Most quality Business English and VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language) programs provide extensive training and practice  in both short and long job interviews. Job interviews are stressful – especially for English language learners.  In fact, many adult, community college, and university ESL programs also include mock job interviews in the curriculum so ESL students can learn how to better answer simple and difficult questions. After all, many career experts recommend native speakers practice and practice again for these high-stakes interviews. It behooves English language learners to practice, practice, and practice some more for job interviews.

During these difficult economic times, however,  Business English trainers, advanced ESL (English as a Second Language), teachers and VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language) job coordinators should focus on an even wider range of interviewing skills. Many people have to interview co-workers, customers, strangers, and even more senior professionals at work. Speaking skills – in particular interview skills – matter.

Informational interviews – where future professionals ask questions to working professionals that hold a desirable position – achieves this goal – and a few more.   Informational interviews deserve far more attention in English language programs, but especially in Business English programs and VESL classes since informational interviews provide practical opportunities to develop business contacts and remain a savvy  job hunting tactic.

A common practice in the United States in many white-collar professions, informational interviews allow students (or individuals seeking a career change) to meet more successful and senior professionals in a field. From scheduling an appointment and preparing questions to  collecting information on common business practices, this professional exercise tests the fluency and language skills.  Informational interviews also expand their personal network of valuable business contacts. Sometimes these 20-30 minute interviews, often at offices, offer surprising insights into the typical work experiences and best workplace practices. Topics can range from the biographic to industry trends.  Best of all, informational interviews can also lead to job leads, internships, and even new jobs.

This real world assignment can work with high-intermediate and advanced Business English clients. In fact, asking clients or students to find, research, and conduct an informational interview requires a certain level of fluency and confidence – outside the classroom. This challenging, authentic class assignment requires English language learners to perform a vital workplace skill, respond in real time to a potential supervisor, and ask appropriate questions.

What are appropriate questions? Here are a few classic informational interview questions:

• How did you first enter the field? Why?
• How has the industry changed since you began your career?
• Can you describe a typical day at work?
• What are some trends that you are watching?
• What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
• What question should I have asked that I didn’t ask today?

These simple questions often provide illuminating glimpses into the professional lives of successful professionals.

I recommend requiring a “trip report” or  a presentation to show the results of the informational interview with fellow Business English students,. This reflective exercise requires students to concisely summarize their interview.  Learning how to conduct an informational interview is a crucial skill that they can use over and over again during their business careers. Many graduate programs strongly recommend (and sometime mandate) their students conduct regular informational interviews.

From my perspective,  adding  information interviews to Business English classes and VESL programs seems extraordinarily sensible.  It also qualifies as an effective use of precious instructional time. Practical and popular, this multidimensional assignment consistently engages students and provides surprising insights in a university setting. I’ve been requiring informational interviews for several years in my university courses for both native and non-native English speakers. Students consistently rate the informational interview highest among the course assignments – and often praise it on course evaluations.

Therefore, I’m quite confident that quality Business English and VESL programs can clearly benefit from adding this real-world, authentic task to their curriculum too.

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Adding a homework assignment that requires ESL students to go the “ideas worth sharing” website at www.TED.com accomplishes all these goals. For the last four years, I have asked both college and international graduate students to select a short TED.com video, watch it, and prepare to share their impressions in class.  Since many students have evolving English language skills and the course is an advanced oral skills class,  they just take notes. What’s the title? Where was the lecture given? Who gave the lecture? Date? How did they open the presentation? Was their a significant quote? What sources were orally cited? How would they rate the video on a scale of 1-5? Why did they choose this TED video? Why do they recommend we watch it too?

Students will often watch several TED videos before choosing a favorite one. This advanced ESL homework assignment seems to capture their imagination as they explore the TED website. The next day, students discuss the TED video that they selected in small groups of four. Afterwards, I ask for “brave volunteers” to share their impressions – i.e., review – with the class. Usually everyone wants to present so we extend the lesson to a second class where I videotape all the presentations. The class sessions are always illuminating, engaging, and surprising as I learn more about students, their interests, our evolving world, and their English language speaking skills.  This democratic speaking skills activity creates an atmosphere where “everybody is a student,  and everybody is a teacher.”  Result: the entire class creates compelling classroom conversations!

As the old American cereal commercial used to say, “try it – you’ll like it” – at least with more advanced English students!

For ESL teachers who want a more formal assignment, you can also use this more detailed worksheet.

http://www.compellingconversations.com/worksheets/ted-video-summary-and-commentary.pdf

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Fluency requires practice. Our students also know that speaking English can be both satisfying and stressful. Therefore, we require speaking activities in class – and strongly suggest ways to speak more out of class. Our students want to be fluent, but they often hesitate to practice their speaking skills. Many students do not want to risk making mistakes, being misunderstood, and feeling awkward. Some prefer to silently take notes, and speak as little as possible in their English classes. We have all probably faced this situation.

Yet, as far as I know, there is no magical shortcut to fluency except practice. Our English students must practice speaking – in pairs and in small groups – even if it feels awkward. “Practice makes perfect” goes a popular proverb. Although perfection seems like a dubious ideal, practice certainly makes progress. And our students want to make meaningful progress in their speaking skills and gain greater fluency.

That’s why creating a comfortable class atmosphere remains essential. One effective way to reduce grade anxiety or classroom stress is to clearly emphasize that some activities will focus more on fluency” and other speaking activities will focus more on “accuracy”. For instance, including one casual fluency activity per class helps students simply exchange ideas and engage in low risk, safe communication between themselves.

