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A Word about
Methodology
All of the courses offered by
English by the Hour are created for non-native speakers of English. They are
1-1 sessions with a Personal Coach designed to achieve results quickly and
create transformational change using the 4 core areas of Communicative
Competence: Grammatical, Discourse, Socio-linguistic, and Strategic. The
materials are customized to match the individual’s needs, goals, and
abilities.
All of the courses are short, directed and to-the-point. The classes are
focused on results and achievement. Theory is used but only as a segue to practice. All skills and techniques learned are
practiced throughout the course.
Courses are intended to empower participants to be successful rather than to
rely on the instructor or other native speakers. For this reason, resources
and techniques are emphasized so that the participant understands how to
continue to progress after the course has ended.
Courses are typically 10 sessions in length, one hour each, once per week for
10 weeks. The Advanced American Accent Acquisition Course is 5 sessions.
After each course, the student has the option to continue at an hourly rate
in the subject matter of the course as often as s/he feels the need to
reinforce the new patterns and insure that progress is being made.
American Accent
Acquisition Course – 10 sessions
Learn to Speak with Confidence!
Course Outline: This course starts with a
linguistic evaluation based on a verbal diagnosis of free speaking, reading
text, and reading a dialogue. Based on the evaluation, key areas of focus are
determined (both segmental and suprasegmental) to
include: pronunciation of individual vowels and consonants, word stress
patterns, and intonation patterns, as well as rhythm, linking, articulation
and resonance exercises, and breath work. The intent is to develop an accent
as close to a standard regional American accent, characteristic of Midwestern
or California speakers.
The three areas of focus include:
Pronunciation of
individual vowels and consonants:
- Learn
the International Phonetic Alphabet
- Practice
articulating both long and short vowels
- Learn
how to pronounce consonants in all environments: initial, medial, and
final
- Tongue
twisters & articulation exercises
- Breath
exercises
Word stress patterns:
- Rules
of both English and foreign-derived words
- Dividing
words into syllables
- Syllable
length
- Stressed
and unstressed syllables
- Word
form stress shift patterns
- Nouns,
adjectives & adverbs vs. verbs
- Compound
nouns
Intonation, rhythm, and linking:
- Neutral
or “unmarked” patterns for statements and questions
- Contrastive
stress and usage
- Content
vs. function words
- Rhythm
and linking
- Word
clustering/grouping and Powerful Pauses
Most importantly: transfer and error correction
techniques and exercises to support change!
The course includes a
book, a Guide to Speaking American English with Clarity & Confidence
and 4 audio CDs, customized to address the individual issues of the client.
Advanced
American Accent Acquisition Course – 5 sessions
Continue to Speak with Confidence!
Prerequisite: The 10 session American Accent
Acquisition course is required prior to taking the Advanced course.
Course Outline: This
course is designed to follow the first accent reduction course. It includes more specific phonetic
exercises designed to address core problem areas non-native speakers face,
air flow exercises for continuant sounds, advanced word stress and vocabulary
work, and more in depth intonation patterns, as well as an opportunity to get
continued feedback on self-correction and transfer of techniques learned in
the first course.
Topics include:
- Contrastive
vowel articulation exercises
- Words
spelled the same way but pronounced differently
- Exercises
to distinguish voiced and voiceless continuants, as in words like “another
or suspicious”.
- In-depth
post-vocalic /l/ and /r/ exercises
- Pronunciation
of US states & cities
- Pronunciation
of country names worldwide
- Word
stress exercises for multi-syllabic words and word families
- Advanced
Intonation Patterns & Dialoging
Delivering
a Presentation in American English – 5 sessions
Deliver with Confidence!
Prerequisite: It
is strongly recommended that participants take the 10 session American Accent
Acquisition course first.
Course Outline: This
course is a powerful short course in how to deliver a presentation to an
audience. The participant prepares each part before the session, which may be
one or two weeks apart, and then comes to the sessions prepared to discuss
the material or present his or her presentation to the personal coach. The
coach then works with the participant to determine intent, message, delivery,
and communication style, providing feedback and suggestions where necessary.
The goal is for the participant to feel comfortable and confident in
presenting in front of an audience in American English.
Session 1: Exploration & Clarification: Assess areas of concern and
interest, including strengths and weaknesses as a speaker, and take an in
depth look at audience, content, delivery, requirements, and expectations.
