ESL Cafe

When it comes to learning English on the Internet there is one web site that might be the most popular place amongst the ESL community: &laquo;Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe&raquo; Dave Sperling started his project in 1995 &mdash; a time when the Internet was still in its infancy. Now, Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe is visited by tens of thousands of ESL learners every single day and this number continues to grow. 
 
Why do so many people visit Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe? To answer this question we have to find out what the ESL Internet market looked like in 1995. Back then there were very few sites that catered to the ESL community and Dave Sperling was pioneering the web with his ESL Cafe. As a matter of fact he could have well been the very first person to set up a site with free ESL materials. When he started off his ESL cafe it was located at pacificnet.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html until Dave registered the domain eslcafe.com. If you want to visit his site please make sure you type the address correctly &mdash; it&#39;s &laquo;eslcafe.com&raquo;, just one word &mdash; not esl-cafe.com &mdash; spelled with a hyphen (-). 
 
So, back in the mid 90ies finding web pages was quite different from what it is today: You couldn&#39;t go to Google because Google appeared only in 1998 &mdash; 3 years after Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe opened its doors.

Yes, there were search engines available at that time too &mdash; AltaVista for example. However, instead of looking for new web pages in AltaVista, most Internet users of those early days would ask their friends for information and exchanging web addresses via email was by far the most reliable way to keep abreast of new developments. Even today a lot of people get websites through advertising or personal conversations rather than through using a search engine because when you are new to the Internet you simply don&#39;t know how to use Google, Yahoo or MSN correctly. Internet based search technology has been around for a relatively short period of time and although it has a number of advantages over traditional ways of finding information it will never reach the efficiency of the word-of-mouth principle. 
 
Take Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe for instance: There are tens of thousands of people who know the term &laquo;Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe&raquo; not because they found www.eslcafe.com by searching for ESL materials in Google but simply one of their friends told them about the address. You might ask how I can be so sure about this. Well, that&#39;s an interesting question and I&#39;ll try to answer it as clearly as possible. As you know the Internet is the first interactive mass media, that means unlike with conventional communication channels such as TV and radio you can send as well as receive data. 
 
There are a growing number of companies that offer various types of information on how people use the Internet. One of those resources is located at Digitalpoint.com where you can find several interesting applications such as the Keyword Suggestion Tool. It shows you how often a certain phrase or term is searched on the Internet. According to Digitalpoint.com which uses data from Overture and Wordtracker the terms &laquo;esl cafe&raquo;, &laquo;dave&#39;s esl cafe&raquo; and &laquo;dave&#39;s cafe&raquo; or looked up several hundred times every day. This means, people who have found Dave&#39;s ESL cafe either through Google or by communicating with a friend share the address in turn with their friends and acquaintances and so on. This is an ongoing process that shows the following pattern: In the beginning only very few people knew about Dave&#39;s ESL cafe. When he started his site in 1995 Dave was still teaching many students in his English classes and of course he would tell them about his project. Some of those students had access to the Internet and they were curious to find out about their teacher&#39;s Internet site so they pointed their browsers to pacificnet.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html and entered Dave&#39;s ESL cafe for the first time. Because they liked Dave&#39;s style of teaching and they thought Dave was an interesting person they also found his website unique. In Dave&#39;s ESL cafe they could find information on how to learn English along with interactive grammar and vocabulary exercises and top of it all they could meet with other learners of English and exchange experiences with them online. It goes without saying that most of Dave&#39;s students who visited his ESL Cafe would tell their friends and family about this fascinating website. In addition they would talk about Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe to other teachers who in turn would visit and promote the site. When you find a website that you deem useful and valuable you of course tell others about it. 
 
Back in the mid 90ies email was by far the most widely used Internet service and so it is quite obvious that a lot of ESL students would copy and paste the address of Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe and send it to all their friends with an electronic mail account. This way the news about Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe spread like a bonfire across the World Wide Web reaching more and more members of the Online ESL Community. Among the people who got word about Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe of course also were university administrators, website owners, company executives and other decision makers who added www.eslcafe.com to their website&#39;s link collection and entered the address to the infrastructure of their own organizations and networks. Within a few years Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe became so popular that almost everyone in the ESL industry &mdash; teachers and students alike knew about it. In the era after 1995 a number of events and developments even accelerated the spread of www.eslcafe.com turning the site into some kind of Internet brand. Beginning in the mid-90ies the Internet saw a tremendous growth in popularity as well as functionality. It was the time when Online Networks started mushrooming with one company leading the field: ICQ.com. There are lots of parallels between the success story of today&#39;s most widely used eCommunity and Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe and we are going to take a look at two aspects in particular. 
 
