How We Work- Blended Learning Approach

Methodology

We continue to improve our knowledge based on content and methodology. We train our teachers to make use of our blended learning strategy to teach languages:

• Customized content depending on each student's level of skills. The skills will regularly be examined and next weeks’ objectives will be jointly agreed between teacher and student or group.
• Our teacher is supported by our operations team and pedagogues with regards to methodology and materials. Different materials are used for face-to-face training and online training (virtual training with a live trainer).
• Eszett provides a large media library with thousands of documents to be used by the teacher to complement the lessons.

Learning with efficiency today means studying in a private class or in small groups. The methodology and teacher are chosen based on the specific needs of each student. This is depending on age, level, personal objectives, business sector and availability study at home. We offer a “blended learning approach,” which means that we work with digital media to complement the content taught.

Materials

The materials that may be used for a language training program are:

• Student’s materials:
  • Student’s book
  • Additional learning tools depending on the program needs, such as dictionaries, flash cards, etc.
• Complementary materials (grammar, audio exercises and videos)
  • From own trainer’s materials
  • From ESZETT’s media library, which contains:
    • Grammar content (theory and exercises)
    • Tests and exams models
    • Audio exercises
    • Lesson plans and course plans
    • Language games
    • Books and stories (mainly for children)
    • Field-trips ideas and examples
    • Role play examples
• For some vertical industries, when blended learning approach training is approved, Eszett has its own online self-paced courses. This course can be adapted to the specific needs of a customer
• Eszett students may work with the mobile app from our partner Babbel to individually improve their language skills

Our teachers

We choose our teachers with utmost care by the following criteria:

• Qualification in teaching
• Proven record of training given to foreign students
• Personal motivation and passion to teach the target language
• Outstanding feedbacks given by the students
• Qualifications enabling the use of state-of-the-art teaching methodologies (virtual classroom, online training, self-paced training)

Program Management

Eszett has absolute control and knowledge of the status of each language training program. This is key to keeping the program running smoothly.

Some milestones generate an action from ESZETT’s operations team, and these are metrics that we use to make sure we manage the program efficiently.

• Eszett Guarantees consistency of learning:

 We have the ability to replace the teacher with another teacher during holidays, illness or quarantine-caused absence, or other incompatibility of schedules. For example, when several students (groups) may want lessons at the exact same time (face-to-face or even some face-to-face and others online).

• Real-time transparency of progress:

We have a proprietary state-of-the-art reporting system, called Eszett Manager. This is the system where customers have access to a secure portal to check the exact number of hours done by each student/group, in real time.

Content focus

The language courses/training provided by ESZETT may focus on the following:

• Highly structured course with a large volume of grammar
• Conversation-based course
• Accent reduction course
• Pronunciation/conversational lessons
• Preparation for an official certificate
• Preparatory classes for business meetings
• Day-to-day language usage course
• Immersion/intensive course
• Refresher course
• Business language course
• Specific objective language course: presentation preparation, meeting preparation, etc.

Blended Learning Approach Objectives

Our process to choose the most appropriate materials for a student or a group os students is:

• Prior to the start of the lessons, Eszett’s teacher and Language Program Coordinator discuss with the student to understand the needs and expectations in more detail. For example, the preference of learning method, face-to-face versus virtual language training, etc.
• During the first lesson with the trainer, the student will provide more details about their expectations of usage of the language. This includes business, shopping, office, friends, and hobbies.
• The trainer comes to the first lesson prepared with materials for different levels.
• Joint agreement between students and teacher on the learning goals – based on the teachers experienced judgement of the student's skills.
• Based on the steps above and after the first lesson, the trainer, together with Eszett’s team, can prepare the lesson plans for the rest of the training program. Also, choose the most adequate materials and student’s books for the training.
• Eszett has preferred materials (books) for each language/level. However, the exact book is chosen depending on the student's skills and on the specific needs of the language training.

Learning modalities

When defining the course plan, Eszett takes into account the four learning modalities. This dependins on the student’s preferred way of grasping new information: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, and tactile.

Our teachers may use videos, graphics and images for visual learners; storytelling, conversations, songs and verbal repetition for auditory learners; role plays and field trips with the kinaesthetic learners; and moving, building and touching objects, using board and card games with tactile learners.

The goal is to develop the four traditional skills of language learning which are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Depending on the goals and objectives of each learner gathered in an initial assessment, we may focus more on one skill or another, and we also adapt the materials.

Conveying the language culture

All of our courses focus on cultural awareness. For instructor-led courses (both virtual language training and face-to-face language training) most of our trainers have the experience of living in a different country. That brings value to the language training (especially when dealing with expatriates).

Our teachers include culture tips and comparisons during the lessons. They have very good knowledge of other cultures, including politics, religion and customs. It becomes natural to explain the differences between the home country culture and the host country culture, both at a personal level and at a business level.

In the self-directed courses, the culture component goes from simple settings (the dialogues and example sentences including cultural characteristics), to explaining cultural differences explicitly (e.g. how to tip in different countries, how to be polite in different cultures, etc.), to a general cultural awareness over our whole product, focusing on diversity and its benefits.

Feedback

Quality is mostly measured by the feedback provided by the students. We request feedback:

• Immediately following the first lesson: this feedback exposes any potential issues during the early stages of the training.
• If everything goes well, we request feedback from both the trainer and student a few times during the training program.
• At the end of the training, we collect the student feedback by asking them to score the training from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). This will then be shared with the client.

The questions asked during the feedback concern:

• Trainer punctuality
• Trainer lesson preparation
• Suitability of the materials provided to the student
• Adaptability of teaching methods to the student’s needs

Each of the above items can be scored from 1 to 5 (5 represents “very satisfactory”). We use this metric to assess the quality and reliability of each trainer.

Additionally, other subjective metrics regarding the trainers are:

• Easiness to work with
• Speed to answer our requests
• How quickly they invoice us
• How quickly they report any potential issue with the student 
• Quality of the reports provided by the trainers

We aim to only work with teachers that score an average of 4 out of 5 or higher. If the score is below 4, we investigate why, and in many cases, do not continue to assign that teacher to future students. On average, our score is 4.7 out of 5.