How to teach smarter using asynch work formats
Intro
Ahoj, and welcome to the workshop where we’ll find the Holy Grail of teaching smarter and having happy and smart students and we all live happily ever after.
Thank you for being here. I’m Petra, and I help learners of Hungarian find their way to the language and be successful language learners. I started teaching 20 years ago, offline, of course, it was the beginning of the Internet, you know. And then I started teaching online in 2015. When I started to get prepared for this workshop I wanted to say a year number here too like I've had asynchronous programs since this and that then I realized it's not easy to say because it's not easy to define what an asynchronous work format is.
What happens today
Let’s have a look at what happens today in this workshop. First, I'd like to tell you a few words about the title what teaching smarter is and what I think asynchronous work formats are. Then I'd like to talk about the benefits and the drawbacks of working asynchronously and about how to introduce the asynchronous formats to students. I'd also like to share a few practical things. I'll show you how my asynchronous and hybrid programs work what types of Materials and tasks I give to students And last but not least I will talk about the pricing about the price and the value of working asynchronously. After my presentation you'll have the chance to ask your questions and you know I'm a teacher so I love questions because that means that you are here with me and not somewhere else okay let's get started
[1. about the title
2. why is it good
3. why is it not good
4. practical #1 (how to introduce it to students)
5. practical #2
6. practical #3 (materials)
7. practical #4 pricing]
About the title
The title of the workshop says How to teach smarter using asynchronous work formats. Why would we want to teach smarter? What does that mean to me? This means that I enjoy my work, and I can give a lot of help to people without dying from work and without burning out every other month. So how can I reach that using asynchronous work formats? For me, asynchronous work formats can be two types. One is more or less when classic teaching happens but in an asynchronous format, for example in voice or video messages. So the teacher and the student are not in the same universe, in the same meeting at the same time, that's why it is called asynchronous, but there is a syllabus, there are exercises or assignments that have to be done and sent to the teacher. This is I think ‘classic’ teaching but in an asynchronous format.
The other type of asynchronous work formats covers any kind of activity in Hungarian or in Czech, of course, structured by me, the teacher. This might be a book club or a film club or an email course or a forum or a chat. For example what you are doing in Slowczech Lab I think this is an asynchronous work format. The participants, the students or learners pay for it and the admins or teachers who are responsible for that are paid I hope and we don't meet. So the teachers or the people who are responsible for maintaining this forum can type their questions or comments anytime, and the students or the learners can type their answers any time. We work together but don't have to agree on a time that is good for everybody where we can meet and talk.
The sunny side
[no arranging lessons, workload, not spontaneous, independent]
And here we are, at the sunny side of working asynchronously. It is a huge benefit that we don't have to set a time, we don't have to exchange emails about dates and times that is good for me, good for the student. Students can study anywhere, anytime, and teachers can set new assignments and give feedback anywhere, anytime.
Working asynchronously is good for both parties - for students and for teachers. If students get good tasks and proper feedback, they will spend much more time with Czech than in private lessons. On the top of that, they will learn about relevant things, things that they discovered in Czech. The teacher, on the other hand, will spend far less time with Czech. And it’s not the teacher who has to learn the language. In classical 1:1 teaching the teacher is the one, who has to prepare a lot, then has to be very active and concentrated during the lesson. But why? Why isn’t this the student? In asynchronous work, the student spends far more time with the language than the teacher. That is my favourite benefit as a teacher.
I’ve also tried this format as a student. And as a student, the best and most important benefit is that I don't have to speak spontaneously. I can take my time, discover new phrases I would like to use, I can research vocabulary, research grammar. And that’s how I can leave my comfort zone, and use not only those elements of the language I already know. When I have to speak spontaneously, I will use vocabulary and grammar I already know. When I have time to compose my voice message to the teacher, I might spend 15 to 20 minutes with creating 5 sentences but I will remember those phrases I used - forever.
I’ve used the word ‘research’, and yes, students will need to do some research, to find things on their own. That means they have to able to study more or less independently. When we, teachers show people how to study independently, we give them a very powerful tool. That is one of the key factors in asynchronous work: we have to help students become independent learners. Without this, it won’t work.
The challenges
[coaching Ss, clear stuff, constant communication, using translators, reading stuff, exams?, levels?, age groups?]