First, ICQ.com took the Net by storm just as Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe did. Today ICQ has up to 3 milion simultaneous users and because those people are from all around the world the vast majority has a great interest in improving their English. With ICQ.com providing its members free access to state-of-the art online communication tools it is the ideal place to cultivate and propel the spread of Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe. On ICQ.com you can talk about any subject of interest and ESL is definitely one the top issues and as both websites were created at about the time (Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe in 1995 and ICQ.com in 1996) they received a lot of exposure from each other. Now both sites show the same extremely high Google PageRank of 8/10. 
 
Another thing Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe and ICQ share is the way their popularity spread across the Internet within a very short period of time. This effect is also called &laquo;Viral Marketing&raquo; and describes how new communication technologies help speed up the spread of web addresses. 
 
As the Internet continues to grow by the hour and more and more people turn to this new medium to find information and learn languages Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe will welcome thousands of new guests every day. 
 
Is Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe a good website? Judging from the information you&#39;ve read in this article so for you might say yes. However, there is a down side to www.eslcafe.com too: It simply lacks good fresh content. People turn to the site not so much because Dave Sperling offers the largest collection of free ESL materials but rather because his cafe was the very first of its kind to be available. It&#39;s like Microsoft dominating the world market with its software although there are lots of companies providing better products. Google has indexed more than 100.000 pages of www.eslcafe.com &mdash; yet, only a tiny little fraction of them was originally created by Dave Sperling, the owner of Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe himself. The vast majority of pages are generated by the forum members Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe has been able to accumulate over the years. There is just one section on his website which Dave updates several times a year: His photo gallery. The rest of his content pages (His Idea Cookbook, the Phrasal Verb list and the Idiom Collection) were originally created by him and one of his colleagues many years ago and have never been added to ever since. If you go to Amazon&#39;s web directory you can search for eslcafe.com and you will be able to read what some people say about Dave&#39;s site. The following are examples of comments about Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe made by ESL enthusiasts on the Alexa website: 
 
Quote: 
&quot;Was of no help to me, 
Needed something for a class and was told by a colleague to try this site. Spend 20 minutes looking around in vain for something creative before giving up. There are materials on the site, but they are boring and repetitive. This site was created in the mid-nineties and has its mindset still ten years back. In the end, found english-zone.com, esl-lounge.com and other one called learnenglish.com or something similar....all had far better range of communicative resources.&quot;End of quote. 
 
Here is a more drastic one: 
 
Quote: 
&quot;Horrid site, 
Its visual dullness doesn&#39;t even begin to justify the negative comments here about this site. It is just unimaginative and that is a far worse crime on the web. Continues to benefit from sites linking to it &quot;because it is, after all, Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe&quot; without any real justification for doing so. Should be a case study in how certain sites have lived on reputation alone for years and years on the web. Being first to the waterhole most certainly WAS important in this site&#39;s case and to believe otherwise is just putting your head in the sand.&quot; End of Quote 
 
OK, you might say we at english-test.net are biased and that&#39;s why we publish only negative comments about Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe. Well, as Ervin Nemeth from Hungary states, fairness is the true issue here and that&#39;s why we want to finish our article with some positive feedback which has also been taken from Alexa.com: 
 
Quote:(by Ervin Nemeth of Mako, Hungary) 
&quot;Fairness is the true issue here. 
There are people who chase fashion trends, who use every possible new technology to make their site &quot;top class.&quot; Not so with Dave! Good old content that actually works and all the junk to lure students and a whole bunch of people who can help the site keep on going. 
If you say, &quot;Dave has nothing valuable,&quot; I must ask, how many of the &quot;Ideas&quot; or &quot;Hint of the day&quot; pages have you seen? &#39;Cause there are like zillions and those are just the kinds of things an ESL/EFL teacher can use in actual teaching situation. I&#39;ve been using many of Dave&#39;s ideas (even actual content) in my classes ever since I&#39;ve discovered the site. Many of my students were motivated by the slangs &amp; idioms Dave shared -- those were not available in EFL textbooks in my country at the time. For some such motivation meant a successful language exam. I don&#39;t think it&#39;s that bad... 
 
It&#39;s important to get more specific about what one wants to do with a Web site. ESL/EFL is just too huge a topic for one site. I&#39;m happy to see that Dave stays with what he knows most about and does not experiment too much with fancy contents and pages (which sometimes simply wouldn&#39;t work on some computers). For a rather conservative guy like me that means a sense of reliability that is just as important as a cup of hot coffee early in the morning. 
 
Oh, and I still remember the time when my ESL Net was not that much behind Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe in 1995 or so with multiple mailing lists, msg board, chat and far more free stuff than today. For some reasons Dave increased his visitors greatly and I lost most. Not (only) because I removed some stuff due to hosting quantity limitations. Is that proof enough that &quot;First to the waterhole&quot; is irrelevant here? 
 
