Page 33 - BusinessWest October 17, 2022

improved with a better English level,” Gear said. “The average intensive stay is three months; some take longer. Then they go to university or go home and get a job. Area employers will also send employees here to improve their English.”
Four scholarships — funded by Dean’s Beans; immigration law firm Curran, Berger & Kludt; an anonymous donor, and in honor of a board
ILI boasts partnerships with more than a dozen colleges and universities, Gear said, that offer these students conditional admission if they meet certain criteria. “They don’t have to take a standardized English test because those schools trust us and know we won’t recommend them unless they are ready to go. We’ve been in this business many years, and we know when people are ready to be successful.”
She added that, “no matter how great your English level is, academic culture in the United States is completely different from their home culture academically. We get them away from rote learning and rote test taking by working on cultural skills, active participation, written and oral production, independent self-direction, peer collaboration, and critical thinking. It’s really helpful for students because they’re so used to one way of teaching for so many years, and we don’t do it that way here.”
ILI’s Workplace Training program offers lan- guage courses for companies and employees that bring specialized language training to the workplace. Small businesses can apply to a state fund that pays for this training, Gear said, which makes sense at a time when worker recruitment and retention are such a challenge.
“We all know the situation with finding employees. So if a company finds a great employ- ee but finds their language skills need improve- ment, working with the state of Massachusetts to have them pay for it is phenomenal.”
As one example, as Gear was giving a tour of ILI to BusinessWest, Office Manager Heather Hall had just gotten off the phone with Flour Bakery in Boston, which employs more than 400 people and was looking for English and Spanish training
for many of its staff.
“We’ve also worked with the Holyoke pub-
lic school system, where we teach the teachers Spanish and the parents English,” Gear said. “It’s not only about learning a language, it’s about learning a culture, navigating systems, and play- ing an integral role in making sure people feel safe to take risks and get to the next step of their career.”
The sixth — but certainly not least — major component of ILI’s programs is Teacher Training, specifically the SIT TESOL Certificate program, which becomes the graduate’s ticket to teaching language, both in the U.S. and internationally.
Diving In
At the heart of all these programs is a teaching style that, as noted earlier, ditches rote memo- rization for an immersion approach where con- stantly putting language into practice, student to student, trumps getting every word perfect.
There’s an element of fun to this immersion, too, Gear said. As one student told her, “we play a lot, but I’m learning a lot.”
Gear and her team are learning, too — about how to navigate a post-COVID world that offers new challenges, but new opportunities as well.
“We’ve diversified more, but we still do the same thing: we teach languages, and we train teachers,” she told BusinessWest, noting that a permanent online presence will be a positive from a revenue and growth perspective.
“It was pandemic-driven because our school runs tuition-based programs that support our
Language
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“I’m always learning from our students, and we are making a difference in so many people’s lives. It’s incredibly gratifying to be able to do this work.”
member’s late uncle, Rich- ard Martin — are offered annually to move four stu- dents from the Free Eng- lish program to Intensive English.
“It’s phenomenal to see what they have to say of the difference between six hours and 21 hours,” Gear said. “It takes about a year of classes in the Free Eng- lish program to go from one level to another, and now they can do that in three months, so it’s really accelerated learning.”
Meanwhile, students in the University Pathways
track of the Intensive English program receive individualized support to transition successfully to a university or college. Instead of cramming for exams or memorizing grammar rules, they practice a set of skills including essay writing, classroom participation, interactive presenta- tions, small-group discussions, team collabora- tion, academic research, and critical analysis. By focusing less on test taking and more on academ- ic training, they’re better positioned to succeed.
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EDUCATION
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