Eric James Wood - Certified English Trainer

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Needs Analysis

Courses
Classroom Organization
My approach to my classes is more relaxed than what most students expect. Students see this as a refreshing change from former lessons that they had either at secondary or business schools. I encourage my students to act as if they would work in the USA. This means we speak to each other on first name basis only and see each other as co-workers. Through questions I work out how their jobs are done at the office. Students are encouraged to speak only English to fellow students and me.

Reality in the Classroom
An aspect that is essential in my teaching is my ability to put my students into real-life situations. I do this by bringing in actual business materials used in either the UK or the United States. This helps my students prepare for the real language used in English-speaking countries. One could see my lessons more as training for doing business internationally rather than formal English lessons.

Accents in Business
I believe because of my business experiences both in America and Europe I can offer my students a very unique perspective. It is also useful and important for learners to hear a different accent from the standard `BBC´ English. This helps them prepare for any situation in international business. I am also prepared to offer my clients training in the language used American corporate settings.

Students´ Needs
I am able to listen to my students and change my lessons according to their needs. I do this from the start by enquiring about their needs before the course begins. I present a 'needs analysis' to my clients. They use this form to assess how much time they want to spend on a certain topic. I can also schedule around my clients requests.

Grouping Students
It is best if students are firstly placed into groups based upon their individual needs. This information is collected by the `needs analysis.´ Secondly, students are split into groups formed by their abilities. A placement test is used to evaluate students´ abilities. Groups of five or less students are ideal for learning. In these numbers, groups become more like cliques than classes – each helping fellow students or encouraging the others to come. In such small numbers training is very intense for students.

Classroom work and Homework
Homework is very rare as I can understand my students have enough to worry about with job and family. Sometimes I may give shorter assignments or ones in which students need to do some research – e.g. Internet research projects. Vocabulary lists from the previous lesson are handed out to students at the start of every lesson. At this point we read through the list together and find German translations for the words. With these vocabulary list students can fully concentrate on the lesson and the vocabulary is organized in an orderly manner.