And here we are at the drawbacks or challenges of working asynchronously. The number one challenge for me is that students need different type of support then they needed in 1:1 classes. Most of them have no idea how to work on their own. And when there are one-on-one classes then it's a very clear very clearly allocated time for learning, okay we always have lessons on Wednesdays at six o'clock. There is no such thing in a synchronous or hybrid work formats. And very often when there is no lesson then students tend to forget about learning. What helped me in this? I always try to keep students engaged so there is constant communication. The tasks are always very clear and the deadlines are very clear, too. And I am pushing them to do the tasks in time, and I always give them bite-size tasks. So smaller tasks plus clear deadlines makes them learn constantly, regularly. And I think if anybody learns a language in any ways we can't skip coaching, and that's really true when we work in asynchronous formats. Students need to recognise their strength and weaknesses in the learning process - what they can do easily, why they think ‘I don't have time for this and that’, what prevents them from keeping the deadlines, or why they feel embarrassed when they have to record themselves and so on.
There might be some limitations on Working asynchronously with language learners. I'm not sure if it suits everybody maybe there are people who really can't work independently but I think there are less and less people like this now in the 21st century. Then I don't really know whether they can work in exam preparations. I know teachers, English teachers who use these formats in exam prep. I've never tried it and the structure I'm using is not really good for this but maybe it works. I'm also not sure whether asynchronous work formats can work at all levels. My programs are for A2 plus B1 level students learners and I thought A2 is the minimum level but then one of my colleagues started programs for A1 level students and her programs are beautiful and work well. I'm not sure though whether these formats would work with complete beginners And one more thing here at the challenges I've never used a synchronous work formats with young learners and kids. What I think is that teenagers would love it because they don't have problems to record themselves. I suppose they they might even send me a lot of video messages not only audio messages so maybe it would work with young adults or teenagers I'm not sure about kids though
Practical stuff
And now let's dive into the really exciting parts. I would like to tell you how I find students who want to take these programs or try these programs, how I build my programs, what platforms I used and what I am using at the moment. I will also show you how my programs look like what types of tasks I send to my students to participants, and how I keep this simple and how now I can avoid overdelivering - that was not always like this. Last but not least I will tell you a few words about pricing how I set my prices and how I think we should think about prices.
How to get students / Getting students
So first when you start and asynchronous program or any kind of format, first you will need students, right? So you have to convince some people that they don't need a teacher every week or twice a week when they want to improve. That's really hard or for me, it was really hard. Where to start? You already have students in your life, I'm sure, and you can try to convert them to asynchronous learners. Please never use the word asynchronous because they will just run away but you can casually mention when they leave for holiday or when they have problems with attending the lessons that oh hey look you can do something in czech during your holidays or whenever you have a little time we can do this and that so you don't have to stop or have a break from Czech. Or a lot of you are slowczech tutors and you already have a community with a lot of slowczech fans there. Now they can even experience a little asynchronous breeze through the Forum on discord and there are a lot of people who already know you, like you, and want to work with you.
The platform / About platforms
Ok let's have a look at the platforms and the structure I am using. I started on teachable and I published these programs as online courses, so the payment and all the materials were there at one place. That was very comfortable for me, but Teachable is really expensive now so I moved to Podia. That's a very nice platform, but the point is that you don't need any platform, actually, when you want to start. I made it a little bit complicated at the beginning. If I started now I wouldn't do that, I would just do everything in a Google document and in the chat on WhatsApp or Telegram or whatever you are using. I would make the payment with bank transfers or something like that. You don't have to build complete systems and you don't have to look very professional at the beginning I think - I mean on the Tech side.
There are a lot of synchronous work formats, and I think the most simple one is a speaking program where you only use voice messages and that's it. You exchange voice or video messages on WhatsApp or I'm using Telegram so you don't have to pay for expensive platforms. If you want to give extra materials or collect the new phrases somewhere, you can use Google Docs and done, that's it.
Unfortunately I didn't start like this. In the very first program, my students, the participants got a 12-page workbook every single week for four weeks plus they got teacher’s videos, audio messages. They felt really overwhelmed and me too. That was crazy! I spent 30 to 40 minutes per student with reacting and giving feedback.
My program now
How does my program look like at the moment? It's a 4-week program and not asynchronous any more but a hybrid one. We cover one topic in the four-week module and this is a complete program. This means that we read about the topic, learn topic-related vocabulary, learn about language use, and of course speak about the topic. We communicate in voice and video messages on Telegram. Here’s the detailed structure of one module. when it's a new student I always send them some help to learn independently to learn on their own and this is a good online dictionary a good translator and a good online grammar reference for example I really like the wictionary project so I usually recommend to use that. I also draw their attention that they can use voice typing when they have problems with listening. So when they don't understand video or audio I have sent they can get the transcript if they use voice type in Google Docs or there are even better ones of course.
