Dear Matthew,

 

Thank you for sending a detailed explanation about your request.

 

After reviewing it, I must admit that I am afraid there has been miscommunication on our part about our needs, and the way we would like to go about this new "experiment" of teaching English in Mabal.

Unlike things are normally done in the university context, our basic intention is to allow the participants an opportunity to practice a fairly simple discourse in English, and improve their English speaking skills a bit. The College commander has set the rationale for the English sessions as improving the capability of the participants to converse in English or listen to a lecture in English. Given the heterogeneity of the class , and with your kind professional assistance, we divided the participants into four groups, as we would like to give each group instruction at its appropriate level. 

What we had in mind for the classes themselves (in particular for levels 2-4) is that the participants and the instructors will carry on conversations over a simple text together (such as an article from a newspaper), and while doing so will learn some relevant vocabulary and grammar. We obviously have no intention to certify them for any particular level as we do at the university. This is also why we took instructors who are not professional English teachers , but are experienced translators who are also proficient in the learning materials at Mabal.

We do believe that it will be very useful if the instructors, particularly for levels 2-3, can get from you some guidance on how to best structure the class, and some ideas on what they can actually teach in each session.  We will then leave it to them to finally decide how they actually build and exercise their sessions. There is also no need in our view for too close supervision, or for you "to inspect" classes, because this is not a strict academic instruction toward a certification.

For the 1st level, we will generally leave it to the instructor to do the work, unless she asks for further guidance, as she has been teaching English for seniors for years. But preparing a suggested "model class" will also be helpful.

For the 4th level group that you will lead, we trust that you will do a great job in the 6 sessions we have allocated to this group, with the assistance of some of our English speaking instructors at Mabal. 

 

To sum up what is required from you according to our needs: 

 

- Teaching 6 sessions of one hour and 15 minutes each for the highest level.

- Suggesting a "model" class for each session for levels 2-3 in terms of structure, vocabulary and grammar to be taught. We generally believe that it will fairly similar work for these 2 levels. 

- Preparing a "model class" and giving routine advice, if necessary, for the 1st level.

 

On top of that of course we will pay you for the important work you have done so far in the screening and preparation stage.

 

Quantifying the above, we came up with the following breakdown: 

 

- Direct teaching - 12 academic hours

- Preparation of a "model class" for each group - 4 hours for each of the 12 sessions = 48

- Screening and preparatory process  - 19 hours

 

Total - 80 hours

 

I hope this clarifies things, and I apologize for our part in coordinating mutual expectations at an earlier stage.

 

With best wishes and hope for fruitful cooperation

 

Yossi