Personnel Service group (AFI Delitzsch)

[Markus Neubert]

Hi Team trainers,

this is the thread regarding the Personnel Service group in Delitzsch.
The group is doing a one-year training program from 02.11.2009 - 29.10.2010 which is funded by the ESF. The organisation of the program is very similar to the program of the marketing group in Eilenburg (to those of you who've been there).
The group consists of 15 women with mainly beginner-level abilities and some of them never having had english before.
One girl (Christin) has already been trained by the English-Team in a different course. She and another girl called Christiane are far ahead of the others with their skills. It is somewhat challenging to engage them with suitable tasks since they manage all the basics without any problems whatsoever.
I had 2 days with them so far and they're having their next training unit tomorrow on the 30th of November. Here is an overview of what we covered until now:

16.Nov.2009
- alphabet -> spelling exercise
- Subject pronouns
- words: "to be", "to have"
- Greeting in english
- Simple Present (Question, Negative, Positive)

‎23.‎Nov.‎2009
On this day I discussed with them the difficulties implied when starting to learn a new language. Since they have english only once a week it would be necessary to maintain and nourish their skills outside of the classroom. They agreed on that but were worrying if they could find the time for doing so.
I did some of the things mentioned in "How to start a new course". I made a short assessment test with them and the "Client Learning Profile Sheet" to get a better insight on their abilities and potential.

- Revision: Simple Present, vocabulary so far, alphabet
- Listening exercise: don't/doesn't
- Question "How are you?", "How are you feeling today?" and possible replies
- Assessment Test (questions from the english test package)
- Client Learning Profile sheet
- possessive adjectives and pronouns
- countries

[Torsten]

Hi Markus,

Thank you very much for your report. It's great to see that you have been using our materials, especially the 'Client Learning Profile Sheet' and you also followed the guideline on how to start a new course. Can you please tell me which 'don't/doesn't listening exercise you used?

Next time you might want split the group into pairs and have them dictate words, phrases and contact details to each other. Tell them to create 10 different companies with names, phone numbers and addresses and then have them exchange those details.

Also, you can start using TOEIC Bridge listening comprehension and dictation materials. If you don't know how or where to get them drop into our office and Slava or I will give you directions.

Please let us also know how November 30 and the other training sessions went.

Best regards,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: A highway bridge

[Markus Neubert]

Hello Torsten,

thanks for your advice and your offer. I will make use of it.

Regarding the exercise, I used this one: http://www.english-test.net/esl/lesson-plans/dont_doesnt.html. I think there is missing a small bit at the end, but I'm not sure.

30.Nov.2009

On this day I introduced possessive adjectives/ pronouns. At the end of the day they had already grasped the concept and could use them with little to no mistakes. They learned the numbers from 1-100 and to tell the time digital as well as old-fashioned.

Overview:
- Revision: tenses, vocab
- vocab: household chores
- words: "to be", "to have"
- answers to „How are you?“
- translation german → english
- Simple questions starting with „Do I ...“ and „Am I …“

7.Dez.‎2009

I showed them the english-test.net website to give them an idea of their possibilities outside of the classroom. Sadly though, I had to discover that it doesn't work quite that well. We tried to do this exercise: http://www.english-test.net/esl/learn/english/grammar/ei101/esl-test.php but it seemed that when we clicked the „check you score“ button it would give different solutions on different computers and mark correct answers wrong. This is fatal for the client, of course. And the way it is now I can not recommend the website.

To mix up things a little I had them listen to a Tina Turner Song (as I figured, it was one of their favourites) and fill in gaps of a lyric sheet. After that we tried to find a nice enough translation for it. The gap-filling task was pretty easy for them, but the translation proved to be challenging since it is not always easy to find a nice sounding german equivalent.

Overview:
- Revision: Simple Present, Progressive
→ questions, positive, negative
- office vocab
- question words → questioning
- abbreviations
- spelling
- possessive adjectives and pronouns
- countries
- time expressions

[Torsten]

[Scott Graham]

Hello Markus,

Happy new year, and a hope you had a great time at Xmas.

I was reading this thread with interest, and I have to say I've never experienced any problems like you've described. This is not to say it didn't happen as computers and the world wide web can often have gremlins.

