Speaking skills – especially in stressful situations – matter.
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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Informational interviews have become a common practice among American professionals, but many English language learners remain unfamiliar with this type of networking and job search activity. ESL teachers can create both compelling classroom assignments and provide opportunities for ESL students to explore their career options by including informational interviews in their courses.
As readers of this blog know, I have given several presentations at CATESOL conferences on “Informational Interviews: A Practical, Multi-skill Activity for High Intermediate and Advanced ESL Students.” Based on my six years of assigning both undergraduate native speakers and international graduate students at the University of Southern California to conduct informational interviews, this presentation demonstrated how this one presentation assignment can lead to an entire month of engaging, demanding, and career-focused lessons for advanced ESL students. Students expand their vocabulary, write questions, conduct an off-campus interview with a working professional in a field of interest, and share the career advice they collected in a short oral presentation. It’s a challenging, satisfying, and popular assignment in my oral skills classes.
A small vocational college in Los Angeles, CES College, asked me to share the exercise with their faculty last week. Would middle-aged immigrants in blue collar jobs find this exercise worthwhile? I’m quite confident that immigrants would learn from all steps of the exercise, and expanding their social network beyond relatives and friends remains essential. Mechanics can interview mechanics and car repair show owners, and construction workers can interview construction workers – or managers. The proof, as the cliche goes, will be in the pudding and let’s see what happens with their students in the next six months.
Would this exercise work in an EFL context? I’m not sure. Many American universities can count on alumni to help their students in their job search, and granting an informational interview is a relatively easy way to contribute. Many American professional organizations also encourage their members to both assist and recruit students into the field. It may be difficult in many cultures for a younger person with less status to directly contact an older professional to seek career advice.
I do know, however, that many American colleges and graduate programs train their students to go on informational interviews to gain more detailed knowledge of their prospective careers. As in so many other areas of American life, white collar professionals have far greater access to both more information and stronger personal networks. This assignment brings a best practice outside of the elite circles.
Informational interviews can also be used with high school students as they begin to focus on their career ambitions. Here is a short list of additional links that I found last night as I prepared my presentation. The links are loosely organized from the most general sites that explain the concept to general audiences in simple English to professional documents for more specialized, often graduate-school audiences. Adult and community college ESL programs would probably find the earlier links more helpful than the later ones. As ever, use or lose.
University of Notre Dame Informational Interviewing – This six-page guide provides excellent step by step instructions for students needing assistance with locating individuals, asking interview questions, writing thank you notes, and professionally networking. http://careercenter.nd.edu/assets/488/informational_interviewing_guide_8.16.pdf
Finally, here’s a 13-slide PowerPoint presentation titled “Networking and Informational Interviewing: Nuts and Bolts” by Scott Turner from USC Marshall School of Business, one of the world’s top MBA schools. Although I’m biased as a USC instructor, I think this presentation captures the practical possibilities of information interviewing. Many Marshall instructors advise MBA students that they should always be networking and conducting informational interviews during their graduate studies.
Given the difficult economic climate in many countries, I would suggest that it behooves more ESL and EFL teachers and tutors to consider adding informational interviews to their oral skills courses for their high-intermediate and advanced students.
Have you heard about the international bestseller How English Became Globish“>Globish by Robert McCrum? Suddenly the term Globish seems everywhere.
McCrum, who wrote the influential book “The Story of English”, argues that English has become Globish because it is the world’s international language. Partly descriptive and partly prescriptive, the author reviews the astonishing spread of English, its many changes over time and space, and points out the many advantages of English as a global tongue. McCrum also suggests that English, as a language, carries cultural values such as individualism, greater sexual equality, a democratic sensibility, and empiricism.
Other linguists, including many working for international software firms, have recently adopted the word Globish too. The term, it seems, has escaped the narrow confines of linguistic jargon to become a mainstream term. Yet linguists and other folks strongly disagree about the meaning of Globish. Few doubt, however, that a majority of English speakers are actually speaking English as an additional language.