AT the beginning of the module, we always start with input, so the first week is about reading and listening, and we work a bit on the new vocabulary. On week two we focus on language use and there's a 30 minute zoom meeting where we talk about the students’ questions. I help them with anything they are stuck with. Week 3 is about listening and speaking. The student can listen to my experiences or my stories related to the topic, and they also get guided speaking tasks. The fourth week is still about speaking there is another speaking task and there's also a zoom meeting again where we talk about questions, problems.
Okay but how can we make all those exercises and tasks and assignments that the students will need? I've told you that my first workbook had 12 pages each week so that means during the four-week program I made 48 pages for the students. I don't do that anymore. Now the workbook is about six pages long for the four week module and it's full of blank spaces. Let me show you what types of tasks I'm using with my students.
The very first task is always reading and listening because input goes first and then comes the rest. I know a lot of teachers who always create their own materials, and they write beautiful texts and record audio for them and so on. And that's great if you have a lot of time, and if you can use those texts and audio recordings smart. So if you can sell them many times, or you can make an e-book of them, or start a paid membership based on those texts or whatever. But you don’t have to do that. I happen to be familiar with slowczech materials and they are wonderful, a lot of them are available for free. And there are some other creators who make texts or videos or audios that can be used in your programs too. If your student is at higher level B2 or higher, you can use of course any authentic text from the internet. If your student is already an independent learner, they might send you a text they want to work on. It's important that if the text doesn't have audio then I think you should make an audio recording because it's very important not just read but listen, too
After getting the input we get closer to the text and the very first task is always finding five or six new words or phrases in the text, phrases they want to remember, they want to use actively. These vocabulary items are not necessarily new vocabulary, maybe the student understood that word in the text from the context, or maybe they recognize that word when they hear it or see it, but they might not be able to to use it actively. So they have to collect five or six new phrases or words and make phrases or sentences using them, and read them out loud in Telegram. I always try to make all the tasks a speaking task. That’s why, I ask them to read these out loud. I don't correct these phrases or sentences but I mark the problems and they can correct them.
The next tasks are still about the text. The student tells me on telegram in a voice message what the text is about. I always highlight here that they shouldn't do that with their own words, I always ask them to use the the words of the text because there are new vocabulary in the text and here they can use again the new vocabulary in the easy way because they don’t have to create completely new sentences just tell the story of the text in a shorter version using the same words as they were in the text I also write three or four questions about the text they can answer them if they feel more comfortable with that but here again it's very important to use the words of the text and not their own words. I sometimes just ask them what was the most interesting part in the text. The point is going through the text and using the new vocabulary as much as possible. Okay so that was for week 1: read and listen to the text, focus on new vocabulary, and using new vocabulary, but not in the creative way yet.
The second week we are focusing on language use and grammar. This is also related to the text that we read in the first week. I ask a few questions like why is this ending used here or preposition in Czech we in Hungarian we have Endings so why is this ending used here and give me three more examples when it is used why is this verb form used here. Or look at this and that structure in the text and write three more examples of that. So when we learn about grammar I don't write many pages of filling the gap exercises but I let the student explore things. Sometimes I even give them interesting research tasks on etymology. For example if in Czech I once realized that nedele and pondelí really have a meaning I will never forget them ever plus I get a lot of grammar info for example You know the meaning of po There are some students who always need the classical gap filling exercises then of course you can have a grammar exercise book or something like that and they can get extra practice as homework.
And now comes weeks three and four where students get speaking tasks I send them a short video or audio recording where I speak about my experiences or I share stories related to the topic and I also send them questions they have to cover in their homework. It’s essential that it's not spontaneous speaking for my students for the A2 plus B1 students I ask them to think about what they want to say, take notes, research vocabulary, grammar, and structures they want to use, take notes and then rehearse if they want and then send me a two or three minute video or audio recording. Preparing and rehearsing is not because they can't make mistakes of course but it's important to spend time with the language that's why they are here and this way they spend much more time with the language than just speaking spontaneously and blablaing for for three minutes in the recordings. So this is one speaking task and there are three of them two of them on week 3 and one of them on week four
Giving feedback
let me tell you a few words about how I give feedback on the speaking tasks. That can be very time-consuming.First I spent a lot of time on this but now I made it very simple. Of course, while I'm listening to their assignments I'm taking notes I have symbols a little heart if it's an interesting thing she was saying or an asterisk when I can hear a problem or a mistake and a star if it’s something I want to point out in the feedback. When I record my feedback I kind of sum up what the student was saying, I say that oh it was very interesting when you said this and that, or I also like the way this and that works, and I took notes so I can use their phrases, I can use the vocabulary they used, and again they hear the same vocabulary and that helps them remember them more easily. Two years ago I always wanted to give very creative feedback and I always wanted to sound really smart but that's not the point that won't help students learn the language of course but it's very good for my ego. So I sum up what the student just said and then I write a few error corrections in the chat so I write the phrases that have problem or mistake and I let the student correct them. All these, so listening to the student’s recording taking notes recording your feedback and sending it of course and writing a few sentences with mistakes in the chat all these have to be done in 10 minutes maybe 15 maximum. Keep it simple it was really hard for me to accept that the students don't improve when I spend a lot of time with the exercises and with the language they improve a lot when they spend a lot of time with the language and with the exercises.
