COURSE INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT

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TWO IMPORTANT NOTES:

1) If students are not yet comfortable with understanding English, they can use the “Language” tab found in the "Review" dropdown menu of any Microsoft document to translate into their preferred language. Translating one sentence or one paragraph at a time is highly recommended for greater understanding and learning of the English context. To view this particular document in an AI translated version of Chinese, Spanish, Korean, or French, click on the appropriate link below:
 

• 如果您是英語語言能力有限的人，並且會說繁體中文，請按下下面的連結以獲取以您自己的語言提供的說明，瞭解如何免費開始此沉浸式英語語言培訓計劃。
   

• Si usted es una persona con habilidades limitadas en el idioma inglés, que habla español, haga clic en el enlace a continuación para obtenestrcciones en su propio idioma sobre cómo puede comenzar este programa inmersivo de capacitación en inglés de forma gratuita.
   

• Si vous êtes une personne avec des compétences limitées en anglais, qui parle Français, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous pour obtenir des instructions dans votre propre langue sur la façon dont vous pouvez commencer ce programme immersif de formation en anglais gratuitement.
   

•  국어를 구사하는 영어 실력이 부족한 사람이라면 아래 링크를 클릭하여 이 몰입형 영어 교육 프로그램을 무료로 시작하는 방법에 대한 지침을 확인하십시오.
   

2) Rather than simply reading the information below, language students will benefit greatly by using the “immersive reader” feature found in the View dropdown menu of the Microsoft Word document. They can learn more about the various options of this feature by typing “immersive reader” in the search bar of the Help tab. Using this feature will help them learn to hear the pronunciations and the contextual development of the words and topics presented.

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~ THIS BUSINESS COURSE AS A LANGUAGE ACQUSION STRATEGY ~

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• Globally, approximately 25 percent of us trace our homeland to China, 23 percent to India, 17 percent to other parts of Asia and the Pacific, 18 percent to Europe, 10 percent to Africa, 7 percent to the Americas.
   

• This business course is designed to be used as a primary source for conversational practice within an overall English language acquisition strategy. It is a business course for young adult learners who are old enough to study Career and Technical Education at a third- or fourth-year high school or a Junior College level (visit my CTE website for related information). Adult learners who want to independently study English to enhance their career or entrepreneurial conversations will also benefit from this course.
   

• This language acquisition course is meant to be a total immersion experience.  Students are encouraged to transfer over to that mode of learning as soon as they can comfortably do so. It is taught in the context of Business English for ESL Students and Entrepreneurs who are interested in gaining knowledge of how to use English as a global business language in organizational and strategic business settings. I have written and presented all strategic business lessons as if the learner were one of a group of native English speakers. Specific attention to a student's individual language learning needs is reserved for regularly scheduled one-on-one conversations with the instructor.
   

• The guidance provided on this website is primarily intended for students with an intermediate to advanced command of the English language. However, as the instructor, I am willing to adjust the mentoring approach for beginning students in individual cases which will be predetermined at the discretion of the instructor through a special application process.
   

• The English literacy strategies (oracy, reading, writing, and metalanguage) outlined in this course can be reviewed in the three mastery packets, Vocabulary, Phonology, and Pragmatics, available on this website.  Each skill packet will be integrated with both the grammatical and pragmatic concepts of language acquisition and communicative competence that are parts of the total package of language literacy.
   

• Along with being study resources that are referred to in the various lesson modules, the Mastery Packets are designed to facilitate self-directed interest in the finer points of formal language structure and understanding.

 

~MY TEACHING TECHNIQUE~

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                                My name is Gary Rowley. My previous academic background is a Bachelor’s degree in International      

                                Business Administration and a Master’s of Education with an emphasis in English as Second Language 

                                (ESL). I am currently finalizing additional graduate work in Career and Technical Education (CTE). I am not a conventional instructor.

 

I consider myself a conversational coach who uses CTE course subjects for conversational context. My technique for teaching English as a Second language will not involve the usual classroom setting of teacher-to-student lecture because the primary classroom for my students, especially those taking an online course, should be each student’s own Private Learning Environment (PLE). To better understand the PLE concept and other concepts taught in this course, it (they) should be searched on the student’s preferred search engine. The key to this entire learni process will be the student’s individually motivated self-study within an individually created PLE.

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I will provide an immersive language environment by not changing the way I would normally write or speak. Students are encouraged to have an online dictionary bookmarked and to make extensive use of the Microsoft learning tools mentioned in the second note above so they can listen to and study the unfamiliar words they will most likely encounter in this course. I also provide suggested guided activities and study resources which can be used by students to prepare for group interactions (classroom and online) and for their one-on-one conversations with me.