Finally, about Dave&#39;s picture. At a time many wanted to know how Dave looked like. Perhaps not the best snapshot, but it does what it is supposed to. Also, not everyone goes to all the pages, so it&#39;s not bad to have the picture on every single page. Or, would a link to the personal items be more appropriate? Let&#39;s leave it to &quot;The one and only Dave&quot; to decide. End of quote 
 
*Update: 
When I was writing this article Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe showed a Google PageRank 8/10 which meant that this site used to belong to the most popular places on the Internet. After Google updated their index the PageRank of Dave&#39;s ESL Cafe dropped from 8 to 7. There can be a number of reasons explaining why this happened and maybe in a few months the site will be rewarded with a Google PageRank of 8/10 again. 
If you want to learn more about Google&#39;s innovative and unique system of assessing the value of a web page you should read the appropriate sections on the Google website. In addition, you can contact us here on the <a href="https://forum.english.best/">Forum</a> which is open for you to discuss any topic as long as you do so in English.

The ESL Cafe Story

About Myself 
My name is Kwaku Boaten. I’m male, born in Ghana where I received my basic education; although I’m now a British citizen, having lived in England for over forty years. Since qualifying in England as a teacher, I went on for further studies in Language in Education and Reading Behaviour. I’ve had over thirty years experience in teaching, most of which has been in teaching English as a second language in multi-cultural schools in and around London. I’m now semi-retired from teaching, spending the rest of my time researching and developing my project. (For more information about me, please consult my website or write to request it). 
 
The origin of the sensedom project: How I got started 
As presented, the project is only a part of a whole as I have envisaged it. It arose from my teaching experience. As it evolves, it is going through several transformations, having started first in paper form and now in ICT. It was devised to meet several challenges in the schools I happened to be teaching in. One challenge is that there is a large group of ESL students who reach a plateau by the middle or late elementary stage in their language development. Able and comfortable to use colloquial English with ease, including the reading of basic texts, some were not convinced that there was the need for them to make any further progress. 
 
This fact is further complicated by research which suggests that, by the age of this particular target group, some learners, particularly boys, are put off developing their reading skills by several important and interrelated factors. One is that the material available to support reading development for this group is not appropriate enough. It is often difficult to find a text that matches both the interest and language level of the learner. Sometimes where the content may be interesting, the language level may be either too easy or too complex for the learner, or vice versa. So, often students did not feel inspired to read independently. (Hence all the base texts in sensedom are organized around centres of interest that can be described as multi-cultural, including teen and pop culture).
 
Along with this reluctance is the fact that time and again they are afraid for their self-image because of the situation model and other methods applied in supporting their reading practice. They find it particularly humiliating to be seen in a situation where s/he is supported in public by an “expert” (hearing them read) in their reading practice, which is one traditional model still frequently used in many schools. This model is less appropriate for this age group precisely because it has a tendency to draw public attention to their plight: the fact that a learner, at this age, has a problem reading. Further, acquiescing to its use means an acknowledgement on the part of the learner that he is a failure – now, how cool is that? 
 
Another factor is that they may be deficient in the experience (primary or secondary) and linguistic resources necessary to enable them to engage meaningfully with a text. For a start, there may be gaps in their conceptual resources in terms of background information, including the environment-specific and text structure, which is one vital source for reading comprehension. Coupled with this is limited linguistic knowledge and skills to engage effectively with a text. Clearly, as they are still in the process of developing their English, it is only to be expected that their knowledge of grammar will not be sound enough. Thus they may be less sensitive to the signals that features of language give for meaning. To an extent, then, these factors combine and often succeed in discouraging the reluctant learner to practise reading in English. 
 
This want for practice in turn means that they find any act of reading tedious for lack of experience and subsequent mastery of the decoding skills. So their ability to blend and recognise words is not automatic enough, something that can only come with the practice they shun. Consequently they often tend to be text bound, spending longer than necessary to figure out how to decode the text. Sometimes fluency achieved is merely deceptive as little meaning is derived without the top down skills (the ability to make predictions, test and modify them).
 
Sensedom goes still further in that, while integrating most of the guidelines for computer-assisted reading (and writing) instruction, it also seeks to exploit the potential of the computer and ICT to stimulate the user to learn through entertainment. For example, one website I consulted recognizes that: “Using a combination of different things like text, sound, graphics and animation, edutainment through the use of computer games can enhance the process of education and make it more enjoyable than most traditional teaching methods”. Also recent advances in ICT have generated a lot of interest in the use of the Internet for entertainment and pastimes that involve the use of multimedia; particularly graphics, sound and images, including stills and movies. 
 
