Language Learning: The Vital Role of Inefficiency
When we talk about language learning, the language aspect is easy enough to understand. It’s the learning aspect that requires more consideration. How do we define “learning?” Is learning the harvest of a creative endeavor that requires a genuine investment of effort and sacrifice on our part or merely a transactional act focused on how […]
English Training: Finding Beauty in Learning
One of the biggest disappointments for me is to see how the way so many English training programs are designed to be very utilitarian and transactional; as if the objective is to robotically transfer information about how to communicate in English from the teacher to the student. This kind of arid approach to language learning […]
Business English Learning: The Importance of Wonder
In the business English learning environment, it’s important to create optimal conditions where learning can best be supported. It paradoxically requires relaxing loosening the starchy collar of business sensibilities and allowing for a more playful dynamic to emerge–one that is most easily encouraged by letting wonder and curiosity flourish. It’s easy to imagine a business […]
Corporate English: Encouraging Students to Take Risks
Corporate English: Encouraging Students to Take Risks The natural goal of any teacher in a corporate English class is to create an environment where the students feel comfortable. But there is a balance that needs to be honored. If students in an adult ESL class are too comfortable, there is an absence of the tension […]
Business English ESL: The Dazzling Power of Curiosity
Business English ESL: The Dazzling Power of Curiosity In my experience offering business English ESL courses to our corporate clients, learning a second language holds a natural sense of fascination for a lot the language program participants. There is a lot of initial enthusiasm but then they discover that it can be quite a […]