Here is a group of video clips supporting the idea that communication matters most as a majority of English speakers use the language as a second tongue. Precise grammar and pronunciation rules become less important in a global context. If all the English speakers in the room are really English language learners, unconventional English grammar and heavy accents become more acceptable. Globish, so the argument goes, provides more freedom for more varieties of English.
Provocative, if not completely persuasive, some of these linguists favor reducing the cultural roots of English and emphasizing a simpler, smaller, and more universal form of essential Globish. (This movement, also known as English as a Global Language, focuses on the business advantages of a shared language.) Other linguists both predict and favor a flourishing of local languages linked to British English, American English, or Australian English. These linguists, such as Andy Kirkpatrick, see the emergence of “World Englishes“.
All these competing arguments emphasize, for me, the importance of context. As American writer teaching international graduate students at an elite American university in the American Language Institute, I emphasize the importance of professional and academic success. Accuracy, clarity, and detail still matter so we maintain high standards, traditional grammar, and mainstream spelling matter.
A hotel clerk working with European tourists vacationing in Mexico, however, might find a more casual Globish works just fine. Academic English and workplace English often have quite different definitions of success. Context, as ever, matters. Why do our students want to learn English? How will they use English? Can we both teach specific language skills and humanistic values in our English classrooms? As English teachers, it also behooves us teach the English that our students need and want.
Anyway, here are some informative and some funny video clips mocking the notion that a small island nation should be the standard for how people speak across the globe. I’m including links to the NPR feature on Globish, the video collection, and Amazon.
How can English teachers help adult, college, and university students expand their network of professional contacts while improving their interview skills? What practical speaking exercise includes both off-campus interviews and classroom presentations? How can ESL teachers add informational interviews to their oral skills curriculum? What are informational interviews, anyway? What makes them vital to adult English language learners in 2010?
Thanks to the selection committee of CATESOL 2010 State Conference, I will have a chance to share my answers with fellow California educators in late April. “Informational Interviews: A Practical, Illuminating Speaking Assignment” will demonstrate the importance and relevance of this unusual assignment for a wide range of ESL students. Although officially listed for college/university instructors, the long assignment can be adapted for high school, IEP, vocational, and Business English classes. CATESOL includes California teachers of English to speakers of other languages from all levels of education and many public and private institutions.
Naturally, I look forward to sharing the good news about information interviews, a common practice in the United States where individuals interview working professionals about potential occupations. My presentation will cover the several building block assignments that are used to prepare students to find a professional to interview, conduct a successful interview, and give a compelling trip report in class. Each step covers vital vocational and speaking skills.
Hopefully, this small professional presentation will encourage more ESL teachers to assign informational interviews and help their ESL students find satisfying jobs. Given the relatively grim outlook for jobs in California, the definition of “satisfying” might be more flexible than in the past. Informational interviews, therefore, allow job seekers to meet working professionals in their field, collect detailed information on working conditions and professional practices, and expand their network of valuable industry contacts. Sometimes informational interviews also lead to job leads, internships, and even jobs. Practical and popular, this assignment consistently engages students and provides surprising insights.
During the last hectic week of international travel and professional development presentations, I’ve been heard a few simple questions over and over.
Are you ready?
Are you prepared?
Aren’t you nervous?
Do you have enough time to do that?
When are you going to sleep?
Friends – and close relatives – ask these questions out of concern and curiosity. I appreciate their questions and enjoy our discussions. My confidence can lead me to underestimate the difficulty of projects, tasks, and chores. I should manage time better, probably reduce my commitments, and prioritize more. Yet that’s easier said than done when pursuing multiple projects and working with people on different continents. I also like my work, and appreciate new challenges. And I can draw on a considerable amount of experience as a world traveler and English teacher. Despite approaching deadlines, I tend to feel strangely comfortable.
For instance, this week I left Los Angeles to begin a new position creating a Practical and Academic English program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Packing for a ten-week summer trip takes considerable time. So does writing up detailed course descriptions, planning professional development workshops, and writing a high school graduation speech. Tracking Compelling Conversations book orders, planning website and blog changes, and interviewing ESL/EFL teachers also takes time. So sleep becomes a lower priority and friends keep asking those few simple, reasonable questions.
