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How Learning English Is About To Be Revolutionized
Skype Will Be Tomorrow’s English Learning Revolution
Until the invention of Skype, there was really only one way of teaching live English courses, namely in a classroom with a teacher and a number of students varying from 1 to 20 or so. There needed to be a physical contact between students and teachers who had to meet in an office and bring along all their books, folders, CDs, and other pedagogical materials.
But with the use of Skype, English lessons are on the verge of being revolutionized. The classroom is becoming increasingly virtual as students start taking their online English courses at home via Skype. No more carrying heavy books and folders around, no more wasting time going from work to English academies, just a simple click from your computer at home and voilà. One of the pioneers in this burgeoning industry is a company called Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/) which hires and more importantly trains highly qualified native English teachers to use an extremely dynamic method that keeps students challenged at all times with activities that focus mainly on speaking and listening activities.
For students taking English classes that often last several months, this means hours and hours of personal time saved. Instead of waiting in traffic and looking for parking spots, students will have more time for themselves. This a crucial advantage for people who already have long working hours and cannot spend enough time with their family and friends.
The same applies for teachers who will be able to give all their online English lessons from home, needing only a high-speed Internet connection and a specific Skype-based training. Such a training, which demands only a moderate level of computer literacy, will show the teachers how to use modern technology to make their Skype lessons more appealing than traditional ones, for example by using Skype’s instant messaging box as a whiteboard, excerpts of YouTube videos as listening activities, or newspaper websites as a constant source of reading and writing exercises.
English Classes via Skype Will Help You Save Money As Well
Apart from allowing students and teachers alike to avoid time-consuming trips from work or home to the classroom and vice versa, there is one other important benefit of learning English via Skype: the price. English academies operating solely on the Internet do not need to pay for any office space, and thus they can offer quality lessons at much more attractive prices than traditional language academies. In expensive cities such as Paris, Zurich or Geneva, English classes in traditional academies can be up to four or even five times more expensive than English classes online. The best way for students not yet familiar with Skype lessons is to sign up for a trial lesson and see what it’s all about (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/trial-lesson/).
For these two essential reasons (saving a large amount of time and money), we at Break Into English are offering quality courses at a reasonable price (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/courses_prices/one-to-one-classes/) and are convinced that once people will feel entirely comfortable with the idea of learning a language on Skype, they will start taking more and more English classes online, from the comfort of their homes or offices, thus significantly boosting this sector of the economy in the years to come.[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#edf6ff”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
Learning English Online Is Not Easy…But It Can Be Fun
It takes time to become a fluent English speaker
Contrary to what many online language academies claim in misleading slogans, there is no miraculous way to learn English quickly and easily. Mastering the English language takes time and a lot of effort.
At Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com), we refuse to make our students believe that their Skype English courses will be a piece of cake. We let them know from the start that they won’t become fluent English speakers in a few classes, but that our lessons will be tough and challenging to help them improve as much as possible.
Internet students should not be taken for fools: if they decide to spend their time and money to learn English via Skype, they deserve professional teachers who know how to assess what progress they can realistically make each week and push them hard in order to attain these goals. Making promises that cannot be held may attract a few additional clients at first, but it is counterproductive in the long run, for the students who begin an online English class with impossibly high expectations will soon lose all motivation when they realize that their progress is in fact much slower than advertised.
The secret to learning a language is to have fun working hard
A student must be willing to work hard in order to improve fast. Now this does not at all entail that his or her classes won’t be enjoyable. On the contrary, proving to oneself that one can follow a demanding English course is highly gratifying for a student. But for this to happen, it is essential that the student keep a positive attitude throughout the learning process.
This is where the teacher becomes important. His or her role is to help students in their endeavors by presenting each new linguistic difficulty as an exciting challenge and by instilling in them a real desire to learn and discover English. This is why we at Break Into English (www.breakintoenglish.com) put a special emphasis on motivating skills during our teacher training programs (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/our-method/). A motivating teacher is the key to successful classes and customer satisfaction.
