Are you looking for online English classes?
But having a hard time knowing which school or company to choose?
At a glance, most companies might look the same.
But apart from the prices, there are methodologies and other areas that differ.
Wanna find out more?
An example of an online English class
What’s a typical online English class like with us?
We’ll tell you all about it!
In these examples, we’ll outline what MOST classes are like. Having said that, we are all humans and everyone has their own style of teaching languages.
Also, not all groups or business professionals are the same.
We adapt to your company and needs.
Table of Contents
BEFORE YOUR FIRST CLASS
Before we start your in-company, or online English classes, we like to clarify as much as possible.
These are the 8 most important points that our teachers wrote down.
1. We focus on Business English
We only teach adults. We don’t do traditional classroom teaching with big groups.
Our language agency specialises in company classes and business professionals.
Most lessons will relate to the business world and real work-life situations.
Let’s look at an example.
If you work in HR and the class is about how to give opinions at work, we’ll ask you to think of your workplace.
You’ll keep that in mind as you practice how to sound confident expressing yourself in public, in English.
2. An hour, or 90 minutes, is the most common
How many hours should you do per week?
Depends.
1. Want quick results?
One hour a week is not enough. You either need more hours or study outside the class. Further down we’ll explain why the homework route mostly isn’t realistic for companies.
2. Is your goal to get used to speaking in English? And continuously improve your level? One hour is fine.
3. How much time can you spare?
You can get a LOT more done during a 90 minutes class, compared to one hour.
Two hours in one go can be a bit long. But it’s totally doable.
What we recommend for those classes is a 4-minute break. Run to get a coffee, jump in to the bathroom, or get a sip of water as your mouth will be dry after TALKING so much 🙂
Most companies do one hour or 90 minutes per week.
It’s better to do one hour and stick with the schedule (attending each class).
If you’re too busy at work and can’t dedicate two days per week you’ll just constantly miss class.
You can also schedule extra classes as your workload decreases.
3. Max five people
If you divide 60 minutes, you’ll see why we recommend a max of 5 of your employees in one class.
To keep it dynamic, and make sure that everyone speaks regularly, we keep the groups small.
Now, chances are that we can’t divide your employees into perfect groups of five.
While we take pride in being flexible, we do not mix levels.
Years of experience has shown us that it slows everybody down. And our job is to get you to speak better English.
Quality matters.
4. Most classes are in the morning
We always do the classes when YOU want.
Pick a day and a time and our teachers will connect online, or go to your office.
We recommend asking your employees before deciding. If you can’t ask everybody, ask four or five people to think about what the OTHER coworkers would like.
When would they be most motivated to do classes? What happens if you schedule the class during their lunch break? Do they have the energy for a class late afternoon?
Need to cancel a class because you’re traveling? Totally fine, we’ll reschedule it. Just give us a 24-hour heads up.
5. We do our best to keep the same teacher
We recommend using the same teacher for the full course, if possible.
He or she will gradually learn more and more about how you best learn.
This means the classes will be more efficient.
- What grammar mistakes do you repeat?
- Are you better at speaking in the past tense?
- How is that pronunciation coming along?
As a teacher, it’s amazing to follow the evolution as a student develops their language level. Many kind of become our friends.
And let me tell you, it fills our hearts with pride (and our tears with joy!) when we read the online Google reviews our students leave for us.
If you have a specific need we can also use other teachers ad-hoc.
I.e. listening to different accents, a workshop to speak in public, pronunciation techniques, etc.
6. Most teachers know another language
As a teacher, when you know another language, it makes you more humble.
When you have first-hand experience of how hard it is to learn, you grow as an educator.
It’s not a must.
But as our business expands, more often than not we end up hiring someone with a second language.
The classes are of course held in English, by native teachers.
But sometimes it helps to be able to throw in a word in let’s say Spanish when a student is stuck. It gets the class faster on track.
And for lower levels, knowing the basics of their native language simplifies things.
7. Native experts in teaching Business English
Thousands of teaching hours mean our native teachers know what works.
And what doesn’t.
We use their minimum of 10 years of experience to improve your English in the quickest way possible.
Business English is a bit more challenging to teach. This is why are picky about who we hire.
8. Prices
Our prices are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive.
We are probably somewhere in the middle compared to other language schools.
The final price for our English classes depend on:
- Total hours of class contracted
- Number of groups (i.e. number of students divided into groups)
- Online or in-company classes, physically traveling to your office
- Subsidies up to 100% of the price are available depending on where your company is based.
We keep classes small.
We pay above average rates to work with the most experienced business English teachers.
We compete on quality.
Not price.
DURING CLASS
Right, so you’ve decided on a time to do online English classes.
One of our teachers is ready to boost your level!
What normally happens during class?
1. We use any online platform
While Zoom is the most popular platform among our students, we use them all.
Google Meet, Skype, Teams…
2. We'll ask how YOU learn best
Some students have it clear.
Others need some help to detect it, as we all learn in different ways.
What works for you?
- Writing down new vocabulary and knowledge boosts learning according to research.
- Others need to repeat a word or phrase many times. Do it out loud, mumble it as you silence your mic, or in your head.
- Some memorise new vocabulary by remembering a whole phrase. The context makes it “stickier” and helps your brain.
- Others are visual learners. Reading the grammar explanation, or seeing new vocabulary spelled out, helps their skills.
- Short videos are great to sharpen your listening skills and start conversations.
As we keep the same teacher for the full course, we track the progress of each student.
3. Your sector and profession are the starting point
It’s not the same to be a salesperson as a technical engineer.
You might want, or need to focus on different aspects.
- We’ll ask you for examples from your everyday professional life.
- You’ll visualise how you can use a word or phrase at work.