One thing I would like to mention, in the past I have had some students who have been slightly confused by the results. Once the student has submitted their answers, the incorrect ones are highlighted and the correct answer is given at the top of the box.

I hope this helps in some way, and I wish you a prosperous 2010.

Best wishes

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

[Markus Neubert]

Hello Torsten and other team trainers,

I wish you a happy new year, as well.

At the end of the voice recording from the audio course "Don't, doesn't"
(www.english-test.net/esl/lesson-plans/dont_doesnt.html) the last sentence is missing.
In the transcript the last one is "My colleague also plays chess but I think she doesn't get to do it often." She doesn't say it in the recording.

[Slava]

[Torsten]

Hi Markus,

Yesterday the group consisted of only 7 participants and we started by reviewing the things you had introduced last year. Everyone created a personal profile of one of their fellow group members and gave a short presentation/introduction. We then reviewed the alphabet adding the NATO alphabet and English abbreviations used in the German. Claudia and Christine started creating a German/English keyword list describing the subjects, contents and materials the group is covering in their course (human resources, recruiting, assessment, job application, soft skills, etc.) At this point they just collected words and phrases while going through their materials without organizing the vocabulary in any particular way. That's something we can do later.

In addition to the alphabet we reviewed the following items:
- possessive adjectives
- BE verb
- question words
- numbers
- telling the time
- things you do at an office

I noticed that some of them had handouts/printouts which they might have received from you. If this is the case, please send me a copy so I know what kind of language you have already introduced. Also, if possible try to concentrate on office/business related vocabulary.

Many thanks,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, talks: Charity worker leaving voice mail message soliciting donations

[Markus Neubert]

Hello Mr. Daerr,

I had a very nice training session with the Personnel Service group on friday. They were very concentrated throughout the whole day and in a good mood as well.
On that day, only Diana and Kathia were missing.

They told me that you've been doing some speaking exercises with them so I tried to
engage them with more of that. Christin and Christiane got a special task to collect questions for a job interview that a recruiter could ask. We tried to keep them simple
so everyone was able to answer. They were given some time to prepare for the interview and were allowed to answer each question with the help of a few catch words. Afterwards I let them roleplay the interview in pairs.
I would have liked to do it with everyone myself but there was not enough time for that(I tried to combine better students with not so good students).

They told me that you were planning some kind of project with the keyword list. Can you give me more details on that?

Other things we did:
- Listening Exercise www.english-test.net/esl/lesson-plans/office_equipment.html until "Microsoft Windows"
(I have the feeling that those are really good for them)
- Reading Exercise "An evening at the pub"
- Grammar: possessives, articles, Singulars/ Plurals, Past

best regards,

Markus

[HansUlrich]

Hi Torsten and creative trainers of our English team,



Here is a short summary of what we did today Friday, 29th January 2010 in the Delitzsch, Leipziger Strasse with the 10 ladies group.

Explaining new words and refreshing old words in English/vocabulary review/ word formation:

- progress, development
success, danger

- imagine – imaginable – unimaginable

- manage – manager

- direct – director

- assemble – assembler

- board – board of directors – full board

- shares – share holder company

- CEO - Chief executive officer

- bed and breakfast

- arrival

- analysis

research

- departure etc.
Some grammar :

Simple present, future

Negation and questions

Time fixing A.M. / P.M.

Telephone training

Plural formation

Working with English-test.net to check the gaps and deficits for further learning.

Next English class in this group will be on Monday, 08.02. and Monday, 15.02.2010. always Delitzsch, Leipziger Strasse. Best reagards from Mrs. Hintzsch and Mrs Lehmann.

All the best for you.

[Torsten]

[HansUlrich]

Hi Markus,
I think it make sense to collect as many vocabulary items related to Human Resources as possibe to motivate the Ladies to use these words in specific situations and to talk about their different fields of expertise in English.
Please give my best regards to the ladies.
Best regards
Uli.

[Roberto]

Hi dear English trainers,

I'd like to sum up yesterday's English session with the ladies in Delitzsch (English Personnel). Since I was a new trainer for them, we first introduced each other. I asked them to introduce themselves and give the reason why they need English. In order to get a smooth takeover, I asked Anne-Kathrin to show me their written notes. I reviewed then one of the lessons they had already covered last year:

- a job interview: Tell me how you are/you feel today; Would you like something to drink? Did you have any trouble getting here/finding us? Tell me about yourself.
What are your strength and weakness/strong and weak point? What do you do in your freetime? How much do you expect to earn? etc...

