She says…”I believe that the online teaching is definitely a breakthrough in education. Working for TalktoCanada I have had the pleasure to teach different nationalities and different ages.  In the last couple of months, I’ve started to teach children online. Although for some teachers, it can be challenging to maintain a child’s attention and concentration in a class environment, the online experience does not shy away from that same effort.  I would say it requires more effort to keep the child concentrated in a virtual classroom where he or she has an easy access to internet. However as a TalktoCanada teacher I am trained and prepared with materials to keep my students interested in the lessons. I try to organize the lessons to meet each of my student’s needs. I believe that it is important to get as personal in understanding and helping the student whose needs might vary from learning the language, building vocabulary, or reinforcing their reading and comprehension.  In a virtual classroom I  have from 3 students to just one so it is easy for me to help them acquire the knowledge and skills that they need.  When I teach children online I try to keep the lessons as entertaining and simple without forgetting the necessary and essential points of the lesson.  More importantly it is easier to also keep in touch with the parents and communicate their child’s strengths, weaknesses and improvements.   I welcome any concerns that the parents might have about their child and try to work with them to help the student become better and more prepared. Not many teachers can say that teaching children is effortless, but I can happily confirm that teaching children online is no longer an effort but a pleasure.”

To sign up your child today for lessons please click on this link: http://www.talktocanada.com/individual-training/user-fees/

Whether you decided to go with Face to Face training or E-Learning – the language providers should be able to accomplish your goals by the end of the course.  Attention to detail and personalization is essential in weeding out the good from the bad, and the great from the good.

We are all connected through the universal language of business – English – and we just need to work together to make sure we are all on the same page.

Check out these helpful blogs for Business students:

http://www.talktocanada.com/2010/01/the-five-best-books-on-english-for-business-students/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2010/01/top-3-tips-on-how-to-improve-your-spoken-english/

The value and importance that you put on these aspects of language learning will heavily influence the success of your training.  Designing a curriculum and “action plan” that is NOT a cookie cutter model for each course/corporation is important.  As mentioned in a previous post – telecommunications and medical supply salesmen have very little in common.  You need to be certain that what you are getting is beneficial and worthwhile, that your employees are developing the skills that they need to communicate in English.  And most importantly – that it is not considered a chore.

How we achieve this is different in each company – you need to feel out your options and select one that meets your needs – but beware – bigger doesn’t always mean better.

Learn more about the Dogme approach to learning:

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/no-more-pencils-no-more-books-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/part-i-the-basics-of-dogme-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/part-ii-key-principles-of-the-dogme-language-learning-approach-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/part-iii-–-“to-structure-or-not-to-structure…-that-is-the-question…-”-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/12/part-iv-cookie-cutter-language-learning-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/12/part-v-using-the-dogme-approach-in-group-lessons-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/12/part-vi-–-modifying-the-dogme-approach-to-accommodate-your-students’-needs-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

Students who do register for just a 1 hour trial lesson, are usually very pleased with the results and we enjoy an over 90% registration rate after the trial lesson.  This goes to show you that a lot students are now seeing the possibilities and quality that can be obtained through an online English training company.

So if your on the fence and not sure about online English language learning with TalktoCanada.com the trial lesson is a great chance for you to test out our services without making a commitment.  One lesson will give you enough information to make an informed decision about our services, so I highly recommend you visit the link below to get started.

http://www.talktocanada.com/individual-training/user-fees/

A lot of our current students were just like you before they tried online learning.  They weren’t sure about TalktoCanada.com and they weren’t sure we could do what we said we could do.   Please register for our 1 hour trial lesson today and let us convince you that we are the right solution for your English learning needs.

Depending on the size of your training – it will heavily influence the “extras” that you will be paying for.

Some questions that you need to ask yourself:

• How many students will be trained and over what period of time?
• What “extras” are being offered or needed?
• What support or back up is offered – for e-learning, what technical support is available?

Sometimes money shouldn’t be the (only or most important) deciding factor – yes it is important obviously – but it shouldn’t be the “be all and end all” of your decision.  Reputation, support, flexibility, vision and initiative should also weigh into your decision.

Check out this blog about investing in English training:

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/the-best-investment-you-can-make-when-learning-a-language-is-speaking-that-language-with-a-native-speaker/

Employees should understand that corporate language training is essential for their advancement in any company, and as such should be taken seriously with 100% participation.  You need to figure out how your employees will respond the best – either by face to face training or the increasingly common e-learning that is offered by TalktoCanada.com.

There are benefits to both – face to face training creates an atmosphere where students may take it more seriously – and put a little more effort in – it’s harder to not show up to a real class than to a virtual class.  E-learning however offers convenience, native speakers, and interactivity that a face to face setting wouldn’t be as easy to incorporate into the learning material.

E-learning also focuses a lot on pronunciation and fluency – which is extremely beneficial in all aspects of business.  Meeting simulation, role plays, debates, opinions, conversations…are all things that are present in an e-learning course EVERY SINGLE LESSON.  It’s impossible NOT to talk in a lesson – and actually having it virtually breaks down some of those barriers, and students feel more confident when participating.

