Personal ESL Trainers

The latest Trend: Personal ESL Trainers

Personal ESL Trainers

By Miriam Lavi

The field of ESL for adults is booming.  Even so, it is barely able to

keep pace with the ever-growing needs of today’s world.

Registration for English courses at international language institutes  (Wall Street, Berlitz etc.) is at an all-time high.  Locally owned language schools and chains are mushrooming all over the globe.

Alongside all of this, ESL for adults is witnessing an exciting trend: The rise of the personal trainer.

Why do people prefer to hire a personal trainer rather than join a class?

For the same reason that the idea of personal trainers caught on in the world of physical fitness!  Needs and abilities vary and one program cannot possibly encompass them all.

Both individuals and companies have realized that study time is far better utilized in 1:1 sessions.  This is especially true in ‘conversational English’ courses where actual speaking time has to be shared with others. For this reason, many language institutes offer individual instruction programs.

Why do English speakers prefer to work as personal ESL trainers rather than as classroom teachers?

Firstly, it affords them a more flexible work schedule.  It is usually possible to arrange lessons on days/at hours that are convenient for the teacher.  Also, commitment is only to the duration of courses for individual students and this can facilitate their travel plans.

Secondly, the work is very stimulating because it brings them into close personal contact with interesting people. Interaction on this level does not normally occur in a classroom situation.

Thirdly, it’s the highest paid sector in the field.  This doesn’t apply to private institutes, where owners take their profit margin – but it most certainly applies to freelancers.

Finally (and for many, this is the deciding factor) no certification is required.

A word about certification: The overall picture is uneven.  Some institutes will only hire certified teachers; others demand advanced qualifications and/or prior experience; but most don’t care one way or the other because they prefer to train their own staff in their own particular approaches and techniques.

The trend towards personal ESL instructors is gaining momentum.  For  prospective teachers, this is an alternative well- worth exploring  . . . and  for  prospective teacher-travelers, this an alternative well-worth taking advantage of.

Miriam Lavi (B.A. American Literature/Education, City University of New York, January,’65) is a certified teacher and has been working in the field of ESL – both in NYC and abroad – for 40 years.  She is LLICEB certified to teach ESL to professionals (1995), owns and operates an English language institute and is author of the e-guide: How to Become a Personal ESL Trainer.

The article The Latest Trend: Personal ESL Trainers has been reprinted in the following professional newsletters: Benzhi – Teach EFL in China Hong Kong, Korea & Taiwan (Oct.2004); ESL Abroad – Trendwatch  Series (June, 2004); ESL Teachers’ Board – Top-rated ESL employment site (July, 2004).

The e-guide How to Become a Personal ESL Trainer has been very favorably reviewed in: Essential Teacher, the new TESOL Quarterly (winter ,2004); ESL Newsletter about.com – by the search engine’s ESL guide (Jan, 2005).

To view these reviews and other articles by Miriam Lavi, please visit her site: www.esltrainers.com

When I first starting teaching ESL in the 60’s, the Israeli Board of Education was using short story books (‘This Wide World’, ‘New Horizons’) as high school ESL textbooks.  Each story was followed by comprehension questions, but no language exercises – teachers were expected to write their own!  When I became a partner in an English language institute, the adult classes were  using Robert Dixon’s grammar books as course books, supplemented by photocopied dialogues (‘In The Bank’, ‘At The Post Office’, etc.) – and these were considered conversation courses!

 

ELT publishing has come a long way in the past four decades: To meet the ever-increasing needs of a burgeoning industry, it has been turning out very professionally-done materials at an extraordinary pace.  No wonder, then, that I approach each new ELT catalogue with the delight of a child in a candy store!

 

Nowadays, there is a vast selection of course books for every age group and ESL level to choose from – most of them accompanied by audiocassettes, some by videocassettes, CD’s and, most recently, interactive material; there are ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course books for an incredibly wide range of  particular needs; there is supplementary material – graded readers, music, word games – to complement almost any teaching style.

 

Selecting appropriate material is one of the crucial factors in the success of a course.  Note that I said ‘appropriate’, not ‘good’.  Almost all of the material being produced nowadays is of high quality; the question is how to determine which EFL material is most suitable for your student/s.  To best accomplish this, let me suggest the following:

1- Familiarize yourself with what is available.

2- Check out the online catalogs of Major ELT publishers:

Worldwide distributors:

3- Profile your student/s.

4- If you are looking for a course book, what level is most suitable?

5- Which skill/s do you want to concentrate on? General courses integrate the four language skills (listening comprehension,  speaking, reading comprehension, writing) in an organized and carefully graded manner. Other types of course books are structured in such a way as to emphasize one particular skill.

6- If your course book has already been selected, what kinds of supplementary material could enhance it?

7- Get as much input as you possibly can before ordering.

8- Publishers and distributors employ consultants for this purpose. Use them.

9- Some ESL websites have teachers’ forums. Ask others what their experience has been.

10- Ask around locally.  Teachers are very approachable on this issue – as are students.

 

Miriam Lavi (B.A. American Literature/Education, City University of New York, January,’65) is a certified teacher and has been working in the field of ESL – both in NYC and abroad – for 40 years.  She is LLICEB certified to teach ESL to professionals (1995), owns and operates an English language institute and is author of the e-guide: How to Become a Personal ESL Trainer.

The article The Latest Trend: Personal ESL Trainers has been reprinted in the following professional newsletters: Benzhi – Teach EFL in China Hong Kong, Korea & Taiwan (Oct.2004); ESL Abroad – Trendwatch  Series (June, 2004); ESL Teachers’ Board – Top-rated ESL employment site (July, 2004).

The e-guide How to Become a Personal ESL Trainer has been very favorably reviewed in: Essential Teacher, the new TESOL Quarterly (winter ,2004);ESL Newsletter about.com – by the search engine’s ESL guide (Jan, 2005).

To view these reviews and other articles by Miriam Lavi, please visit her site: www.esltrainers.com

Personal ESL Trainers

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