At the same time, online communities have evolved to make use of such advances, as evident from You-tube, MySpace, I-Report and so on. So with the potential anonymity, privacy and the recreational facility that ICT allows, the user does not need to rely heavily on ‘expert’ support so that he is more likely to take risks in his/her learning through trial and error, without compromising their self-image. Further, as he grows in confidence with practice, perhaps in private, the recreational facility is also likely to inspire him to interact more actively and confidently with the community, both to share experiences and insights, and for mutual support. Thus through these experiences, they are also much more likely to transcend the plateau effect and take their language development further without realizing it.

About the SenseDom Project

Introduction: 
Today we are talking to Ian S., one of a few
 collectors of World War II color photos worldwide. 
 
Torsten: 
Ian, can you please tell us what exactly World War II photos are?
 
Ian: 
WW2 color photos are the private and professional encapsulation of history.
 Through the eyes of the professional photographer and of the normal "John so
 and so" we have with WW2 photos, an amazing opportunity to see the World as
 we have never seen it.
 
 In a time where politics, power, greed and emotion went crazy, these images
 are the only true reminder of... what mistakes we humans can really make!


 
Torsten: 
So when and how did you become interested in collecting WWII photos?

 
Ian: 
To be fully honest, I technically didn't start with photos.
When I was 7 years old my mother was a very passionate sports women.
She traveled to Texas in the USA to compete in a racing competition.
During her stay, she had a fantastic friendship with the American owner of her little rented house.
The owner asked her about her children and she explained that little Ian liked history.
 
After hearing that, the gentleman quietly went into his private office and came back with a small box in his hands.
The box had a silver ring in it. The man explained to my mother that back in 1941, he was working as a Navy medic in Pear Harbour.
After the attack on Pear Harbour by the Japanese air force and navy, he was tasked to recover the dog-tags and remains of the dead.
The man explained that when he was performing his search, he entered the captain's rooms of the USS Arizona and found the captain's Navy silver ring lying on the ground. He kept this ring hidden away for over 60 years. That was my first true exposure to WWII history. After that my imagination and interest was truly awoken.
 
Combining this fascination and passion with a natural and inherent love for all things graphic and visual. I found myself naturally pulled towards the world of photography. Photography not only allowed me to simply see the world as it was but also have a feeling for and understanding of the way people were thinking at that time. 



 
Torsten: 
Do you still remember the name of the American who gave your mother that silver ring and do you still have the ring? 

 
Ian: 
Yes I think I will always remember this man's name. His name was John O'Donovan. Sadly he passed away 6 years ago. And about the ring.
I still have that of course. There are some things that I would sell in my life but there is a small group of prized objects that I would never sell or give away. All I have to do now is have a child of my own and the little lucky bandit, will strike gold. ;-)

 
Torsten: 
I'm sure your children will benefit from your collection too. So let's talk a little more about the WWII photos. I remember you telling me that they actually aren't photos but rather slides. Could you please elaborate on that? 

 
Ian: 
During the Second World War there wasn't such a thing as colour photos as we know it today.

The technology required to print a colour paper photo came after the end of the Second World War.
During the war years the only possibility of colour still photography was with 35mm positive colour film.
 
That meant that photographers would take their photos with colour emulsion film and then have them developed as positive colour film slides.
The user or photographer would have to buy a slide projector to view his or her photo slides.
 
Therefore before 1945, if someone wanted to enjoy the new technology of home colour photography, they had to be ready to sit down in front of a white wall and hot projector for this pleasure!

 
Torsten: 
Why did you start collecting World War photos rather than tangible items such as WWII weapons or uniforms?


 
Ian: 
Because I always found that original photos taken from a private person, showing their perspective on the life and times of this history absolutely fascinating. 
If a person has a old sword or helmet on their coffee table, That's all they have, An original old piece of steel and leather. But a photo opens a persons eyes to what the real World was!

 
Torsten: 
Do you still remember how and when you got your very first photo? 

 
Ian: 
Technically my first photo wasn't just one photo.
My first color photography came in the form of a old wooden pine box with over 430 individual 35mm color photo slides.
The box was the private photographic record of a German mountain troop officer during the Second World War.
I think that all happened in the Autumn of 2002.

 
Torsten: 
Do you still remember how much you paid for it?


 
Ian: 
Yes I do. 
I paid 431 Euros for this first box of color photo slides. This was a massive amount of money for me and it did force me on the bread and water ration diet for almost a month.

 
I will always remember using my little student money and looking for loose euro coins under the sofa to pay for this.
But it was worth it and if I hadn't made the effort, I was sure this precious historical collection would have gone to some other unscrupulous dealer and broken up in the wind.

 
Torsten: 
Once you had aquired your initial set of color photo slides, how did you then continue to get more items?