If you look at these types of tasks I've just shared with you the only task you have to spend some time with is the speaking because you have to record your stories and your experiences you can do that in the smart way if you make it simple of course and take some notes and record it in 10 minutes all together and then keep your recordings in a very Clear structure so you can reuse those recordings with other students when you deal with the same topic
RUR - An example
As my materials are in Hungarian I can't show them to you but I tried to do something with a slowczech text and this is RUR od Karla Capka. First let me read out this short part of the text with my beautiful check pronunciation.
Příběh ‘RUR’ se odehrává (se děje) na ostrově. Na tomto ostrově je továrna, která vyrábí roboty. Ti roboti vypadají jako lidé, ale nejsou lidé. Roboti pracují pro lidi.
Hlavní postava je Harry Domin. Harry Domin je ředitel továrny. Další důležitá postava je Helena Gloryová. Helena přijede na ostrov. Přijede na ostrov, protože chce vidět roboty.
Helena se dozví o robotech mnoho věcí. Zjistí například, že roboti nemají city. To znamená, že roboti nemohou cítit lásku nebo smutek.
Here are my ideas how collecting new vocabulary should look like and what I try to train my students to do I've collected the following vocabulary príbeh se odehrává … (odhehrát se Is the dictionary form and it comes from hrát), hlavní postava, ona se dozví mnoho veci (dozvedet se is the dictionary form and it comes from vedet), mnoho veci I know but I never use mnoho I would say hodne veci, I recognize mnoho veci I know that that but I don't I can't use it actively so that's why I've collected this one too), I've also added zjistí (zjistit - And this is a good question to the teacher in the chat what's the difference between dozvedet se and zjistit), nemohou (nemuzou) This is useful because this form is not following the normal rules - for me - after I collected these from the text I would make sentences of them and send them to the teacher it's important to have phrases or even sentences like (see above) Students learn the new vocabulary but not only the word but the whole context and that gives them a lot of info about grammar too The point is, I, the teacher don’t give the students ready-made vocabulary lists but they create their own lists.
Next one is about the language use I put only three things here The first one is a preposition na, I've made a few phrases with it already plus I put here ‘na tomto ostrove’ because I have no idea how to use these ten, ta, to, tento, tomto. And this shows it very well that if we give space to the students to discover things on their own and They take control Of the learning process We will know what they really need these pronouns ten, ta, to and friends are A0 level I'm not at A0 level in check but I've never learned them I never really cared about them now if you're my teacher in the asynchronous format then you can see that oh-oh, Petra has problems with this may be I will highlight these kind of words in other texts too. I’ve also marked roboty and roboti in the text, and the word vypadat. I know this one but it's still good to write a few sentences with it because I find it very useful word so why not giving it some extra practice
And then comes the speaking part There is one topic that I would surely use with this text is of course tell me about a book you like or you have just read because there are a lot of useful phrases in the text that help students speak about books or films. I always ask them to send me not longer than 3-min messages, and I always react and give feedback in 24 hours, in weekdays.
Pricing
So these were the tasks I’m using. Now let’s have a few words about pricing. I’m in a mentoring program, and there I was said to set the price like this: a 4-week program should cost the same as you charge for private lessons for 4 weeks. So if a private student pays you 3000 CZK for their lessons for 4 weeks, than you can offer your 4-week asynchronous program for 3000. It was not easy for me, I felt that the asynch is worth less but then I tried it as a student, too, and I realised how much faster I improved. So as a teacher I had to accept that students shouldn’t pay for my time But they pay for the change they can make with my help they pay for the transformation they can make with my help. Let’s say, you invent the magic pill that you just have to take and then you can speak a language at B2 level I'm sure that people would pay zillions of Dollars or CZK or whatever's but taking that pill takes only two seconds and maybe you have to wait 30 to 60 minutes for the effect of the pill but people won’t pay you the same amount as they would pay for a 30 or a 60 Minute lesson because it's not about the time it's about the change you make
End notes
Before we go on with your questions - I hope you have a lot, I would like to share with you what was the number one thing I learned from this, from from starting to work asynchronously. Number one is that just be brave, don't be afraid of experimenting. And I realized there are so many great ways and methods out in the world so I have to be open to new ways and new Solutions and we can always think outside the box and apply or even invent new ways and new methods. It's wonderful, I love my job!