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I do not give formal exams. My only means to assess student learning will be the pragmatic handshake we are able to negotiate in our privately scheduled conversations. The students will be able to grade themselves (and me) according to the degree of increased conversational and written confidence they obtain as result of communicating with me and others about the things taught in this course. I will coach their learning process by reviewing the documents or recordings they submit, as well as through individually scheduled phone conversations.

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Students in a formal classroom setting at a brick-and-mortar institution can use my course/website as a resource for scholarly comparison of notes and ideas with peers, or to come together in group or team configurations for the online simulation challenges which I sponsor.

 

In order to provide individual progress assessments, I will use the bulk of my daily six-hour office time conducting one-on-one conversations with my students around the seven business concepts presented in this course.

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~STRENGTHENING  LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THROUGH VOCABULARY~
 

Language is made up of words that are used to communicate intent and negotiate understanding. Therefore, the primary importance of vocabulary to the process of language learning cannot be understated. From my perspective as the instructor of this course, vocabulary is more than a topically defined word, it is an asset that enhances the value of a person’s interactive discourse with the world around them. It is the foundation of communicative competence, which is the main goal of successful language acquisition.
 

The vocabulary we will focus on in this course will be business related. If they prefer, students can choose to use subjects taught in their school’s Career and Technical Education curriculum as conversational topics, then I will coach them in how using the English presented in this course can help them to develop an entrepreneurial and a financially meaningful approach to their chosen skill.
 

I would like to emphasize the following points about vocabulary development and course content:
 

1. In the first video, , I introduce a graphic depicting the concepts and related vocabulary words that are taught in this course. This comprehensive introduction will lay the groundwork for grammatical and pragmatic understanding of the English language.
    

2. There is a difference between grammatical competence and pragmatic competence. Working (course) definitions of each are:
    

   • - the appropriate use of rules relating to forming clauses, phrases and words into sentences for the purpose of creating comprehensible structure in the usage of a given natural language.
      

   • – The 2-way communicative process of negotiating intended understanding between parties.  Pragmatics relates to the presence of contextual meaning in a communicative effort for the purpose of conveying intent and interactively navigating varying levels of respectable understanding as well as competent reaction.
      

1. There is a relationship between Vocabulary study and Phonetics that will intrinsically reveal itself through the relationship of both in the development of pragmatic language choices.
    

2. Although I emphasize vocabulary as a main part of the grammatical aspect of second language acquisition, it is also essential as a starting point for both pragmatics and phonetics for the following reason: In order to begin the process of conversational negotiation, one must have an established lexicon of well understood words that relate to the jargon of their conversational target. The choice, construct, and usage of words as well as the pragmatic implication of their contextual usage is critical to this process.
    

3. I have provided a study note below on the importance of vocabulary. Students are encouraged to use their preferred search engine to develop a list of similar links and notes that they can place in the course files they will be making.
    

4. At this point I would like to remind students that since this is a business-related English course, vocabulary selection and conceptual presentations will be contextually surrounded by business jargon and related scenarios as opposed things that can be casually differentiated as everyday interactions. Accordingly, this course will include an introduction to organizational as well as strategic business concepts and scenarios.
    

The first business scenario we will study, after the course introduction, is Business Startups. In this first lesson the activities and resources found at the course website will guide the critical process of motivated self-study and student preparation for group and private interactions.
 

~WHAT EXPERTS SAY ABOUT VOCABULARY & LANGUAGE ACQUISITION~
 

A REFERENCED NOTE FROM MY OWN STUDY OF THE SUBJECT OF VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:

Vocabulary and Its Importance in Language Learning. From www.tesol.org:
 

1. Vocabulary addresses single lexical items—words with specific meaning(s)—but it also includes lexical phrases or chunks.”
    

2.  (Alali & Schmitt, 2012) Phrases like: Good morning and Nice to meet you.
    

3. Wilkins (1972) wrote that “. . . while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary can be conveyed” (pp. 111–112).
    

4. Understanding meaning and context through grammatical inferences is significant for [students] to usefully acquire more vocabulary knowledge and to their own .
    

5. [The concept of ‘a word’] has three… aspects:
    

   • Form, [which is about] pronunciation, spelling and word parts such as suffix, prefix or root.
      

   • Meaning, [The mental picture evoked by the word as a standalone item and within the contextual options of its potential use.]
      

   • and Use, [The way a word can be utilized to create phrases, sentences and eventual understanding of a complete thought; formal speech constraints, social or peer expectations, etc.]
      

Source:

Vocabulary and Its Importance in Language Learning. Accessed December 11, 2016. www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_eltd_vocabulary_974
 

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