In this way, they brushed up old vocab that some of them had already forgotten and enhanced it with some synonyms and new sentences I asked them to construct in class. We did oral and written exercises regarding the conditional forms "would/should/could, the pronunciation of this verbs, specially paying attention to the silent consonants. Spelling exercises (NATO-Alphabet).

We played a card game (New Amici- learning cards English). In order to review the numbers, I decided to use my dice too. Thus, we practised a lot of vocab and grammar stuff:
- some irregular verbs
- comparative/superlative forms of adjectives
- articles the/a. They got an exercise where they had to choose the correct article form and decide whether it is necessary to use "the" or not.

As for the business vocab (Human Resources), we reviewed some words regarding the personnel in a company. I had them define the words in English. We defined some words such as unemployment, employee, offer, enquiry, recruitment etc.

In the afternoon, we talked a bit about the school system both in UK and USA and called their attention to the different usage of the word "public school" (privately and government funded). They also learnt something about the Commonwealth.

Moreover, I split up the class into different teams and assigned them different tasks:

-task 1: set up a company or a business (Hairdressers' products: suggestion in class)
-task 2: write a letter of inquiry/request (you want to buy a product)
-task 3: write an offer for a product X (you invite the "prospective customer" to buy it)
-task 4: as a prospective customer, reply to this offer (accept or reject it)
-task 5: Think about the delivery possibilities

Both Team 2 and 3 wrote a good letter.
At the end, we read an offer (my own handout) and discussed the vocab and grammar in there.

Regards

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

[Roberto]

Hi dear English-trainers,

a new teaching day is over in Delitzsch again. I’d like to summarize today’s session (Friday 12). This time we began the morning session in a different classroom where the German course (Valentina's group) usually takes place. We repeated the topic „ a job interview“ and the various questions they had already got from the other trainers.
We discussed the adjective good and the adverb well that is also used as an adjective:
- Feel well" and "be well" refer to one's health. "Well" in this case in an adjective. This is the only use of "well" as an adjective - to mean healthy, not sick.
Thus we spent the first two hours doing warm-up oral exercises in order to review some relevant useful vocabulary regarding the job interview (feel, arrive/arrival, get, earn, expect, have/be etc…) and some important grammar structures such as polite conditional forms (would, could), auxiliaries (do, does, have/has, be etc. ), indefinite pronouns, prepositions to/for/at/on/in. We also used dice in these exercises.
- Special focus on spelling and pronunciation of some words (o, oa, oe, ow: stone, roe, row, mow, crow etc.). I gave them some tricks to memorize such words and other ones.
After the morning break, we came back into the same classroom where we went on dealing with a grammar exercise based on the usage of the article „the“ with such words as hospital, church, prison, home, sea, bed, school, university and so on. In addition, we discussed the new vocabulary and pronunciation patterns contained in this exercise. They did well.
- Telling the time: the use of the prepositions „to“ and „past“. Spontaneous questions regarding time are asked in class every now and then: Please tell me what time it is now? Could you tell me what time it is? What time is it? etc.
Then we moved into our last classroom where we were on Wednesday. Here every lady can sit at a computer. I asked them to use the computer to look up new words or translate relevant texts or solve tasks assigned in class. I also reminded them to click on English-test-net. Some of them seem to be familiar with it.
Before and after the lunch break, we worked very creatively , read, translated and discussed a short text regarding an invitation to go out for dinner. A large part of the group also showed their enthusiasm and motivation at this point. We then played roles: Romeo = Kristin invites Julia = Claudia to eat out…..Kristin arranges a bus ride to the restaurant and asks every „employee“ in their company that sells hairdressers‘ products what they want to have for dinner and where they shall go (Food preference: international cuisine) The employees decided to go to a Chinese restaurant. Relevant words: food/meals/sea food, prawns, tuna, rice, pineapple etc…Other words that came up in the text: food poisoning, indigestion, chuck up, sick to death of, spoon, pay, book, booking, vegetarian etc…TOPICS : FOOD/INVITATION Use of shall.
- Spontaneous phone conversations : to order a meal, to invite someone etc.
After the last break in the afternoon, some of the ladies left the classroom and headed home, so we were able to work a bit more intensively, although the remaining class participants were kind of tired. That's why we decided to translate a part of the song by Celine Dion: "Think Twice".Some grammar structures were also reviewed at this point.