Thank you very much and let's see if you have any questions or comments on these.
Intro
Ahoj, and welcome to the workshop where we’ll find the Holy Grail of teaching smarter and having happy and smart students and we all live happily ever after.
Thank you for being here. I’m Petra, and I help learners of Hungarian find their way to the language and be successful language learners. I started teaching 20 years ago, offline, of course, it was the beginning of the Internet, you know. And then I started teaching online in 2015. When I started to get prepared for this workshop I wanted to say a year number here too like I've had asynchronous programs since this and that then I realized it's not easy to say because it's not easy to define what an asynchronous work format is.
What happens today
Let’s have a look at what happens today in this workshop. First, I'd like to tell you a few words about the title what teaching smarter is and what I think asynchronous work formats are. Then I'd like to talk about the benefits and the drawbacks of working asynchronously and about how to introduce the asynchronous formats to students. I'd also like to share a few practical things. I'll show you how my asynchronous and hybrid programs work what types of Materials and tasks I give to students And last but not least I will talk about the pricing about the price and the value of working asynchronously. After my presentation you'll have the chance to ask your questions and you know I'm a teacher so I love questions because that means that you are here with me and not somewhere else okay let's get started
[1. about the title
2. why is it good
3. why is it not good
4. practical #1 (how to introduce it to students)
5. practical #2
6. practical #3 (materials)
7. practical #4 pricing]
About the title
The title of the workshop says How to teach smarter using asynchronous work formats. Why would we want to teach smarter? What does that mean to me? This means that I enjoy my work, and I can give a lot of help to people without dying from work and without burning out every other month. So how can I reach that using asynchronous work formats? For me, asynchronous work formats can be two types. One is more or less when classic teaching happens but in an asynchronous format, for example in voice or video messages. So the teacher and the student are not in the same universe, in the same meeting at the same time, that's why it is called asynchronous, but there is a syllabus, there are exercises or assignments that have to be done and sent to the teacher. This is I think ‘classic’ teaching but in an asynchronous format.
The other type of asynchronous work formats covers any kind of activity in Hungarian or in Czech, of course, structured by me, the teacher. This might be a book club or a film club or an email course or a forum or a chat. For example what you are doing in Slowczech Lab I think this is an asynchronous work format. The participants, the students or learners pay for it and the admins or teachers who are responsible for that are paid I hope and we don't meet. So the teachers or the people who are responsible for maintaining this forum can type their questions or comments anytime, and the students or the learners can type their answers any time. We work together but don't have to agree on a time that is good for everybody where we can meet and talk.
The sunny side
[no arranging lessons, workload, not spontaneous, independent]
And here we are, at the sunny side of working asynchronously. It is a huge benefit that we don't have to set a time, we don't have to exchange emails about dates and times that is good for me, good for the student. Students can study anywhere, anytime, and teachers can set new assignments and give feedback anywhere, anytime.
Working asynchronously is good for both parties - for students and for teachers. If students get good tasks and proper feedback, they will spend much more time with Czech than in private lessons. On the top of that, they will learn about relevant things, things that they discovered in Czech. The teacher, on the other hand, will spend far less time with Czech. And it’s not the teacher who has to learn the language. In classical 1:1 teaching the teacher is the one, who has to prepare a lot, then has to be very active and concentrated during the lesson. But why? Why isn’t this the student? In asynchronous work, the student spends far more time with the language than the teacher. That is my favourite benefit as a teacher.
I’ve also tried this format as a student. And as a student, the best and most important benefit is that I don't have to speak spontaneously. I can take my time, discover new phrases I would like to use, I can research vocabulary, research grammar. And that’s how I can leave my comfort zone, and use not only those elements of the language I already know. When I have to speak spontaneously, I will use vocabulary and grammar I already know. When I have time to compose my voice message to the teacher, I might spend 15 to 20 minutes with creating 5 sentences but I will remember those phrases I used - forever.
I’ve used the word ‘research’, and yes, students will need to do some research, to find things on their own. That means they have to able to study more or less independently. When we, teachers show people how to study independently, we give them a very powerful tool. That is one of the key factors in asynchronous work: we have to help students become independent learners. Without this, it won’t work.