Session 2: Presentation Practice: The client delivers the presentation so that the coach can
point out patterns in his/her speech, make suggestions, give feedback,
clarify issues, and help the client to apply techniques and strategies
learned in Accent training to presentations.
Session 3: Content, Structure & Wording: The coach helps the client
to work on specific problem areas in language used, choosing correct wording,
focusing on pronunciation and usage, talking freely without reading the
presentation, and using clear transitional language with a variety of
options.
Session 4: Delivery: Continued
practice and feedback gives the client another opportunity to practice the
introduction, body and conclusion of the presentation, delivering points with
clarity of intent, image, and voice quality, receiving feedback and
suggestions and adjusting to incorporate best practices and correct
repetitive errors.
Session 5: Next Steps: The coach helps the client to
apply concepts, techniques, and strategies learned to improve comfort and
confidence in presenting in general, responding in a Q&A, and dealing
with challenges, fears, or problem areas, as well as identifying best
practices for continued improvement and practice.
Business
Conversations through Roleplaying – 10 sessions
Anticipate the obstacles and practice your speaking strategies!
Course Outline: This course is a structured approach to having
conversations in the workplace. The student works 1-1 with the instructor to
explore a variety of topics that are likely to come up in the workplace in a
variety of environments from the boardroom to the lunchroom. Topics may
include sales conversations, manager to employee conversations, meeting
conversations, negotiations, dealing with arguments, inappropriate
behavior-stopping, or encouragement discussions. Strategies on how to deal
with difficult topics and difficult people will be practiced, as well as how
to say these things in American English effectively and clearly! Students
have the opportunity to be on both sides of the conversation.
Roleplay environments may include:
- Formal
Meetings
- Informal
Meetings
- Business
Discussions
- School
Discussions
- Recreation
- Social
Events
- Sales
Conversations
- Talking
to your Boss
Possible Topics may
include:
- Negotiation
- Helping
a Problem Employee
- Voicing
a Difficult Problem
- Reporting
an Issue
- Collaborating
with Others
- Being
Heard in a Meeting
- Getting
Recognized
- Asking
for something
- Refusing
to do something
- Approaching
someone
- Getting
someone to Stop
- Getting
someone to Help
The cultural components of each
topic will be discussed as well as other elements that arise during the roleplays. The student will have the opportunity to play
both his/her role “in real life” as well as the role of the other person.
After each role play, the instructor and the student will have a dialogue
about what occurred, including relevant points of
English (pronunciation or structure) and strategy to improve the conversation
or devices take it in a different direction linguistically.
The goal of this course
is to empower the participant to feel that s/he is in control of any
conversation and can voice what s/he wants to say clearly and effectively in
a culturally-acceptable way.
American
English in the Workplace - 10 sessions
Structures, Expressions & Style in Common Usage
Course Outline: This course is designed to follow
accent modification. It focuses on areas of speech as they relate to the
workplace. This encompasses the grammatical structures commonly used in
speech, as well as idiomatic expressions that have a figurative meaning, and
subjective areas of speech, such as style, level of formality, and
communicative approach. The program is designed to help non-native speakers
of American English feel more comfortable and confident when speaking
one-on-one in person or by phone or in teleconferences, in meetings, social
gatherings, or challenging workplace situations.
Prerequisite: This course follows
accent modification. A knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA), word stress patterns, neutral intonation patterns, and use of breath
and air flow is expected.
This course is 10 sessions in length
and includes the following topics:
- Common structures of
expression
- Idioms & expressions
- How verb tense creates nuances
in meaning
- Alternative expressions:
gerunds vs. infinitives, tone & style
- Roleplay dialogs
- Mechanics: prepositions &
phrasal verbs, article usage, and integrating new expressions
- Small talk and making
conversation
- Reinforcement of accent
modification concepts
- Communicative approaches
- What to say in bad situations
- Asking questions and speaking
in meetings
Personalized 1-1 sessions with the
instructor provide the opportunity for the participant to ask specific
questions, gain risk-free practice using new structures and expressions in
various situations, and explore alternative forms of expression. This also
allows for introspection to discover which style, tone, structures and
expressions are appropriate in a variety of diverse workplace situations.
This course includes a manual with exercises to reinforce concepts.
Each one hour session consists of a
discussion on one or more of the above topics, along with the opportunity to relate
the concepts to a specific workplace situation. Roleplays
allow the participant to experiment with new approaches and strategies and
get feedback. Participants are also encouraged to bring specific situations
or language examples from the workplace to discuss with their personal coach.
