Give-Away
Have
A Look At The First Parts Of My Book
“How
To Start An Online Language School”
So,
here are the first pages of my book “How To Start An Online Language School”.
You
are free to have a look and I am just coying and pasting here on the blog.
Anyone can read the material!
If
you have a social media, please, advertise the link of this page.
Of
course, don’t forget to buy it on amazon. Have a look at my author’s page.
and
choose my book.
Hope
to get some feedback from you soon!
Alex.
Here
are the Preface, Introduction and Preliminaries.
Have
fun!
How to
Start An
Online
Language School
A Handbook for Language
e-Teachers
________________
Alexandre Scalzitti
Disclaimer
The contents of this e-book are based on my own classroom and online teaching experience of many years.
If you decide to start an online language school as described in this
e-book, you will take full responsibility for your activities, choices and
their consequences. I will not take any responsibility for any damages, losses
or problems you might have.
The opinions expressed in this e-book are entirely mine and are not
meant to humiliate, criticize, or harm anyone in any way.
Names of trademarks, brands, companies, etc., are exclusive property of
their owners.
Preface
This book is the result of my activities of
teaching language in classrooms, for private students and online. I have been
teaching languages in classrooms and privately since 1995 and online since
2002.
After teaching online for many years, the
idea of writing something that could be of help to other teachers who have not
taught online yet has come up and I started writing.
Initially, the idea was to write an e-book
called “How To Open And Keep An Online Language School” but when I started
organizing my ideas, I thought that there are many things we have to take into
account to start the business.
So, I decided to divide my thoughts in two
volumes: this one and “How to Keep
An Online Language School” which is under preparation.
I decided to adopt a very simple writing
style. I do not write long and dense paragraphs and I often make use of
spacing. I believe spacing is really good if you want to write your own
comments on a printed version of this e-book.
I also opened a blog related to online
teaching and topics related to language in general.
If you have any suggestions, comments, ideas,
etc., please, don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you!
Alexandre Scalzitti (Alex)
November, 2016
Introduction
There was a time when the Internet was used only among scientists,
engineers and scholars in general. Since its popularization the Internet has
been connecting people in so many different ways:
l someone in Canada access the Internet to play
chess with an unknown person in Russia;
l some other people access the Internet in
search for romance and there are thousands of examples of couples who first
“met” on the Internet;
l there are people who access the Internet to
talk to their families who are on the other side of the world;
l there are people who access the Internet to
work or have a conference with workmates who are in an other city or in another
country.
The Internet has given work a new dimension. E-mail and video conference
software’s have made work performance faster and more efficient in a certain
way. The impact of the Internet on society and especially on work is a topic of
research for many scholars around the world.
Teaching and consequently studying/learning have also received the
impact from the Internet.
In the beginning teachers or instructors organized material and made
them available on a website. Students downloaded the material, wrote
assignments and sent them back to their instructors by e-mail or uploaded them
back to the school’s website.
Now we have interactive lessons using video conference software’s such
that the student can interact with the teacher using a microphone and
earphones.
Depending on the computer you do need neither microphone nor earphones
because they are built-in. In fact, you do not need a computer anymore. You can
use or mobile phone and interact with your student or teacher as if you were in
the same room!
Well, in my personal opinion, nothing replaces a lesson where the
teacher and the student or students are in the same room.
However, I think that teaching/studying using video conference is the
best second option.
In my opinion, the advantages of teaching online are many. Among them
are:
l teach students from all over the world;
l know different cultures;
l be known on educational websites/platforms;
l make language partners;
l meet people who are on the same business;
l Earn money performing a noble work.
Talking about earning money, I should say that it does not happen
overnight. You have to build your career online and as a consequence of your
good work, effort and reputation, students will come up to you.
The most important thing is to work hard and have fun!
I wish you all the best in your new endeavor.
Alexandre Scalzitti
November, 2016
Preliminaries
First Things
First
What Is An
Online Language School
Basically, an online school is a school where
teachers teach courses (and students attend courses) online.
In other words, the lessons are given (and
received) in real time using some sort of audio and video call software. In
this framework, I will call the teachers’ teaching tasks “online teaching” and
the students’ learning tasks “online learning”.
I also assume that in what follows “online
teaching” and “online learning” are always meant to be in real time.
Online learning might be chosen because of a
number of reasons:
1. Lack of
options
The student cannot find a course of his/her
interest in his/her area. That is very frequent, especially if the student
lives in remote areas of the country.
2. Irregular
work hours
The student has irregular working hours
(shifts), so s/he cannot attend, for example, group lessons at a school because
these lessons have fixed times.
S/he could attend private lessons at a school
but that might be a little expensive, therefore, unattractive.
3. Early
hours, late hours
The student wants to have lessons very early
in the morning before leaving for work or school, or very late in the evening.
That is very understandable in the case of
people from very large cities because they spend a lot of time inside a train,
bus or driving when they commute to work.