The challenges
[coaching Ss, clear stuff, constant communication, using translators, reading stuff, exams?, levels?, age groups?]
And here we are at the drawbacks or challenges of working asynchronously. The number one challenge for me is that students need different type of support then they needed in 1:1 classes. Most of them have no idea how to work on their own. And when there are one-on-one classes then it's a very clear very clearly allocated time for learning, okay we always have lessons on Wednesdays at six o'clock. There is no such thing in a synchronous or hybrid work formats. And very often when there is no lesson then students tend to forget about learning. What helped me in this? I always try to keep students engaged so there is constant communication. The tasks are always very clear and the deadlines are very clear, too. And I am pushing them to do the tasks in time, and I always give them bite-size tasks. So smaller tasks plus clear deadlines makes them learn constantly, regularly. And I think if anybody learns a language in any ways we can't skip coaching, and that's really true when we work in asynchronous formats. Students need to recognise their strength and weaknesses in the learning process - what they can do easily, why they think ‘I don't have time for this and that’, what prevents them from keeping the deadlines, or why they feel embarrassed when they have to record themselves and so on.
There might be some limitations on Working asynchronously with language learners. I'm not sure if it suits everybody maybe there are people who really can't work independently but I think there are less and less people like this now in the 21st century. Then I don't really know whether they can work in exam preparations. I know teachers, English teachers who use these formats in exam prep. I've never tried it and the structure I'm using is not really good for this but maybe it works. I'm also not sure whether asynchronous work formats can work at all levels. My programs are for A2 plus B1 level students learners and I thought A2 is the minimum level but then one of my colleagues started programs for A1 level students and her programs are beautiful and work well. I'm not sure though whether these formats would work with complete beginners And one more thing here at the challenges I've never used a synchronous work formats with young learners and kids. What I think is that teenagers would love it because they don't have problems to record themselves. I suppose they they might even send me a lot of video messages not only audio messages so maybe it would work with young adults or teenagers I'm not sure about kids though
Practical stuff
And now let's dive into the really exciting parts. I would like to tell you how I find students who want to take these programs or try these programs, how I build my programs, what platforms I used and what I am using at the moment. I will also show you how my programs look like what types of tasks I send to my students to participants, and how I keep this simple and how now I can avoid overdelivering - that was not always like this. Last but not least I will tell you a few words about pricing how I set my prices and how I think we should think about prices.
How to get students / Getting students
So first when you start and asynchronous program or any kind of format, first you will need students, right? So you have to convince some people that they don't need a teacher every week or twice a week when they want to improve. That's really hard or for me, it was really hard. Where to start? You already have students in your life, I'm sure, and you can try to convert them to asynchronous learners. Please never use the word asynchronous because they will just run away but you can casually mention when they leave for holiday or when they have problems with attending the lessons that oh hey look you can do something in czech during your holidays or whenever you have a little time we can do this and that so you don't have to stop or have a break from Czech. Or a lot of you are slowczech tutors and you already have a community with a lot of slowczech fans there. Now they can even experience a little asynchronous breeze through the Forum on discord and there are a lot of people who already know you, like you, and want to work with you.
The platform / About platforms
Ok let's have a look at the platforms and the structure I am using. I started on teachable and I published these programs as online courses, so the payment and all the materials were there at one place. That was very comfortable for me, but Teachable is really expensive now so I moved to Podia. That's a very nice platform, but the point is that you don't need any platform, actually, when you want to start. I made it a little bit complicated at the beginning. If I started now I wouldn't do that, I would just do everything in a Google document and in the chat on WhatsApp or Telegram or whatever you are using. I would make the payment with bank transfers or something like that. You don't have to build complete systems and you don't have to look very professional at the beginning I think - I mean on the Tech side.
There are a lot of synchronous work formats, and I think the most simple one is a speaking program where you only use voice messages and that's it. You exchange voice or video messages on WhatsApp or I'm using Telegram so you don't have to pay for expensive platforms. If you want to give extra materials or collect the new phrases somewhere, you can use Google Docs and done, that's it.
Unfortunately I didn't start like this. In the very first program, my students, the participants got a 12-page workbook every single week for four weeks plus they got teacher’s videos, audio messages. They felt really overwhelmed and me too. That was crazy! I spent 30 to 40 minutes per student with reacting and giving feedback.