In our opinion, teachers should act like friendly yet demanding personal trainers who stimulate their students and push them to the limit so that they can reach high goals and obtain gratifying results. To get a taste of what we’re referring to, we recommend that anyone interested try out our trial lesson (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/trial-lesson/) and see how effective our lessons can be. If we extend this simile yet further, we could say that learning a language is a lot like working out at the gym. Most people who go to a fitness center do not expect to lose weight or get in shape overnight, they accept the fact that they will have to sweat and work hard to reach their goals. English students should have the same frame of mind and also accept that their level of English will ultimately depend on the level of personal investment they are ready to put in their classes.[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#f7f4ff”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
How to correct students during English lessons
All mistakes must be corrected
Whether it be during traditional classes or online English courses (English lessons via Skype), student correction should follow a certain number of basic rules. The most essential of these rules is so obvious that we would not even bother mentioning it if we had not realized that it was often ignored, even by experienced native English teachers. Students’ mistakes must ALWAYS be corrected. During teacher trainings at Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com), we are often astonished by the amount of candidates who let their students speak without correcting several of their mistakes. This is very detrimental to the students who assume their errors are correct and therefore assimilate false linguistic elements that then become much more difficult to eradicate.
But all mistakes should not be corrected at once
All student mistakes must be corrected at some point, yet this does not mean they should all be corrected at once. Correcting mistakes is a delicate affair that requires subtlety, intuition, and know-how. First of all, the correction of mistakes will depend on the phase of the learning process: if they occur in the more controlled practice phase, they must be corrected immediately, but if they occur afterwards in the performance phase, based on fluency and independent language production, mistakes should not be corrected straight away, but after the performance. Thus, it is important that the teacher write down all of his or her students’ mistakes during each of their performances.
Another factor that will influence student correction is the personality of the students. Certain students want to be corrected immediately, even during the performance phase, and others lose confidence or feel frustrated if they are corrected too often in a single lesson. The teacher must learn how to adapt to each of these student types. Also, if a student is having major difficulties with a learning point, it is better not to insist on his or her mistakes too much, but to leave corrections for the beginning of the next lesson, when the student’s motivation and attention levels are once again high. This also allows students to calmly study their mistakes at home without the pressure of having to produce results in front of their teacher. Sometimes all students need to correct themselves is a little time on their own to understand what they were doing wrong.
These are the most essential rules related to student correction. They may seem easy and straightforward, but their importance should never be underestimated. At Break Into English, we have made them a central point of our teacher instructions. Whether our teachers are trained to give General English, Business English or Legal English courses
(http://www.breakintoenglish.com/courses_prices/legal-english/), they must all start by learning how to correct their students’ mistakes before they are given any classes.[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#f4fffb”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
Using Skype Effectively in the Classroom
Thanks to Skype for offering us their “Getting Started” guide on how to effectively use Skype in the classroom. For almost a year now, we at Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com) have been using Skype technology (long-distance calling, shared screen options, instant messaging services…) to teach online English lessons to individuals or small groups around the world.
Reading this guide has definitely helped us improve the ways in which we engage our students in class. For example, the idea of assigning various roles to students during presentations or other performances is indeed a good way of keeping everyone involved in the activity. Whether they act as sharers, inquirers, researchers, timekeepers, or scribes, each student must participate in the performance.
Equally useful to us were the tips and advice on how to deal with audio, video, or connectivity problems while on a Skype call. It is true that very simple measures such as checking your Internet bandwidth connection, terminating the call and ringing back, or re-launching the Skype application often help to solve the occasional technical problems that can arise in class.
Our hope for the future is that Skype will develop other useful tools to help us make online teaching even more engaging and interesting.
The Break Into English Team[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#f7f4ff”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
Teaching English Via Skype
Hello, at Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com) we also hire native English teachers to give one-to-one English classes online.
Skype is at the core of our business model. The teaching method and company manuals have been specifically developed to help students learn English in a virtual classroom by using Skype’s shared screen and instant messaging services.
The large majority of our clients are very satisfied with the quality of the teaching and the connection. Most of them are employees living in big cities and working long hours who would not have the time or money to take English lessons in traditional academies.
Thanks to Skype, not only are they able to learn English online at a reasonable price, but they can have their lessons from the comfort of their homes or offices without wasting time in traffic or trying to find parking spaces in the city.
