cultural issues (differences between Germany and Ireland and Ireland and England)
- an introduction to giving an Elevator Pitch

Also, today the group started completing the tests on our site and they had great fun doing so. Please continue with that -- you can use the computer pool throughout the day, simply ask the group to show you where it is. In addition, we read this thread: Nordhausen group: Field trip to Erfurt on August 14th and maybe you can help the group register on the forum and write a response too. (That's really optional -- just introduce the benefits of becoming a forum member and how to do it. Some of them might want to others might hesitate. At this point, it's fine if you read some of the threads with them and show them how the site works).

On Friday or next week you might get a new participant and Mr Aporious will tell you more.

Best regards,
Torsten
PS: The Nordhausen group also send you their best regards and they are asking if and when you are returning to Nordhausen. If you like, we can share both groups -- Eilenburg and Nordhausen while Scott is in Neubrandenburg. Let me know what you think. Many thanks.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two students in a chemistry class

[Roberto]

Hi dear English-trainers,

I spent an exciting and entertaining day teaching the Eilenburg group consisting of 6 women and five men for the first time.This is the summarizing report of the main aspects I covered today:

- short introduction of every participant: first name(s) and surname, profession, job experience, their reason why they are learning English, their opinion about learning English, how long they have been learning English, (for) how long they learned English at school. Then we spoke about each student's schooltime: favourite subjects at school. Results: Steffen: mathematics; Jens: physics; Dietmar: German language and literature; Jenny: art, music and physical education; Angela: German language and literature, maths; Ute: physical education, music, German language and literature. The other participants were absent today.
- I explained to them the most important similarities and differences between German and English words and grammar rules. Thus, they learned on the one hand why and how some words in both languages are related to each other: man = Mann, house = Haus; drink = trinken; steel = Stahl and on the other hand, why some words are different from the German corresponding words (e.g: invite = einladen; survive = überleben; pay = bezahlen etc. ). I briefly mentioned the influence of Latin and Norman French on the English language and culture so that they can understand why English contains lots of words that are derived from French and Latin: for example: antworten can be translated as "to answer" (of Germanic descent) used in everyday English conversation, whereas "to reply and respond" (of Latin origin) are preferred in business or technical English. Other words that came up today were among other things: liberty and freedom; lady, madam, Mrs or Mrs. (mistress), Mr or Mr. (mister), sir, lord and gentleman and messieurs etc. I summarized the main vowel and consonant shifts for them, so that they can use them when learning new words of Germanic descent. Other special issues: useful prefixes and suffixes and their meaning
- layout of a business letter: letterhead (sender's address), recipient's address, references, subject line, salutation, body, complimentary close, signature, position and enclosures. We read the letter, analysed the new important words, collocations and idioms. Then I had the class consider this new vocab and classify it into words of Germanic, Latin and Greek origin. They did well! Good results! We then moved on to the specifically business vocab in this lesson: due date (Fälligkeitsdatum), agreement in writing (schriftliche Vereinbarung), they have been received (sind eingegangen), refusal (Ablehnung), objection (Einwand) etc.
- Checklist: review of important grammar structures: short responses with the auxiliaries do/don't/does and doesn't, the use of metoo, so do I, neither do I, nor me.
Questions (direct and indirect), the future tenses (going to, to be + -ing; will); have to, modal verbs etc.
- the ending -s/-es in English: present simple 3rd person singular of most verbs; plural form of most nouns; 's = Saxon genitive.
- other frequent endings: -ing (continuous forms, verbal nouns), -ment, -ty, -ion, -ship, -hood etc.

At the end we talked about their favourite style of music. I asked them whether they often listen to songs in English and which songs they know. All in all, we had great fun and did not notice time passing despite the length.

Have a nice day you too!!

Regards,

Roberto
_________________
Graduate Management Admission Test
GMAT Preparation & GMAT Vocabulary
Learn more about: Roberto Enrique Steffens Villarreal

[Torsten]

Hi Ian,

How are things with you over in Eilenburg? Can you please post an update and also prepare the group to meet our English-Team trainer Markus Neubert, on Friday and Monday? Please tell the group to prepare a short presentation on a subject they can choose themselves. Split the group into small teams of two or three and have them brainstorm possible topics such as:
- The Highland Game market in Germany (Where and when did they start, why is Machern the biggest place, how much money is involved, how many jobs are being created, how much English is spoken at the festival, etc.)

- Creating and presenting a company (either they create their 'own' company or they present an existing company)

- My dream job

- My favourite pop group

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: The tiler

[Markus Neubert]

Hello everyone,

My name is Markus and I am a new member to the English-Team trainers.
I will be training/teaching the Eilenburg group on Friday 18 and Monday 21, that is why I would be thankful for any kind of advice or
report on the advancement of the group.