My program now
How does my program look like at the moment? It's a 4-week program and not asynchronous any more but a hybrid one. We cover one topic in the four-week module and this is a complete program. This means that we read about the topic, learn topic-related vocabulary, learn about language use, and of course speak about the topic. We communicate in voice and video messages on Telegram. Here’s the detailed structure of one module. when it's a new student I always send them some help to learn independently to learn on their own and this is a good online dictionary a good translator and a good online grammar reference for example I really like the wictionary project so I usually recommend to use that. I also draw their attention that they can use voice typing when they have problems with listening. So when they don't understand video or audio I have sent they can get the transcript if they use voice type in Google Docs or there are even better ones of course.
AT the beginning of the module, we always start with input, so the first week is about reading and listening, and we work a bit on the new vocabulary. On week two we focus on language use and there's a 30 minute zoom meeting where we talk about the students’ questions. I help them with anything they are stuck with. Week 3 is about listening and speaking. The student can listen to my experiences or my stories related to the topic, and they also get guided speaking tasks. The fourth week is still about speaking there is another speaking task and there's also a zoom meeting again where we talk about questions, problems.
Okay but how can we make all those exercises and tasks and assignments that the students will need? I've told you that my first workbook had 12 pages each week so that means during the four-week program I made 48 pages for the students. I don't do that anymore. Now the workbook is about six pages long for the four week module and it's full of blank spaces. Let me show you what types of tasks I'm using with my students.
The very first task is always reading and listening because input goes first and then comes the rest. I know a lot of teachers who always create their own materials, and they write beautiful texts and record audio for them and so on. And that's great if you have a lot of time, and if you can use those texts and audio recordings smart. So if you can sell them many times, or you can make an e-book of them, or start a paid membership based on those texts or whatever. But you don’t have to do that. I happen to be familiar with slowczech materials and they are wonderful, a lot of them are available for free. And there are some other creators who make texts or videos or audios that can be used in your programs too. If your student is at higher level B2 or higher, you can use of course any authentic text from the internet. If your student is already an independent learner, they might send you a text they want to work on. It's important that if the text doesn't have audio then I think you should make an audio recording because it's very important not just read but listen, too
After getting the input we get closer to the text and the very first task is always finding five or six new words or phrases in the text, phrases they want to remember, they want to use actively. These vocabulary items are not necessarily new vocabulary, maybe the student understood that word in the text from the context, or maybe they recognize that word when they hear it or see it, but they might not be able to to use it actively. So they have to collect five or six new phrases or words and make phrases or sentences using them, and read them out loud in Telegram. I always try to make all the tasks a speaking task. That’s why, I ask them to read these out loud. I don't correct these phrases or sentences but I mark the problems and they can correct them.
The next tasks are still about the text. The student tells me on telegram in a voice message what the text is about. I always highlight here that they shouldn't do that with their own words, I always ask them to use the the words of the text because there are new vocabulary in the text and here they can use again the new vocabulary in the easy way because they don’t have to create completely new sentences just tell the story of the text in a shorter version using the same words as they were in the text I also write three or four questions about the text they can answer them if they feel more comfortable with that but here again it's very important to use the words of the text and not their own words. I sometimes just ask them what was the most interesting part in the text. The point is going through the text and using the new vocabulary as much as possible. Okay so that was for week 1: read and listen to the text, focus on new vocabulary, and using new vocabulary, but not in the creative way yet.
The second week we are focusing on language use and grammar. This is also related to the text that we read in the first week. I ask a few questions like why is this ending used here or preposition in Czech we in Hungarian we have Endings so why is this ending used here and give me three more examples when it is used why is this verb form used here. Or look at this and that structure in the text and write three more examples of that. So when we learn about grammar I don't write many pages of filling the gap exercises but I let the student explore things. Sometimes I even give them interesting research tasks on etymology. For example if in Czech I once realized that nedele and pondelí really have a meaning I will never forget them ever plus I get a lot of grammar info for example You know the meaning of po There are some students who always need the classical gap filling exercises then of course you can have a grammar exercise book or something like that and they can get extra practice as homework.