That is a great benefit for them.[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#f2fbff”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
PLANNING CLASSES
The main idea in this article is what I keep in mind when planning English classes whether they’re face to face or online with Break Into English (www.breakintoenglish.com) the company I teach for when giving English lessons via Skype. As well as the obvious advantages of leaving class-time free for more productive things, this policy can also foment student independence. If you get into a habit of leading into the thing to do at home in one class and then using what they have learnt at home in the next class, it also naturally leads to more recycling of the language covered, making sure it isn’t just taught in one class and then forgotten.
Examples of things that can be done at home just as efficiently include:
- Checking homework answers
- Most detailed text reading (for example vocabulary questions and detailed oral comprehension questions)
- Actual reading (after doing the lead-in or introductions during the lesson)
- Almost all written activities (fill in the gaps, matching, and so on)
- Preparation for speaking and presentation tasks
- Several brainstorming activities
- Picture description: this is one of our favorite activities in our Skype English classes
I want to point out here that something that students can do at home doesn’t necessarily become something worth doing in class just by putting them into pairs. These activities are still better done at home unless they really benefit from listening to each other’s ideas.
There are very seldom times when you do need to do parts of the lesson that can be done at home, such as making sure students fully understand the grammar in order to get ready ready for the next activity.
Assigning things for homework can be taken one step further further by taking what I call a PPP (Presentation Practice Production) approach. At Break Into English we use this technique quite often in our Skype English classes. Don’t hesitate to try out our Trial Lesson at http://www.breakintoenglish.com/trial-lesson/ to experience it first hand.
For grammar, the lesson is planned so that students finish an approach presentation of the new language at the end of class and so are perfectly set up to do written exercises regarding the same language points for homework. After checking their homework in the next class, students do controlled and then less controlled speaking practice on the same language point, which is then included in a presentation of the next language point if they are ready to move forward.[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row no_margin=”true” padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#e5e5ff” inner_container=”true”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
Skype va révolutionner l’enseignement de l’anglais
Skype permet d’apprendre l’anglais plus facilement
Avant la création de Skype, la seule façon d’enseigner des cours d’anglais était de rassembler des profs et des groupes d’élèves dans une salle de classe. Il était indispensable qu’élèves et enseignants se rencontrent physiquement dans un bureau et qu’ils prennent avec eux les livres, classeurs, cahiers et autres cédéroms dont ils avaient besoin pour leurs cours.
Mais avec l’apparition de Skype, l’apprentissage de l’anglais est en passe d’être révolutionné. La salle de classe devient davantage virtuelle au fur et à mesure que les élèves commencent à utiliser Skype pour prendre des leçons d’anglais à distance. Cette nouvelle façon d’apprendre évite aux élèves de perdre leur temps dans des déplacements répétés entre le bureau ou la maison et leur école d’anglais. Désormais, il leur suffit d’un simple clic sur leurs ordinateurs pour débuter leurs leçons. Pour les élèves suivant des cours d’anglais pendant plusieurs mois, cela représente des heures et des heures de temps libre en plus chaque année. Ceci est un avantage crucial pour des personnes qui ont déjà des journées de travail chargées et aimeraient passer davantage de temps avec leurs familles et amis au lieu d’être coincées dans des embouteillages et de chercher des places de parc à proximité de leurs écoles d’anglais. Un des pionniers dans cette industrie naissante est une académie qui s’appelle Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/fr/) et qui engage et forme des professeurs anglophones hautement qualifiés afin d’enseigner l’anglais en utilisant une méthode extrêmement dynamique qui maintient les élèves constamment impliqués en utilisant des activités centrées essentiellement sur l’expression et la compréhension orale.
Il en va de même pour les enseignants des académies d’anglais en ligne qui n’ont plus besoin de se déplacer d’un bout à l’autre de la ville afin de donner leurs cours. Il leur suffit d’avoir une bonne connexion Internet et une formation spécifique leur permettant de maîtriser l’enseignement de l’anglais par Skype. Une telle formation, qui ne requiert qu’un niveau d’informatique moyen, apprend aux enseignants comment utiliser la technologie moderne pour rendre leurs leçons d’anglais en ligne les plus attrayantes possible, par exemple en utilisant la boîte de messagerie instantanée de Skype comme tableau noir, ou en se servant d’extraits de vidéos YouTube pour concevoir des activités de compréhension orale, ou encore en puisant une source inépuisable d’exercices de compréhension et de rédaction écrites sur des sites internet de journaux.