Regards and have a nice day with the ladies on Monday, Torsten!

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

[Torsten]

Hello Roberto, thank you very much for your detailed report. It's obvious that you enjoy working as a language trainer and that's the most important ingredient to success in this job. There is one thing I'd like to ask you: In the future please send me a copy of the handouts you give to the group. This will help me use the vocabulary you have already introduced and shows the group that in addition to the reports we also exchange the materials we hand out. As for me, I used a text I took from the Internet and I'll post below.
Here is what we did yesterday:
- review of the alphabet (most have it down to an art now while a few still struggle)
- review of grammar basics (personal pronouns, be-verb, possessive adjectives)
- numbers from 0 t0 100
- telling the time

We started with a memory game in which everyone had to say "My name is Frank and I like fish". The next person had to repeat "His name is Frank and he likes fish and my name is Mike and I like mangos". So everyone had to make a sentence saying what they like and the object or thing they liked had to start with the same letter as their name.

Then we did the following dialog: A) Good morning, my name is Frank Gates. I'm from the United States. I live in Chicago, Illinois. What is your name?
B) My name is .... and I'm German so my native language is German. I also speak some English and understand a little bit of Russian. What languages do you speak?
A) I speak English and very little Spanish. What is your job, ....?
B) I work for an international company as an HR specialist.
A) Oh, that's very interesting. Actually, I'm interested in HR services.
B) Really, please tell me more.
A) Well, I'm the owner of a medium-sized company and I need 50 more employees for our new production plant in Leipzig, Saxony.
B) I'm pleased to hear that and I'm sure we can help you.

I dictated the dialog in German having it translated by the group then the group acted it out in pairs and then they extended and modified it. We discussed a few grammar items and I asked additional questions related to the conversation.

Then I handed out the following text to the more advanced learners telling them to get prepared to dictate some of the keywords to the group:

People First HR Services delivers high quality business solutions through three areas of practice:

Recruiting
Career Management
HR Consulting
People First HR works in partnership with clients to develop strategic plans and best-practice solutions that are tailored to meet each client’s unique needs.
Our dedicated team of HR professionals have real world, senior level experience across a range of industries, complemented by strong academic credentials and professional designations.

Our consultants work with leaders in Manitoba’s business community and have solid national connections. We are perfectly positioned to assist your company with recruiting, rewarding and retaining the best talent the province, and the country, has to offer.

Recruiting
Our experienced recruiting consultants provide specialized recruiting services and a wide range of search techniques to help find a solution that best meets our client’s organizations unique hiring needs. People First works in partnership with clients to learn about their business objectives and works to ensure that the selected candidate(s) has the talent and skills needed to succeed and achieve the organizations long term objectives. People First HR gives our clients exclusive access to the city and country’s top talent spanning a variety of industry sectors.

Permanent Recruitment: We focus on fit and retention. From our initial meeting to learn about the role and company culture, to developing a recruitment strategy, to sourcing of candidates, to presentation, and assisting with offer of employment, our goal is to work with you throughout the entire recruitment process.
Project/Contract/Interim Staffing: Many companies face the need to fill multiple positions in a short period of time. Whether it is junior professionals or senior level managers, we make sure to recruit the candidates you need to meet your business goals through times of change.

Talent Marketing: Our clients are the first to know about top quality candidates that we encounter. If you have a recurring need for a certain skill set, let us know and we will contact you when we encounter someone who might be a fit.

Service Offerings: We have recruiters dedicated to finding candidates in the following areas.
Executive Search
Finance & Accounting
Information Technology
Engineering & Technical
Supply Chain
Healthcare
Human Resources
Sales & Marketing
Office Professionals
Contract Staff

We practiced the pronunciation of the keywords and translated them. I told the group that you would continue reading the text with the group on Monday. Please also ask them some simple comprehension questions related to the text.

We finished by using the second lesson of 'Learning English without a Book' by the Hueber Verlag.

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture in Political Science