 
Ian: 
It was very simply. People came to me.
There was a whole underworld of collectors looking for this material and when I bought these.
My email inbox just started to flood with emails.
Every possible email came in. Varying from "can I buy these for 10 euros more than you paid for them" to "I live in that town and can I have a copy". 
That was the start. 
I was eventually offered more from some of those gentlemen that contacted me on the first day.
After that, it was the snowball effect. More and more contacts and even more original color photo slides...

 
Ian: 
How many slides do you own now and many would you like to own?

 
Ian: 
That question has two parts.
Firstly at the moment I have just a little more than 22,000 private color slides from 1935 to 1946.
The second part of the question is more interesting.
How much is enough? That's a very dangerous question for any passionate collector.
I think I don't really know. All I can do is keep searching and building on my network of connections and see how big it can get?

Interview with Ian S.

Torsten: 
When did the idea for an English teacher association emerge? 

Stewart: 
A local English teachers forum was the initial idea thrown around by me and Kennon Ballou a few years ago.
Then as now it was recognised that there was a real lack of independent training let alone run by the educational or language establishments, schools.
After visiting some English Language Teaching Association Berlin Brandenberg events two years ago,and a visit from David Meier (English Teaching Matters) to Leipzig, I initially decided to test the water in the local area mainly for interest. David Meier and ELTABB offered their support at the stage when we officially want to become a organization. 

I ran an event on 18th October 2008 included the diverse themes of web-quests, recording vocabulary, Financial English and generating discussions. The attendance was good and the the discussions lively. In "009 i brought in two experienced editors to launch a quarterly newsletter. Since then I have struggled to get the right team together, and also it took a back burner while I concentrated on my own professional and company development. However since returning for the Business English Specialist Interest Group conference in Poznan, Poland I had the idea of a third attempt to get the ball rolling. These would require a proactive team in the background, as well as active event participants and individuals willing to pay membership in order to enable self sufficient financing. 

Torsten: 
How many English language teachers do you estimate live and work in the Leipzig area? 

Stewart: 

These figures would be hard to second guess as at the moment I predominately work in the Higher Education and Business English markets. The guestimate would have to combine non-native English speakers, English ex-pats, Kindergarden, Primary, Secondary School, International School, General English teachers as well as Business English trainers. However the market has boomed and become more competitive since 2001, when I arrived, with higher demands and less of the "passing through native English speakers that teach". 

Torsten: 
How did you come up the name for your organization? 

Stewart: 

The name was a bit awkward as the idea was to try to reflect the wider catchment area of Saxony, Saxon-Anhalt and Thuringia. However there is the issue of avoiding a name that clashes with the other existing German eltas. The solution was to concentrate on Leipzig as a hub within the catchment area, hence Leipzig English Language Teachers Association. 

Torsten: 
Why is the organization non-profit? 

Stewart: 
The organization needs to be set as non-profit to avoid any corporate interference or bias, as fundamentally it is there for the teachers and trainers and would benefit from association with the national ELTA's as well as International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. 

Torsten: 
How often do plan to run workshops, seminars and other events? 

Stewart: 
It would be ideal to run at least three events within a yearly quarter, changing the themes and the format to try to cover as diverse a market and ideas/ resources exchange as possible.
 

Torsten: 
How would you describe the main benefits for English teachers and trainer joining LELTA? 


Stewart: 
Let's discuss what is in place initially, and then what may come with the right vision, team in place and pro-active trainers.
 
Initially the members will receive a quarterly newsletter, free or concessionary entrance to LELTA run events, exchange of ideas and resources with trainer community in Saxony/Saxon Anhalt, online presence including as well as social/business networking, what everyone is tweeting about these days. Also old school physical networking at events and such like as well as information concerning teaching related matters. 
 
If all goes well with setting up the e.V. then access to German ELTA network (INTERELTA), especially good connections with ELTABB, BESIG, access to publication opportunities (reading and writing) like ELTA newsletters, English Teaching Matters, information concerning training opportunities and ELTA events, not just LELTA, jobs board, vacancies and subbing, assistance and support with German authorities, help with German language and culture and relocation assistance. This would be a full fledged vision come true, but there are benchmark examples out there like ELTABB, so we can aim high.
 
Torsten: 
What are LELTA's goals and objectives for 2013?
 
Stewart: 
The regular newsletter, a Internet presence, two workshops per quarter, paid membership of at least 30 and wise e.V. registration, that is about it.

Interview with LELTA

Introduction 
 Today we are talking to Robert R. Phipps, an English language trainer and entrepreneur from Great Britain. Robert has been living and working in Hamburg, Germany for several months. He owns a successful language school called Hamburg English and runs several Internet-based English language training systems that help you improve your English and prepare for the TOEIC exam. One of those websites is WorldTOEIC.com and you will learn more about it in the following interview. 
 
