Transform your approach to teaching language.

Teaching English is not easy.  But when you find your way and you see your students and clients progress quickly...

It's exhilarating. That might sound dramatic, but from my 20 years of language training that have led to creating this course, it's true.  But I can't say I started off well. In my first term teaching  ESL, I used the book they gave me.  My goal was to go as quickly as possible, as if that meant success. (I wish I could go back and apologize to that class!)  Spoiler alert: finishing the exercises in a workbook does not constitute success.  Shortly thereafter, I also taught an advanced class, where I noticed all of the basic errors that the advanced students were making.  How could this be?  Well, the short answer is that they were being pushed ahead to the next level just because they came to class, did the assignments, and....[cough] filled in the blanks for a teacher who followed a book.  I charted a different path immediately.

Non-native speakers come to us with a clear need, and it can be overwhelming to have a class with mixed levels and different language backgrounds. To be effective can feel like an impossible task. 

Take the mystery out of language training.

Worrying about whether you're really helping your student is normal, and I know it well.  Rest assured that it is a healthy worry because it means that your students' progress really matter to you.

I do believe that conscientious English language instructors tend to underpay themselves. Dedicated teachers who don't just turn the textbook page frequently find themselves spending just as much time preparing a lesson and activities as they do teaching the class. When you're making an hourly wage teaching, as is often the case, it can seem you like you're working for minimum wage with all the hours put in for preparation.  That's what I mean by underpaying yourself.

Utilizing my class time more efficiently and effectively took a lot of work. I put in a great deal of thought, experimentation, practice, and adjustment. Because of that time and effort invested, I can go into any classroom on a moment's notice, and those students will want me back the next day. And the same will happen for you.   Why? Because your students or clients know that they're practicing what they need to practice. They're not sitting around waiting for others to finish some random workbook exercise.  They're not waiting to be called on every 5 minutes for an answer.  That old method, if we can even call it a method, needs to be retired.  

Our time and capacity is finite, so you shouldn't underpay yourself by constantly creating and searching for class materials.

There has to be a better way.

My a-ha moment--that speaking is a physical act that requires a tremendous amount of intentional practice--came quickly to me because I played basketball in high school and college.  (In college, the truth is that I got keep that bench warm, but that's another story...)

Don't worry, you don't have to be from a sports background to follow this analogy.  It's the same as music, or dance. Imagine if you took violin lessons. You don’t move on to more complicated songs when you don’t have a good violin tone.  But oddly that's what so many instructors do with language. They move on to the next chapter when the students don't have the basics down.  (For the record, I played the French horn for ten years. Spoiler alert #2: if you don't sound good, it doesn't matter how many songs you go through!)  

Imagine if I were showing you how to shoot a basketball with good form. You memorize the steps: balance, focus where your eyes are looking, keep your elbow in line, and follow through.  What if you memorized those, and then you took a quiz on paper where you wrote about the steps, and then you took 5 practice shots in the gym.  How good would your shot be? Would you feel confident?

That’s how language has been taught for a long time.  There is almost no practical meaningful volume of practice in class.  Book publishers have to sell books, but have their editions changed much from year to year? There aren't nearly enough exercises, and those exercises are a one-time deal.

Think like a trainer. Think like a coach. Your students need to take thousands of "shots", and they need to do so in a way that builds accuracy and confidence.

You can save yourself the stress of figuring it out.  I’ve spent over 10,000 hours developing a logical, flexible, effective system that can make your teaching experience so much more rewarding. I'm sure you can experience the same "click" I had and approach teaching ESL / EFL differently. Implement what you learn here, and you'll never go back to "The School of Next Page."

The Language Sport is a system for teaching English language learners to speak accurately in a much shorter amount of time. This online course is designed to be easy to understand and follow, even for those with no prior experience teaching English to speakers of other languages. With a logical, flexible, effective language training system in place, you will transform your teaching so that your students and clients will consistently recommend you.