- We’ll use industry jargon. It will help you communicate better with your international coworkers.
- We’ll practice stuff you can say at industry fairs, online events, meetings, etc.
- New buzzwords and trends.
- Company news, challenges, changes, etc. that arise throughout the English course.
4. We insist on students SPEAKING
Priority number one is to get you used to speaking in English.
Without fear.
Without feeling embarrassed.
Confidence matters.
It doesn’t matter if you’re learning English from scratch, or if you’re an advanced learner.
Once you say two words, we’ll get you to say three. And once you’ve said “Good morning”, we’ll challenge you in different ways to keep the conversation going.
Many students go from being shy in class, to us literally stopping them to get their coworkers to talk too.
5. We take notes...
We have a secret notebook where we write down key things that happen during class!
Well, it might not be that secret.
But it’s full of relevant key points from today’s lesson.
- Anna needs help with pronouncing words that begin with s. She is Spanish and adds an “e” sound before the s. Stop turns into “estop”.
- David was tired and unusually quiet. That’s fine. He’ll get more talk time next week.
- Javier has a big presentation in three weeks and is nervous. Next class: techniques to speak confidently in English in public!
We regularly analyse the students to adjust the course.
Do they need more vocabulary lessons? Improve their listening skills? Grammar..?
What works well for this group?
We’ll do more of it!
6. We try to make the classes fun!
Perhaps fun is a strong word.
But we do believe that the reasons behind our success come from making the classes enjoyable.
Something that works for one group might not work with others. One person is very serious, the other is the class clown.
The challenge is to make the English class enjoyable for EVERYBODY.
This starts with creating a nice working climate during the course.
Our goal is always for students to:
- WANT to show up to class (we do understand that other work-related issues can take priority)
- FEEL that they are learning and improving their English level.
7. We ask for input
We always keep an ear to the ground.
- If we know that Anna from sales has a big presentation, we’ll ask her if she wants to do a short presentation next week. A great way to practice her skills.
- If an industry fair is coming up, we’ll ask how they would like us to help them prepare.
- If David from finance is preparing templates, he might want to revise two emails in class. He then makes sure that the English is 100% correct. One of his colleagues will start! And we’ll finish it together.
This is also an opportunity for colleagues to get a glimpse of what’s going on in other parts of your company.
It’s like an online water cooler conversation. It creates companionship, a we-feeling.
And we might take turns in getting the students to pick the topic for next week’s online class. What would you like to learn?
This is how we also end up learning as we investigate the topics that students bring up.
You want to talk about Artificial Intelligence Trends in Fintech?
You got it.
AFTER CLASS
OK, so today’s English lesson is over.
But our work hasn’t finished just yet.
We always revise our notes and plan ahead for next week’s class.
But we also do a few more things:
1. Ad-hoc follow-up
Repetition is key to learning.
- Many times we send a short email after the classes. Anna will get a link to our pronunciation tips. We’ll suggest practicing saying sssssssss and then continue with the rest of the word. For example sssssspanish and ssssstop (instead of espanish and estop). Then say it quicker and quicker, until the “e” sound at the beginning is gone.
- Some companies start a WhatsApp group to keep in touch outside of class.
- We are happy to answer random questions that might come up in between classes.
- Or quickly revise a short, important, email.
- Some companies use a shared Google drive. Materials and lessons are stored here, together with notes, vocabulary and grammar themes.
Our goal is to sharpen your language skills.
2. Homework?
We’re not huge fans of homework.
Why not?
Well, while it is true that homework speeds up your learning curve, it can also kill the enthusiasm. Working full-time is exhausting in itself.
We’ve even had students who didn’t show up to class because they hadn’t done their homework.
Ouch.
That slows the learning curve DOWN while learning a new language.
Our goal is to get you, and your fellow coworkers to speak better English. Hence, we pick the strategy that works best.
If we see that Anna is eager to do exercises to improve her pronunciation, we’ll send her a link. It’s her choice if she does them, or not.
Or we’ll suggest watching an English-speaking Netflix series. One with an adequate difficulty level.
Cause you can’t call Netflix homework.. right? Come on, we’ll even let you use subtitles in your own language!
3. Progress Report
Apart from the ad-hoc emails with feedback, your teacher will update you on your progress.
This is one of the biggest advantages of keeping the same teacher.
We can also send a mini progress report so your company gets an overview.
An attendance report is regularly sent to HR. Or whoever is organising the online language course. We can use your reporting format.
4. Online tips and articles
Apart from the tips and tricks we send, we encourage our business students to follow us on social media.
Or follow other teachers!
This increases your exposure to the language.
- Related article: The 10 Best Websites To Learn English
What if my goal is a certification like TOEFL or IELTS?
We do offer courses if you’re interested in getting a Cambridge certificate, TOEFL, IELTS, etc.
Our approach will be slightly different.
We’ll design the course and each class with a common goal. For you to pass the exam and get the certificate you so badly want!
Depending on the certificate, we’ll focus more on:
- listening
- writing skills
- grammar
- vocabulary
- etc.
Getting an English certification, generally speaking, requires a bigger effort from the student.
Starting with NOT using subtitles as you watch your next Netflix series in English 🙂
Are you interested in our online English classes?
Or perhaps you have more questions about our courses?
We hope this overview helped you understand what it’s like to learn a language with us at Nativos.
Our methodology is always the same.
It doesn’t matter if you learn English, Italian, French, Spanish or any other language.
We’d be more than happy to arrange a quick call.
Or give references from other companies in your sector, area, etc.
Get in touch!
- Related article: 10 fun ways to practice English in Barcelona
Nativos Languange Consultants
We’ve been getting professionals to speak better English since 2000.
At Nativos we offer corporate training, translations, and language consultancy services.
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