Generally, the student cannot find schools
offering, for example, group lessons very early in the morning or late at
night.
Again, if s/he decided to attend private
lessons, as in the previous item, s/he might give up.
4. Student’s
physical disability
The student has a physical disability and
wants to avoid moving around. No discussion here!
5. Transportation
costs
The student cannot afford transportation.
Again, if the student lives far away from the place where there is a course of
his/her interest, commuting to this course might be expensive, especially if
the course demands the student to attend lessons 4 times a week.
Spending a lot of time commuting and
attending lessons also implies in other expenses such as food. Doing the math
can be very discouraging.
6. Saving
time for other activities
The student just wants to save moving time to
do other things such as sleeping more, spending more time with family, studying
something else
at home, enjoying a hobby and so on.
If we think a little bit further, we may find
other reasons to decide for online learning but I think the above reasons are
very convincing.
In this e-book we will talk about online
language schools but the contents of this book can be adapted to any other
topics.
■
Who Should
Read This Book
Although throughout this e-book, for the sake
of writing simplicity, I address a single person who wants to start an online
language school, in principle, anyone interested in online language
teaching/learning can read this book.
Let me talk about some especific groups
of people who could benefit from reading
this e-book.
1. Classroom
teachers
There are many classroom teachers who would
like to increase their income by starting online teaching.
However, many of them don’t know where and
how to start or think that they would need a huge technological paraphernalia.
If you are a classroom teacher and want to
start online teaching, no worries, I will show you exactly what you need!
2. Teachers
who work for online language schools
There are many language schools not only
offering the traditional classroom language teaching but also offering online
language courses or online after-class support.
If you are a teacher working for such a
school or thinking about working at a language school which provides online
lessons, you can learn or review some ideas which can be useful for your job.
3. Business
people who want to start a business in the field
So, you are not into language teaching but
you have the money to start up the business and hire teachers to give lessons
online? No problem! You came to the right place! You can learn a lot about the business
from this e-book.
4. Prospective
students of online language schools
If you
are in this category, I am pretty sure that, by reading this e-book, you will
have a pretty good idea of what to expect, suggest and demand from the online
language school you intend to start at.
5. Business
people who offer foreign language courses to their staff members
If you
are someone who wants to hire an online teacher or an online language school to
offer language courses to your staff members, you will have a pretty good idea
of what your staff will get.
We
could think of other groups of people who should read this book but I think the
above is enough. If you happen to be reading this book but you are not
interested in online language teaching/learning, maybe you know someone who
might be. It would be great if you could recommend this e-book to someone who
might be interested in the field.
■
What You Need
To Kick Off
We need a few things here:
1. teaching ability / credentials;
2. have a working place;
3. be able to do office work;
4. have some computer basic skills;
5. have the minimum hardware and software;
6. be able to do marketing for your lessons;
7. manpower;
8. organize a banking system for your teaching
business;
9. provide a good presentation, both personal
and for the online school.
Once you get the above done, you should think
about the following too:
1. how to search for students;
2. how to deal with prospective students;
3. asking about students’ needs;
4. being honest with students;
5. choosing material;
6. lesson fees;
7. writing your TOS (Terms Of Service).
Well, if you decide to really think about
starting online teaching, the above is the minimum you have to consider. I will
treat each of the above items to give you a picture of the preparation you
should do.
■
Why Can An Online Language School Be A Good
Business?
An online language school can be a good
business because:
1. Initial
Capital
You need just a little initial capital. If
you already have a computer, a microphone, earphones and an Internet
connection, your initial capital is practically zero.
2. Space
You don’t need a large physical space: you
can teach from your home. You just need a table or desk to have your computer
on.
3. Equipment
It doesn’t demand expensive equipments: as I
mentioned before, you will need a computer, a microphone, earphones and an
Internet connection.
4. Computer
skills
It doesn’t demand high computer skills: you
should type relatively fast and be able to use e-mail and an audio/video call
software.
5. Work
Load
Perhaps in the beginning you will have just a
few students and will do this activity part-time together with another job. You
can adapt your teaching hours to your free time. If you decide to take teaching
as a full-time activity, you will be able to create your own working hours.
■
Author's Bio
My academic and professional careers have been
basically focused in mathematics, computer science and language. These three
apparently different fields united in the same track when I discovered the
mathematical approach to languages which motivated me to start a PhD research
in automata theory which is an area on the intersection of information science
and applied linguistics. My thesis is under completion. At the same time, my old passion
for languages motivated me to start an office that offers services related to
languages such as language education (classroom, private and online lessons) translation,
interpretation, transcription, proofreading and content writing. My mother
language is Brazilian Portuguese. My academic and business experience has given
me solid knowledge of English, German and Japanese.
Brief CV
BSc. in mathematics
MSc. in computer science
PhD. candidate in automata theory (applied linguistics & information
science)
Professional training as an English teacher.
Large experience in translation, interpretation, proofreading and
transcription.