The goal of this course is for the
participant to leave feeling empowered to have discussions with any number of
people in a variety of situations and environments with comfort and
confidence level necessary to communicate effectively.
Vocabulary
Building Course – 10 sessions
Increase your Vocabulary by 1000 words in 2 months!
Course Outline: Participants
increase their vocabulary in their field of choice by identifying the body of
vocabulary they want to focus on and then preparing word lists from their
readings that include pronunciation (using the International Phonetic
Alphabet or IPA) for each session. In addition, the instructor provides word
lists in context with examples for practice during the session. The student
chooses the most relevant words and expressions to move from their “passive”
to their “active” vocabulary each week. All of the words are kept in one
“growing” document or database that the student can easily access for review.
Fields of Choice:
- General
- Academic
- Medical
- Scientific
- Computer-related
- Legal
- Political
- Economic
- Business
- Real
Estate
- Specialized
(industry)
All new words are
discussed in the following manner:
- pronunciation
(if you can’t say the word, you won’t use it)
- discussion
of meaning in various venues --- identifying all related word forms
(including plurals, past tenses, gerunds, and adjective and adverbial)
- common
collocations & idioms (literal & figurative meanings)
- usage
– example sentences
- selection
of words to migrate from “passive” to “active”
- speaking
and writing assignments that involve using the new words in context
Students are encouraged to keep a
“running lists” of words they hear others use in the media and at work to add
to their “growing list” of new vocabulary words.
For each session, the student brings an article (2 copies to write on, one
for the student and one for the instructor). The student should have read the
article before coming to the session and highlighted at least 10 words for
the “growing list”. Together with the instructor, 10 words will be discussed
(as described above) and added to the “growing list” of vocabulary words.
Words from the article or from the “running list” of words the student hears
during the week may be selected. The instructor will also provide the student
with an exercise or an article with an additional 10 words to add to the
list. It is the student’s responsibility to keep the master list and to bring
a copy of the 10+ words highlighted in an article of the student’s choosing
for use at each session.
This allows the student to select 200 root/key words for learning from
his/her preferred area. Since the student will not only be learning the word
as it appears in the text, but also the word in typically 5 additional forms,
the 200 key words becomes 1000 words for new usage.
Focused
Grammar & Writing Skills
Make dramatic improvement with personal coaching in just 10 Weeks!
Course Outline: This
course is a practical one for adults who want to improve their writing. The
first step is to identify what types of writing the individual wants to
improve. To do this, s/he chooses from a list of options. Once the type of
writing is selected, the instructor acts as a “coach” to enable the student to
progress rapidly towards the goal. Each session requires the student to come
prepared with a writing sample, either created for the class or from his/her
work environment. Grammar issues that surface in the student’s writing are
addressed by the instructor, and the rest of the class is spent editing and
discussing the style and structure of the writing sample. The instructor
looks for areas to “coach” the student in to improve both style and
structure.
Writing Types to select:
- Academic
(essays, thesis, dissertation)
- Business
(emails, reports, letters, proposals)
- Creative
(stories, articles, journal)
A half an hour of each session is
devoted to the discussion of grammatical concepts as they apply to the
students writing. This may include handouts on various topics with examples,
and discussions with the student of what the instructor sees as areas to
focus on in the student’s writing in terms of structure.
Following the
grammatical portion of the session, the instructor collaborates with the
student to work on a given writing “assignment” that the student has brought
with him or her. This could be an email, report, proposal or business letter
if the business category is selected. If academic, it could be an essay or
any stage or a research paper, term paper, masters thesis or doctoral dissertation. If
creative, the student will work on different types of creative writing
assignments. This may include fictional writing, with work on character
development, plot or theme development, climax, and denouement. Other topics
could be non-fiction articles or journal writing (with a focus on writing
comfortably in English).
Each session focuses on different grammatical and stylistic concepts that
support the writing type and style the student needs to use to be effective
in the chosen category. Sessions are interactive with the goal of asking
questions to stimulate creative thinking and application of traditional and
modern ideas to the study of writing. Understanding one’s audience and one’s
primary goals/intent, as well as discovering the proper tone and style to fit
one’s message are topics of discussion.
The student is encouraged to try new and difficult structures as well as
styles and approaches that may be challenging or confusing in order to gain
the most insight and personal growth from the course.
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