Regardless of what training you decide on, it needs to satisfy all of your needs and accomplish your goals within a reasonable amount of time.  Corporate training that offers magical solutions in a short amount of time are probably too good to be true.  It takes time and energy – and as the saying goes “the more you give the more you get back in return.”

Read some blogs about the benefits of E-Learning with TalktoCanada.com:

http://www.talktocanada.com/category/learning-english-online/page/5/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2010/03/moving-to-an-internet-enabled-english-training-program/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/how-talktocanada-com-makes-online-english-learning-personal/

Every company is different in it’s needs, some need to train very large amounts of workers while some only need to train a few.  Sometimes the training is very specific, such as, English telephone etiquette or very broad such as general intermediate business English conversation.  On an operational level, TalktoCanada.com can work with very large amounts of students to a small number of students.  Before  you consider enrolling your company in any type of English language services, I recommend you answer as many questions of the following as you can.  By being clear and having a focus to your training at your company, you will be better able to find the right solution and even more importantly the correct company.

• How many of your staff need to be trained?
• Are they all the same level of English or very different?
• Will they all be learning the same content or does there need to be some variety?
• Are you looking for a mass-market cheap solution with a high student to teacher ratio or are you looking for something more, where students are able to talk to the teacher in a low student to teacher ratio such as at TalktoCanada.com?
• What is the time commitment you expect your workers to give to an English training program?
• Most importantly of all, what are your expectations.  Always discuss your expectations with your training provider so that there is no confusion.

Corporations interested in English language training should always take the time to learn a little more about the details.  Without knowing all the details yourself, you may find yourself in a situation of not getting the results that you are expecting.  When it comes to training, it’s all about the results and comes down to, and whether or not all of my staff can speak English fluently as expected or not.

Laura McCusker

Hey there, I’m Laura and although I’ve been lucky to live in Northern Ontario and British Columbia, the UK and also Taiwan, I currently live in my hometown of Hamilton, On. I guess you could say my house is multi-national as my dog was rescued in Taiwan and my boyfriend is Irish. I love learning about other cultures and working at TTC offers this unique advantage. My favourite travelling experience has to be Indonesia, which is not only beautiful but has fabulous people and truly smells like paradise with all the spices. I hope that one day I can make the trip again. I think people would describe me as hard-working, compassionate and creative as I’m always doing photography, cooking and even sewing. I love the summer and like to be outdoors as much as possible either with friends or just relaxing. (Even though I love reading….I am taking a break as I’ve spent the last few years reading nothing but textbooks!)

Being happy is really important and so is being yourself…honesty plays a big role in my life.

It is unrealistic to assume that employees will take it upon themselves and enroll in an English course – outside of working hours, and out of their own pocket no less.  As it is also a misconception to believe that everyone in business has a functional level of English.

There are many language training providers out there – face to face – telephone training – and e-learning.  All offer a different approach and cater to different groups in different ways.  As a company, you need to decide what your goals are and how you are best able to achieve them.

In this 4 part series I will go over the different aspects of corporate language training to help you understand the different aspects and importance of selecting the appropriate corporate language training providers for your employees.

Have a look at these previous blogs to get an idea about how TalktoCanada.com can meet your corporate training needs:

http://www.talktocanada.com/2010/05/getting-to-know-talktocanada-com-how-do-we-teach-english-online/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/11/how-talktocanada-com-makes-online-english-learning-personal/

http://www.talktocanada.com/2009/12/part-v-using-the-dogme-approach-in-group-lessons-putting-a-name-to-the-methodologies-that-talktocanada-com-uses-to-teach-esl-online/

Before we start training companies and students in English, they have a very common and similar question.  The question goes something like this, “How do you teach English?” The answer typically goes the same way.  TalktoCanada.com will help you improve your English by teaching you exactly what you want to learn.  Since starting TalktoCanada.com, we have trained all of our teaching staff to center around the idea of asking the student exactly what they want.  Most students know what they want.   The most common things are; business English, test preparation (TOEFL/IELTS), conversational English skills or vocabulary building.  Sometimes a student doesn’t have anything particular that they want to focus on — this is also a great opportunity to touch on everything and determine which areas need the most work.  Usually when students don’t know what they want they usually need help with their confidence.  Confidence is a big concern for a lot of 2nd language speakers and by working with a tutor you have the opportunity to talk, practice and make mistakes in a non-threatening environment.

Depending on the type of student  you are, beginner, novice, intermediate or advanced, we will work with you to improve all the areas that you feel you need help with.

If your looking for more detailed information about our teaching methods I suggest you read the following blog posts below:

Part I: The Basics of Dogme – Putting a name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses to teach ESL online
Part II – Key Principles of the Dogme Language Learning Approach – Putting a name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses to teach ESL online
Part III – “To Structure or not to Structure… that is the question….” – Putting a name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses to teach ESL online
Part IV: Cookie Cutter Language Learning – Putting a Name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com Uses
Part VI – Modifying the Dogme approach to accommodate your students’ needs – Putting a name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses to teach ESL online
Part V – Using the Dogme Approach in group lessons – Putting a name to the methodologies that TalktoCanada.com uses to teach ESL online