 
Torsten: 
Robert, I read in your CV that you have experience in dealing with radio frequency reception/amplification. Have these skills helped in you creating your TOEIC preparation portal? 


 
Robert Phipps: 
This is certainly true Torsten. The combination of engineering ability and English language training gave me the tools to impress in-class ideas and concepts onto the internet. Our TOEIC Preparation and business English portal at OnlineEnglish.eu, additionally our Instant English proficiency testing system based upon the Common European Framework at TheEnglishLink.de are just two examples of this work.
 
The basis and strength behind Hamburg-English is that business and engineering experience are combined with English language teaching. This approach allows us to work directly with businessmen and engineers with the vocabulary and understanding needed to properly integrate training into the student's workplace.
 
With these in-house skills, we have also been able to satisfy our own internal development needs such as our internet based class administration system we call 'At the Touch of a Button', which greatly reduces administration and improves communication in cases where English language classes are completed at remote customer premises. There are many other online systems we have created for the benefit of our customers including centralized SMS for class cancellation, student class placement testing, job applicant testing and our customer services area.
 
Our business and engineering skills have also lead to further training opportunities for competent ESL speakers in project management, presentation and negotiation to name just a few.
 
The concept behind combining English language training, business and engineering has been quite interesting and sometimes comical. One of my very first lessons was with a class of electronic design engineers, who had participated in several classes with other English language teachers. They sat there with those 'Oh-not-another-English-Teacher-eyes', but were totally surprised and nearly fell of their chairs when their English teacher went to the flip-chart and instead of English grammar, started to draw the electronic circuit diagram of a power supply, naturally with an English description of operation. The students had never seen such an English teacher before. The class was so successful, interesting and fun for all.
 
My most recently completed development, about to be integrated into OnlineEnglish.eu, is an exercise generator. A student will be able to copy and paste any text they like from newspapers or articles into a box and a lesson will be created automatically for them. This will be a great resource to allow the improvement of grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure. Also, they can use texts that are of personal interest to them improving motivation and concentration.

 
Torsten: 
All this sounds very intriguing and I'd like to learn more about your Exercise Generator. I suppose it allows any user to create interactive multiple-choice questions? 


 
Robert Phipps: 
The exercise generator creates missing word exercises by randomly taking words out of the text a student enters, then offering those words back to them in a mixed format creating at the same time, a text exercise in “sentence format” with input boxes where the words have been removed. Each time they enter the text, it will create a different exercise in respect to the number of, and which words are taken. Once the student has entered the words, the exercise will check and show them the number of words they had incorrect, as well as the position of the words in the sentence and what the correct words should be.
 
Students need to read, learn and understand the text they enter to be able to put the words back in their correct place. This means that students get intensive training not only on grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure, but also have the opportunity to get accustomed to Standard English phrases and idioms. All these are very important points in the TOEIC test.
 
If at any time a student does not understand something or cannot find a suitable answer on the website, they always have their own personal trainer to help them quickly by email. Our email support of students has been very successful. All participants enjoy the fast response given and even our trainers involved with student support, who by the way are authorized TOEIC administrators, enjoy contact with students from all over the world, learning about their interesting culture and life.
 
We actually have one development that can create multiple choice exercises from pasted text, but we only use it to create our own exercises. Maybe we will include this in OnlineEnglish at a later date.

 
Torsten: 
Robert, it seems that you concentrate your efforts on providing tools and materials for professional people who want to take the TOEIC test. How important do you think is a good TOEIC score in the business world today and how does the TOEIC compare to other international English language certificates such as The Cambridge Exams? 

 
Robert Phipps: 
HamburgEnglish was established to offer business people and companies a unique opportunity for learning English. Our main concentration is in the Hamburg area offering many companies and international organizations English language and professional training onsite. My first contact with ETS was as one of the largest TOEFL Test centres in North Germany. After the TOEFL went Internet based we dropped our official TOEFL Test centre status. I then looked for something better and more suitable for the measurement of English proficiency which additionally, better met our own objectives.
 
I looked at the Cambridge test, but its lack of testing availability was for me a negative factor. It was then that I looked at the TOEIC Test and thought this is exactly what companies need and what we need. We integrated the methods and practices of the TOEIC Test into HamburgEnglish and it became apparent that unlike the Cambridge test, TOEIC Test training and preparation really needed to advance. This was taken into our own development activities in support of business English training resulting in OnlineEnglish. It is prudent to know that we have not neglected the Cambridge Test. We also actively prepare and train students for this test and support this activity with our Common European Framework online test system.
 
The TOEIC Test is a practical measurement tool that offers companies the chance to standardize the measurement of English proficiency in the workplace using a system that has been proven over many years. A person cannot pass or fail the TOEIC Test and it is not a training course. In comparison, the Cambridge test is an academic measurement tool concentrating mainly on British English. It is a training course with different tests at each stage of the course where a person can pass or fail.
 