Les cours d’anglais en ligne permettent également d’économiser de l’argent
Les leçons d’anglais par Skype permettent aux élèves non seulement d’éviter des allers-retours incessants entre le travail ou la maison et leurs écoles d’anglais, mais aussi d’économiser de l’argent. En effet, les académies d’anglais en ligne n’ayant pas besoin de louer des locaux, elles peuvent offrir des cours de qualité à des prix bien plus intéressants que les académies d’anglais traditionnelles. Dans des villes chères telles que Paris, Zurich ou Genève, les cours d’anglais dans les académies traditionnelles peuvent être jusqu’à quatre ou cinq fois plus coûteux que des cours d’anglais par Skype. La meilleure manière de découvrir cette nouvelle manière d’apprendre pour ceux qui ne la connaissent pas et de s’inscrire sans engagements à une leçon d’essai (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/fr/lecon-essai/).
Pour ces deux raisons essentielles (économiser du temps et de l’argent), nous sommes convaincus chez Break Into English que nos cours par Skype (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/fr/cours_prix/cours-particuliers/) représentent le futur de l’enseignement de l’anglais. Une fois que les gens se sentiront plus à l’aise à l’idée d’apprendre l’anglais par Skype, ils se mettront à prendre davantage de cours d’anglais en ligne, permettant ainsi à ce secteur économique de grandir considérablement durant les années qui viennent.[/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row no_margin=”true” padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#e5f2ff” inner_container=”true”][vc_column width=”1/1″][text_output]
Cómo el Aprendizaje del Inglés Está a Punto de Ser Revolucionado
Skype será la Revolución del aprendizaje del Inglés mañana
Hasta la invención de Skype, realmente sólo había una manera de enseñar cursos de inglés: presencialmente, en vivo, en un aula, con un profesor físicamente presente y un número de estudiantes que varían de 1 a 20 o menos. Los profes y alumnos tenían que quedar en un lugar predeterminado y llevar consigo todos sus libros , carpetas , CDs y otros materiales pedagógicos.
Sin embargo, con el uso de Skype, las clases particulares de inglés están a punto de ser revolucionadas. El ámbito de las clases es cada vez más virtual, los estudiantes comienzan a tomar sus clases de inglés online desde sus casas o sus oficinas. No hay que cargar más libros pesados y carpetas, o perder más tiempo yendo desde el trabajo a las academias de inglés, un simple clic en su ordenador y ya está. Uno de los pioneros en esta industria floreciente es una compañía llamada Break Into English (http://www.breakintoenglish.com/). Contratan y lo que es más importante forman a profesores de inglés nativos altamente cualificados para utilizar un método muy dinámico que mantiene a los estudiantes involucrados en cada momento con las actividades que se centran principalmente en el hablar y el escuchar.
En lugar de esperar en tráfico y en busca de estacionamiento , los estudiantes tienen más tiempo para sí mismos. Esta es una ventaja importante para las personas que ya tienen largas horas de trabajo y no pueden pasar suficiente tiempo con sus familia y amigos.
Lo mismo se aplica para los profesores que sean capaces de dar todas sus clases de inglés online desde su casa o donde les convenga. Sólo necesitan una conexión de Internet de alta velocidad y una formación específica basada en Skype. Esta formación sólo exige un nivel moderado de conocimiento informático. Entonces, además de una formación intensiva respecto a la manera de dar clase, el uso correcto de nuestro material didáctico y las técnicas para mantener un ámbito dinámico y desafiante, se enseña a los profesores cómo utilizar la tecnología moderna para que sus clases de inglés por Skype sean más atractivas que las tradicionales, por ejemplo mediante el cuadro de mensajería instantánea de Skype y utilizándolo como pizarra, extractos de vídeos de YouTube como actividades de escucha y enlaces a sitios web de periódicos como una fuente constante de lectura y ejercicios de escritura. Para hacerse una idea más clara de estos conceptos, solo hace falta inscribirse a una clase de prueba y ver de lo que se trata en el siguiente enlace: http://www.breakintoenglish.com/trial-lesson/ ¡Os esperamos![/text_output][/vc_column][/vc_row]