NORTHBROOK, IL – MARCH 24, 2020
IOR Global Services Presents a Bi-Monthly Series:
Featuring Members of our SuperIOR
Language Training Community
IOR’s Language Department is pleased to share a series featuring the language trainers at the heart of the IOR Language Training experience. Stay tuned to your inbox every other month for a spotlight on our SuperIOR Language Training Community!
This Week’s Featured Trainer:
Professor Salvatore Averna
Bari, Italy
Salvatore Averna, a Bari-based IOR Language Trainer, brings over 20 years of experience in teaching English and Italian to both adults and children. Salvatore holds a PhD in English for Special Purpose from the University Frederico II of Naples, and a Degree in Modern Languages and Literature from the University of Bari. Outside the classroom, Salvatore is a translator for a number of organizations, and is a bass-baritone in his local choir. Thank you Salvatore, for joining us on this edition of Watch your Language!
What online methods or technologies do you use to enhance your students’ virtual language training experience?
The technological side of my teaching is based on the adoption of a specific “E-Group”, which allows me to entertain an in-process teacher/learner relationship. Documents and materials are uploaded and downloaded by both parties in the E-Group and study activities are supported by several tools and reference materials. The E-Group is devoted only to the single student and allows myself to interact with them, by tailoring specific reference materials and assuring a high level of privacy.
What is one thing you wish your student’s employers knew about Language Training?
Learning a foreign language as an adult, who will use that language in a work setting abroad, requires a kind of teaching which has to match bilingual/trilingual communication skills. This is a challenge that cannot be coped with by simply attending traditional language courses. Language training for an expat requires a wider horizon, by encompassing different social and professional lifestyles, frequently in a multilingual work setting. Under these circumstances the role of the trainer will escalate to more structured coaching activities in business communication.
How is teaching corporate clients different from ‘traditional’ students?
Corporate clients want to apply the learning of the language to real life when working in their companies. This entails that the work of the trainer is continuously measured through everyday tests. What you teach is immediately put into practice in real life and must prove satisfactory. Being successful in such cases is a reason of great satisfaction that other traditional teaching scenarios cannot meet.
I feel like I make a difference with my students when:
When they move from initial embarrassment in facing communication problems in their work, to setting to a condition of higher awareness and productive mastery of the foreign language, that is what makes the difference. The teaching process is productive when it brings about measured progress in my student’s behavioral communication. When this happens, my job acquires real sense.