Nowadays many companies and universities worldwide accept both the TOEIC and Cambridge test certificates and use the scales of each system to set a requirement for employment and enrollment respectively. Having a valid TOEIC or Cambridge Test certificate could be a person’s key to career success and will definitely open up a much wider horizon of employment opportunity to them. Currently the TOEIC Test is the most widely spread English language proficiency certificate in the world and this, together with better availability, might in one’s eyes give the TOEIC Test the advantage.

 
Torsten: 
I read all the positive customer comments and testimonials on your site it's obvious that WorldTOEIC.com provides an excellent online training facility that simulates the a real TOEIC test session. Can you please tell me more on how you created those tests. I mean, who wrote the materials and what kind of speakers did you employ? 

 
Robert Phipps: 
I personally wrote all the material and exercises on OnlineEnglish and the speakers are our own trainers and teachers, naturally also including myself. To allow me to write so many exercises, I first created tools and these wrote the questions for me. I only had to give the tools the correct information and then check each question for suitability.
 
The exercises at OnlineEnglish (worldTOEIC) were created from our own experience during 2 years as an Official TOEFL Test centre and then later, Official TOEIC Test centre. We have been an Official TOEIC Test centre now for some 4 years, regularly administering test sessions and preparing people to take the test. My contact with the test goes further than just being a test centre, I believe in the TOEIC Test and regularly become involved with many like-minded people on an international basis.
 
OnlineEnglish was originally an English learning website, which we offered to our business customers to allow them to continue their English training outside the classroom. Given free of charge, it offered us a unique advantage over our competitors. The exercises were set in courses from beginner to advanced with certification between courses. Additionally the website had a business English area, which included exercises from my own ideas and also exercises requested by our customers. Quickly the website grew and specific English lessons for different customer products and business fields were added. Many other schools asked to use the website and contributed to its success. This website was later removed to make place for what is today OnlineEnglish TOEIC Preparation online.
 
My knowledge and experience over and above teaching the English language, has come from analyzing thousands of TOEIC Test questions and speaking to countless students both before and after sitting the test. In this time I learnt not only the background and theory of the TOEIC Test system and its methods, but also a very large amount from student feedback in respect to the problems they had preparing for the test. I watched students during test sittings, noting down where they seemed to loose time and how they approached the questions. I also looked very carefully and critically at the materials available for TOEIC Test preparation.
 
All this information was collected and to it I added my strong beliefs in the advantages of focused training. I saw a need to create a TOEIC preparation resource that did not forget the importance of learning the English language, something that seemed to be lacking in a majority of the preparation material then available. I wanted to make sure that this tool included all the tricks, tips and advice I was allowed to give out, which in turn, allowed a student to remove the disadvantage of not knowing the test. Finally I wanted to include everything I had learnt from past test takers such as solutions for not knowing how to approach questions, or being disadvantaged by not being accustomed to the test.
 
Writing all the questions, doing all the audio recordings, creating the website and putting everything together into what exists today has taken me over 4 years and countless hours in front of a computer, but I have enjoyed every minute of it and the responses we now receive from students mean so much to me.
 
---------------
 
The techniques of focused training are added to OnlineEnglish with the performance monitor and a 45 minute TOEIC Estimate test. The estimate test is very complex and it took many years to actually create the algorithm it uses. On the performance monitor a student can see their estimated TOEIC level and a breakdown of their level into question categories. This allows the student to see where they need to learn, so they have the chance to speed up the learning process.
 
TOEIC Test preparation is catered for by specific exercises that I wrote based upon real TOEIC Test questions from countless test sittings. As a student completes the exercises, they can see their progress and their improvement and this leads to motivation. English vocabulary and grammar training is forgotten and is enhanced with the "Lets Learn English" area, which includes exercises for the main points of learning English. The Video library helps students further improve their listening comprehension and their ability to recognize questions in spoken English, a very important ability in the TOEIC Test. Our TOEIC tips and advice area includes our experience as a test centre and feedback from students. It includes advice from getting ready for a test, test procedures to how best to approach the different question types. Our trainers and TOEIC administrators offer email support to each and every student which then compliments the whole training experience and brings life and interaction to the website.
 
Then one day a member wrote to me telling me how thankful they were and how great the OnlineEnglish was, but also, that the website did not contain a full TOEIC test and to get that experience they had to use a book! I was shocked that I had forgotten to include this most fundamental point in the training; getting accustomed to the timings and pressures of the test. A BOOK! I shivered and naturally I immediately set about creating and adding to the website, the first and I believe the only full online TOEIC test available.

