The weekly column

Article 30, September 2000

Your Most Successful Strategies

By Jim Wingate

I was teaching 1:1 business English for several years in several countries and I found the most effective learning solution was to teach my learners to their most successful strategies.

Let's take 3 case studies.

Mister Decider

One learner was boss of a computer firm. He made decisions. He made lots of decisions. Making decisions was his most successful strategy in life. His English was upper Elementary.

So I taught him lots and lots of new words and grammar by feeding him lots and lots of texts and oral stories for him to make decisions. I never gave him time to read every word. "Here's a company (text). In two minutes tell me, would you invest in it or not?"

"I'll tell you my business idea (listening). Tell me immediately, how much money should I risk on it?"

In making his decisions he was using his most successful strategy and therefore taking in the new words and grammar using about one-third of the new items each time without realising he had learnt.

Mister Evaluator

Another learner couldn't make a decision to save his life. Even his 3 children each had a different family name! However, he was very good at giving his boss the information for his boss to make the decisions. That was his job in the company. That was his most successful strategy.

He was literally the 'back room boy'. At the Annual General Meeting his boss was on stage in front of the curtain facing any and every question from any of the shareholders. My learner was behind the curtain with the computer, brochures, statistics, all the information on the company, oh, and a microphone transmitting to an unseen speaker in this boss's ear.

A difficult question would come. The boss would play for time "Now that's an interesting question. Hands up how many of you would have liked to have asked that question yourself." Meanwhile my learner was saying the answer into the microphone and his boss spoke the answer like an all-knowing god!

Yes, so I gave my learner lots of excess information to read and hear and time limit to present the essential information to me for me to make the decisions.

This worked beautifully. My learner learned 150 new words per hour plus all the grammar and felt relaxed while learning, and retained 98% when I tested him 3 moths later.

The Bastard

Another learner had left school before he was 14 and had made his living wheeling and dealing on the streets. He was now boss of a big company. His most successful strategy was being a bastard, always winning at the expense of the other person.

So, I fed his most successful strategy. I gave him lots of texts and listening, setting myself up as the innocent to be the loser, giving him room to bargain and negotiate and to win, win, win.

He needed to see me disappointed, cheated, beaten.

To up his English I upped my game and became tougher, more difficult to beat, more cunning. He had to become more subtle, more fluent, use new words and grammar to keep the edge and continue to do me down.

Again, he, like the others, didn't realise how much new English he was learning because he was at his most successful when nothing is slow or difficult.

Finding your most Successful Strategy

Knowing Me Knowing You (Publ. Etp DELTA 2000) is full of questionnaires to help you, the teacher, and the learners (in groups or 1:1) to find your most successful strategy. You then have learner-profiles to enable the most effective and efficient learning solutions.

Biography

Jim has taught for 30 years in 42 countries and teaches 20,000 pupils and 2000 teachers per year, and writes lots of practical books for teachers. For more information on Jim please visit his website at www.jimwingate.co.uk .

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