They are good questions and fine conversation starters too. In our often-hectic world, many people make the same “good mistakes” as me. As a result, these simple questions seem about time management seem timeless. English teachers can – and I’d suggest should – introduce these practical questions to their students. Business English teachers and workplace instructors, of course, frequently include entire lessons to personal time management skills. Letting students ask these questions and interview each other will also lead to interesting classroom conversations.
By the way, despite my last minute style, I was actually quite prepared. I quickly packed, arrived safely in Vietnam and lead an engaging workshop on creating autotelic materials for EFL students. Experience and expertise help – even on limited sleep!
This simple question has been posed twice in emails this week.
Both ESL students and teachers know that too many textbooks fail to engage readers. Yet rather than focusing on the many sins of the many boring textbooks, let’s focus on those few informative, practical, and interesting ESL books that we like.
Here is a quick, superficial, and by no means comprehensive list of English as a Second Language books that I personally have found successful in teaching English
Academic ESL/intensive English programs
Cambridge Vocabulary in Use series – An excellent supplemental text, especially for the more academically inclined. The self-contained two page format allows students, teachers, and tutors to pick and choose materials.
Cambridge Grammar in Use series – This series is the only grammar series that I’ve ever felt comfortable using in the classroom. Again, the accessible, clear format with self-contained lessons allows both self-study and effective use as a supplemental text.
Adult Education:
Side by Side – This classic series, now in its 3rd edition, particularly appeals to English language learners with limited literacy in their own best language. Given the appalling educational policies in some nearby poor countries, this textbook series has become extraordinarily popular in California and Texas.
Day by Day – Simple, clear communicative textbook for workplace instruction. Low intermediate- intermediate
Word by Word – This visual dictionary focuses on verbs, and shows English language learners how to describe their everyday activities in English. This book taught me the power of process descriptions to build language.
Oxford Picture Dictionary and workbook – excellent for beginning and intermediate English language learners. Some pages, inevitably, are more practical than other pages. Isn’t that always the case?
Writing
Writing Academic English, by Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, provides practical techniques for students planning to attend community college or university. I think the latest version is the fourth. I’ve used it in several programs with considerable success.
In Focus: Strategies for Academic Writers by Myra Ann Shulman, however, is my current choice for intermediate ESL students.
The clear, detailed exercises allow students to learn academic writing by actually writing short, focused pieces.
Any Longman Dictionary – For whatever reason, Longman dictionaries seem much more accessible and practical in their design than other series. I’m particularly impressed with their Business Dictionary for English Language Learners.
Speaking Skills: Giving Academic Presentations, by Susan Reinhart, stands heads and shoulders above the other ESL textbooks for public presentations. Students learn how to give clear, systematic oral presentations including problem-solution and process descriptions.
Communicating in Business by Simon Sweeney -Yet another outstanding Cambridge title, this Business English textbook includes helpful materials on nnegotiating and socializing as well as presenting.
Speak English Like an American by Amy Gillet. This fine book, which includes a strong CD, introduces over 300 American idioms in context. Engaging and informative, the bookis almost perfect for an idioms class.
Last, but not least, I naturally recommend Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics, by Toni Aberson and Eric Roth, as a supplemental text for advanced ESL classes, conversation clubs, and tutors.
Other special interest ESL books of quality.
Film is Content: A Study Guide for the Advanced ESL Classroom by Julia A. Williamson and Jill C. Vincent- This underappreciated University of Michigan textbook deserves a much wider audience. Although slightly dated, students learn critical thinking skills, academic vocabulary, and modern film.
The Creative Classroom: Teaching Language Outside the Box, by Hall Houston, contains dozens of bite-sized exercises to spark authentic language and creative discourse, This slim book, published by Lynx, should especially appeal to ESL students with a background or interest in engineering, science, and the arts.
What are your favorite ESL textbooks? What books have you enjoyed sharing with students? What books do you wish your ESL department, adult school, or language institute adopted? Why?