As Torsten told me, the group is currently taught by Ian, so if you Ian could help me out, that'd be great.

Best regards,
Markus

[Scott Graham]

Hi Markus,

I'm Scott Graham, also an English trainer with English team and would like to welcome you to the clan!. I worked with this group at the beginning of the course. I would just like to let you know from my experience with them that they are very motivated, dynamic and also a lot of fun. If you read through this thread you will see what each trainer has covered with them and I'm sure Ian will give you an more up to date report shortly.

Have a lot of fun

Kindest Regards
Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Roberto]

Hi Markus,

welcome to our team! I also agree with Scott, though I just spent one day with this group and I had a lot of fun with them. They want to learn more Business English, especially because they'd like to get better results in their tests. I think you could do some online english-test-net exercises with them. Just go over to the computer pool you can find on the same floor. The English Basics - e.g. future forms: Will/going to/be + - ing; perfect and past simple and the corresponding progressive forms among other things - should be reviewed at all events. On last Thursday we went through a business letter that we read thoroughly, translated into German and then from German back into English, then we sorted out the business vocab contained in the letter paying attention to eventual differences in both languages.

Best regards

Roberto
_________________
Graduate Management Admission Test
GMAT Preparation & GMAT Vocabulary
Learn more about: Roberto Enrique Steffens Villarreal

[Ian Spring]

Hello Markus.

It is very nice to see you on the forum and let me warmly welcome you to the english-team.

As you have been told, I have been working with the Eilenburg group now for the past 8 days as of today.
Time has truly flown with this group and I am sure you will enjoy working with this group as much as I have.

These guys are truly motivated with a love of learning and advancing themselves in business. As Roberto has mentioned, these students have a real appetite for good corporate business English that they can apply in all different environments.

Also from the teachers perspective, we are quite lucky as the overall standard of the students is well balanced and all the students can work together at the same flow rate.

I will be posting up my normal day by day diary of this group tomorrow evening (Wednesday) so you will have a much clearer view of what has been happening and the exact point where you can take over.

I hope my little Introduction has been interesting and after tomorrows update, if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me with a private message any time.

Best wishes and good luck.
Ian :-)

[Scott Graham]

Hi Markus,

On Monday I'm going to be in Eilenburg teaching the other group we have there. I'll be going on the train from Leipzig so maybe we can meet at the main station and have a bit of a chin-wag about this group you'll be teaching. I'm with your group from Tuesday so maybe we can make a bit of a plan together. I look forward to meet you in person and will gladly help in any way I can.

Kindest regards

Scott
_________________
Leipzig Englisch Sprachschule- a little London in Leipzig
http://www.leipzigenglisch.de

[Ian Spring]

Hi Guys.
Just some updates on what we have been doing in Eilenburg the past few days.
Hope this helps and If anyone needs more Information, send me a MP any time.
Thanks and Best wishes.
Ian :-)

EILENBURG: Thursday 17th September 2009

We started our day with some small discussions about our privies evening.
The students revised the word list and simple sentences we had been practising for this form the day before and constructed short reports on their evening activities.

After this, we worked from the Business Basics.
Today we covered good ground on Times Numbers and Dates.
We ran through the audio sections and sublimated this work with our own open discussions topics.

We finished the day with reading and translating a text from the BBC news channel.
The topic was based around President Obama and his recent activities in American politics.
This was very interesting for the students and they found a lot of interest in translating this back into German.

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Wednesday 16th September 2009

Today we worked heavily on Business phone calls and sentence structure.
We used the Business Basics book for our foundations and then expanded on the topic with other examples.
The students created their own private companies and were tasked with creating dialogues for professional business calls.

For midday we read a BBC news text and translated that into Germany.
Each line of text was translated word for word and the grammar and tenses were explained.
The students seems to respond well to this work, as long as the topic of text was relative.
The students then created new sentences with choice words from the privies text.

We finished with a revision session using HANGMAN.

[Ian Spring]

EILENBURG: Tuesday 15th September 2009

Today we worked on the topic of Job Interviews.
The students has asked if they could cover this topic as they felt it was a important part of their business education.

We first created word lists with all relative words that could possible be utilised in a application letter or vocal interview.
We discussed the different types of Interview and technique that are utilised in such environments.

The students collaborated together to create a plan for Job Interviews.
Simple sentences were created by the students and then that content was clarified and strengthened where necessary.

Afterwards we worked on translating a news article from Irish news and created new sentences from the newly formed word lists.