Business by Janice

Our market is super competitive to say the least.

I’ve often thought how difficult it must be for those people in companies who have the responsibility of choosing a language provider. In fact I was speaking to someone the other day - the personal assistant of the MD of a property company, (in two minds whether to chase that prospect given the current economic climate at the moment and the horror stories we’re hearing about anything remotely connected to construction), and she admitted how nervous she felt about the whole issue. Basically, if the language school she chooses messes up she gets the blame!

So how do clients choose a school when we all “hire native, qualified teachers, have an effective methodology, have a perfect level system with it’s corresponding testing, do regular student evaluations and feedbacks bla, bla, bla?

Ignoring those companies who choose a language provider based on the cheapest price (now there’s food for another post), the more serious ones should be asking about the following:

• the history and experience of the school - what infrastructure does the school have? what other clients does it have? can references be obtained? How has the school developed in recent years?
• the teacher profile - What selection criteria does the school use?
• teaching methodology - what EXACTLY is the method used? how is it effective? how are results obtained and measured?
• administration - does the school have the resources to deal with the client’s demands in this area?

But the most important (and telling) question the client should be asking is: How is your school different to others? And if you can answer this with confidence and integrity then the contract is as good as yours.

Because that’s exactly what clients are looking for - a provider with integrity who will deliver what they say they’re going to deliver, and on the occasions that they don’t, (and we’ve all had teachers who’ve “disappeared” on us), are professional and honest enough to deal with it and provide a solution to the problem.

Yes, we do all “say the same thing” to prospective clients so we have to work on them trusting us. Given that we provide a very similar service, at the end of the day it’s down to whether they like you and TRUST you.

The following link provides more detailed information for companies on how to select a language provider:

http://www.microsoft.com/spain/empresas/formacion/formacion_ingles.mspx

I was out with a group friends the other night and we got to talking about people’s experience of English classes. One of the girls who has worked many years as a management consultant commented that her major complaint of many of the classes she’s received is that there is no obvious method. By method she meant a disciplined structure to every class that would take her securely to the end result she was looking for.

There are of course some schools who have their own method such as Vaughn Systems and Berlitz but the majority of schools leave the details of how the class is going to be imparted up to the individual teacher. The majority of these teachers have been trained in teaching techniques, handling classroom dynamics, planning a class etc via their TEFL course but when they get into class they decide exactly how they are going to teach to achieve the results required. Now that is a BIG responsibility.

And the course books the teachers are issued with have so much material that the teacher is often overwhelmed, either trying to fit it all in in class and not covering anything properly, or throwing in the towel and going in with photocopies from internet.

Now there are some excellent teachers out there, but there are many that, even armed with TEFL, seem to need a good dose of discipline to give structured classes. Can we depend on our teachers to give disciplined classes, to stick to their class plans and so lead the student forward to achieve their objectives? And if we can’t depend on our teachers to do this, how much extra training and feedback do we need to do to ensure it does happen, and does this fit into our cost/revenue structure?

Throughly TEFL trained teachers can add a diversity and richness to classes via the use of imaginative activities not found in those that use a specific methodology. And these teachers can adapt their approach to the different learning styles and interests of the students, to get right into the individual’s motivation for learning. But how many teachers do this as effectively as we would wish? The more freedom we give to the teacher, the more risk we take that the class is not as effective as we would want.

So, which is the best way? A strict methodology to ensure specific results or a more open approach to try and satisfy the different learning styles and interests of the student?

Whether you are a teacher, student or language school director I’d be very interested to hear which approach you favour and why.