Speaking exercises can be added across the ESL curriculum. You can often drop a short communicative exercise even in acadenuc writing classes. Fluency, after all, requires practice. Casual, ungraded classroom conversations also increase student confidence and create a more lively ESL classroom.

Asking students to reflect and share their experiences as an English learner can often lead to fascinating conversations and compelling essays. Here’s a favorite fluency activity called Learning English that I’ve used with both intermediate and advanced ESL students in both oral skills and writing classes. When I taught advanced ESL at Santa Monica Community College, I often used Learning English to introduce their first essay. Students often responded with enthusiasm. Perhaps your English students will too.

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The New Oxford Dictionary chose “unfriend” as its word of the year, but that clever choice is not the first, only, or last word.
This excellent article from Ruth Walker’s outstanding “Verbal Energy” column in the Christian Science Monitor looks at the choices of Oxford American Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Webster’s New Word Dictionaries, and Merriam-Webster dictionary. Reviewing the choices and possibilities, Walker wonders how any one word could be chosen above other choices.

An excellent article for English teachers, word mavens, and linguists, this column also reminds readers that even “objective” dictionaries make editorial decisions. One editor chooses “unfriend” and another “sexting” and “distracted driving” while yet might choose “Obamania”. Other popular choices include: admonish, hypallage, and befriend. Choices, voices, and perspectives differ.

Of course, one of the pleasures of teaching English is that we often rediscover vocabulary words – or at least a new appreciation for the vividness of American idioms – from our students. Like many other ESL teachers, I often ask students to develop their own vocabulary logs with ten words each week and select a new word of the week to build their working vocabulary. Students, who have often been trained to memorize vocabulary words for TOEFL or other standardized exams, usually embrace the homework assignment. Sometimes students can surprise me.

This semester, for example, I learned the word “laicism” from a Turkish graduate student. This vital legal concept stating that religion and state should be separate, so woven into American culture that is not even debated, remains a major debate in Europe where many flags include a Christian cross. In some countries, the term is used to justify suppression of religious symbols (veil, yarmulka, cross) while other countries use it to subsidize many religious traditions and schools. Given the recent Swiss vote to ban new mosques being built in Switzerland and my own vocabulary lesson from a student, I’m chosing laicism as my word of the year. (By the way, Dictionary.com doesn’t list the word yet!)

What’s your word of year? Why?

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Experienced English teachers know that students must learn paraphrasing skills for academic writing assignments. Likewise paraphrasing remains a vital skill for English language learners to participate in academic classrooms, everyday conversations, social situations, and commercial transactions.

The ability to re-phrase and re-state, usually called paraphrasing, allows English students to confirm information, accurately convey information, and avoid plagiarism problems in writing papers. As a result, paraphrasing is usually emphasized in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classes. Classes and teachers focusing on oral skills from academic presentations to simple conversations should also devote some attention to paraphrasing too.

English language students, whether university or adult and young or old, must learn to confirm information by asking clarification questions. This critical skill will increase their ability to collect information, avoid costly mistakes, and reduce their everyday stress level. Some useful phrases for a listener to ask include:

Are you saying…?
Do you mean?
What are you getting at?
If I understand you correctly, you are saying …
So you are saying… Right?
Did I get that right?

Speakers can also check to see if their group members and classmates understand their directions.

Are you with me?
Can you understand me?
Was I going too fast?
Should I rephrase that?
Do you follow?
Is that clear?
Should I repeat the directions?
Do you want me to repeat that?
Would it be better for me to repeat that?
Can I answer any questions?
Is anybody lost?

Asking advanced English students to repeat directions, in different words, can also be an effective group activity. The directions can be to a physical location (home, campus building, museum) or how to do something simple like finding a definition or sending an email. You can also extend the assignment by requesting detailed directions on a complicated procedure such as getting a driver’s license, applying for a visa, or choosing a new laptop.

Further, you can ask students to share an autobiographical story. Student A tells a story, and Student B retells that story with different words to Student C. This paraphrasing exercise also helps build a larger, more practical vocabulary.

Another teaching technique that I’ve found useful is asking students to paraphrase proverbs and quotations. This exercise, done in groups of two, is often followed by asking if students agree or disagree with the proverb or quotation. Of course, students have to give a reason and/or an example. ESL tutors and lucky English teachers with small classes can elaborate this technique to match student interests.

If English students can accurately paraphrase a reading, a radio segment, or a verbal statement, they can actively participate in common conversations and classroom discussions. Many English teachers underestimate the importance of this skill, and assume students understand more than they might. Verbal paraphrasing activities allow both students and teachers to assess listening comprehension skills in a natural, authentic manner.

Therefore, verbal paraphrasing deserves more attention in speaking activities – especially in high intermediate and advanced levels! Don’t you agree?

What techniques or exercises do you use to improve paraphrasing skills?

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Have you ever seen two emotional people talk past each other? Both talk and neither listen. Both want to tell the other, and don’t want to hear – or understand – what the other person is saying. This happens too often in stressful workplaces.

Stephen Covey, author of the international bestseller called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, advises people “to seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Following this traditional wisdom can improve workplace relationships and communication.

What are some techniques that can help understand other people? Here are some tips:

• Listen first and avoid interrupting.
• Pause before speaking.
• Look people in the eye.
• Be curious.
• Ask “what” and “how” questions to get more information.
• Keep the voice down. Stay calm. Talk slow.
• Repeat or rephrase what people say to avoid misunderstandings.

What are some other tips to avoid misunderstandings or conflicts at work?

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What are some advantages of staying calm at work?

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