Interview with Robert Phipps

Torsten: 
Mike, according to the information on your website you started Open English World in 2005 with two of your partners. I also know that the three of you met while earning MBA degrees. Could you please tell us a little more about the three co-founders of Open English World. How did your friendship develop?



 
Mike: 
The idea for Open English first developed while all three of us were taking a class on entrepreneurialism. During a break, David and I were talking about one of his prior ventures in ESL, and it was at that point, that he and I first realized that we both had been English teachers. From there, we started talking more and more about how we could help out English teachers and make their lives better, but at the same time provide high-quality lessons for students. Through this brainstorming process, we got the third founder, Raghu Bala, interested in our ideas, and we were excited about bringing him on board because of his prior experience starting companies. We later solidified our ideas and began to work on the project in earnest when we took another class focused on writing business plans.


 
Torsten: 
So Open English is not just another ESL website but an Internet start-up enterprise founded by three business savvy MBA graduates. What about the name of your corporation. How did you come up with Open English World?



 
Mike: 
We wanted a name that was easy to recognize, but yet captured what we are
trying to do. Naturally, we wanted the word &laquo;English&raquo;in the title.
However, we also liked the idea of an open community, open communication, an
open forum for ideas, and so on. We added in &laquo;World&raquo; because we really
wanted to reach out to the entire world and open the world of English to
everyone -- both students and teachers. So, when we put it all together, it
became Open English World.

 
Torsten: 
To me Open English World sounds very friendly and inviting and I can imagine how your company's name helps you promote your services. Speaking of your business, would you please explain your concept a little further. As far as I understand, on your website you match students who might come from anywhere in the world with qualified ESL teachers. How exactly does this process work and what about the various additional features your clients can use? 


 
Mike: 
Yes, we try to be inviting and friendly because we know how hard it can be
to learn a new language for many students. We therefore try to be as
welcoming as possible in everything that we do. We see ourselves as a
market maker for online English language instruction. We accept teachers
from all over the world and let them set their own rates and times. We
basically enable teachers to be their own bosses and deliver lessons
remotely through the internet and VoIP. For students, we also accept
students from all over the world and match them with our teachers based on
the student's needs. As we grow, we will enable more and better features to
take care of all aspects of delivering remote lessons, including a full
curriculum, online classrooms, scheduling, certificates of completion, and
payments.

 
Torsten: 
This means, Open English World is a place where ESL teachers can find students and deliver customized English training via the web. It obviously is a very useful concept. Could you please tell me what your definition of good English teacher is? Are there any requirements a teacher must meet in order to sign up with Open English World? 


 
Mike: 
We certainly believe that both ESL teachers and students will find our
services useful. As part of our fundamental objectives, we want to open the
world of English to everyone. Therefore, our fundamental requirement for
teachers is that they are honest in what they say about themselves and
enthusiastic in how they conduct themselves. 
 
More specifically, here is what I mean. We do not have a particular set of
requirements for our teachers. Instead, we want teachers of all types and
all levels to list their qualifications on our site and set their own price.
We then leave it up to the students, or as we say &laquo;market forces,&raquo; to
determine which teachers get lessons and the &laquo;market clearing rate&raquo;. As you
can imagine, a fully-credentialed teacher from North America with 25 years
of experience is likely to receive a higher rate than a relative newcomer
from India. But that is just the market at work.
 
We of course closely monitor our teachers and students and if a student is
not satisfied, we fix it. No questions asked. We also ask our students to
provide teacher feedback ratings so that the good teachers can demand a
premium for their services. In this way, we hope to provide fair rates for
students and a fair return for independent teachers.

 
Torsten: 
Mike, could you please also elaborate on the lesson plans, curriculum and certificates you are going to offer? Are there any specific topics such as accounting or presentations your materials will include?

 
Mike: 
Our initial focus will be on a basic English conversation curriculum from beginner
through advanced levels. We feel that this type of program is what our students
want most. Our lessons will include both in-class content for the teachers to
deliver as well as online exercises that students could do on their own to reinforce
the lessons. From there, we also want to branch out into more specific areas, such
as test preparation, grammar, or business or medical English, because we see a
demand for this type of curriculum. For every program, we want to have levels so
that students can chart their progress and so that we can monitor the quality of our
program and the teachers. After completing each level, we would award students a
certificate. We recognize that such certificates can be important for students who
are seeking jobs that require a measure of proficiency in English.

 
Torsten: 
What about promotion -- how are you advertising your site? 

 
Mike: 
Right now, we are sponsoring search terms on the various internet search
engines. In addition, we are placing some banner advertisements on selected
sites, primarily targeted at students. Longer term, we want to provide the
community of ESL websites with an affiliate program where we partner and
work together to line up students with online lessons.

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