And now comes weeks three and four where students get speaking tasks I send them a short video or audio recording where I speak about my experiences or I share stories related to the topic and I also send them questions they have to cover in their homework. It’s essential that it's not spontaneous speaking for my students for the A2 plus B1 students I ask them to think about what they want to say, take notes, research vocabulary, grammar, and structures they want to use, take notes and then rehearse if they want and then send me a two or three minute video or audio recording. Preparing and rehearsing is not because they can't make mistakes of course but it's important to spend time with the language that's why they are here and this way they spend much more time with the language than just speaking spontaneously and blablaing for for three minutes in the recordings. So this is one speaking task and there are three of them two of them on week 3 and one of them on week four
Giving feedback
let me tell you a few words about how I give feedback on the speaking tasks. That can be very time-consuming.First I spent a lot of time on this but now I made it very simple. Of course, while I'm listening to their assignments I'm taking notes I have symbols a little heart if it's an interesting thing she was saying or an asterisk when I can hear a problem or a mistake and a star if it’s something I want to point out in the feedback. When I record my feedback I kind of sum up what the student was saying, I say that oh it was very interesting when you said this and that, or I also like the way this and that works, and I took notes so I can use their phrases, I can use the vocabulary they used, and again they hear the same vocabulary and that helps them remember them more easily. Two years ago I always wanted to give very creative feedback and I always wanted to sound really smart but that's not the point that won't help students learn the language of course but it's very good for my ego. So I sum up what the student just said and then I write a few error corrections in the chat so I write the phrases that have problem or mistake and I let the student correct them. All these, so listening to the student’s recording taking notes recording your feedback and sending it of course and writing a few sentences with mistakes in the chat all these have to be done in 10 minutes maybe 15 maximum. Keep it simple it was really hard for me to accept that the students don't improve when I spend a lot of time with the exercises and with the language they improve a lot when they spend a lot of time with the language and with the exercises.
If you look at these types of tasks I've just shared with you the only task you have to spend some time with is the speaking because you have to record your stories and your experiences you can do that in the smart way if you make it simple of course and take some notes and record it in 10 minutes all together and then keep your recordings in a very Clear structure so you can reuse those recordings with other students when you deal with the same topic
RUR - An example
As my materials are in Hungarian I can't show them to you but I tried to do something with a slowczech text and this is RUR od Karla Capka. First let me read out this short part of the text with my beautiful check pronunciation.
Příběh ‘RUR’ se odehrává (se děje) na ostrově. Na tomto ostrově je továrna, která vyrábí roboty. Ti roboti vypadají jako lidé, ale nejsou lidé. Roboti pracují pro lidi.
Hlavní postava je Harry Domin. Harry Domin je ředitel továrny. Další důležitá postava je Helena Gloryová. Helena přijede na ostrov. Přijede na ostrov, protože chce vidět roboty.
Helena se dozví o robotech mnoho věcí. Zjistí například, že roboti nemají city. To znamená, že roboti nemohou cítit lásku nebo smutek.
Here are my ideas how collecting new vocabulary should look like and what I try to train my students to do I've collected the following vocabulary príbeh se odehrává … (odhehrát se Is the dictionary form and it comes from hrát), hlavní postava, ona se dozví mnoho veci (dozvedet se is the dictionary form and it comes from vedet), mnoho veci I know but I never use mnoho I would say hodne veci, I recognize mnoho veci I know that that but I don't I can't use it actively so that's why I've collected this one too), I've also added zjistí (zjistit - And this is a good question to the teacher in the chat what's the difference between dozvedet se and zjistit), nemohou (nemuzou) This is useful because this form is not following the normal rules - for me - after I collected these from the text I would make sentences of them and send them to the teacher it's important to have phrases or even sentences like (see above) Students learn the new vocabulary but not only the word but the whole context and that gives them a lot of info about grammar too The point is, I, the teacher don’t give the students ready-made vocabulary lists but they create their own lists.
Next one is about the language use I put only three things here The first one is a preposition na, I've made a few phrases with it already plus I put here ‘na tomto ostrove’ because I have no idea how to use these ten, ta, to, tento, tomto. And this shows it very well that if we give space to the students to discover things on their own and They take control Of the learning process We will know what they really need these pronouns ten, ta, to and friends are A0 level I'm not at A0 level in check but I've never learned them I never really cared about them now if you're my teacher in the asynchronous format then you can see that oh-oh, Petra has problems with this may be I will highlight these kind of words in other texts too. I’ve also marked roboty and roboti in the text, and the word vypadat. I know this one but it's still good to write a few sentences with it because I find it very useful word so why not giving it some extra practice
And then comes the speaking part There is one topic that I would surely use with this text is of course tell me about a book you like or you have just read because there are a lot of useful phrases in the text that help students speak about books or films. I always ask them to send me not longer than 3-min messages, and I always react and give feedback in 24 hours, in weekdays.
Pricing
So these were the tasks I’m using. Now let’s have a few words about pricing. I’m in a mentoring program, and there I was said to set the price like this: a 4-week program should cost the same as you charge for private lessons for 4 weeks. So if a private student pays you 3000 CZK for their lessons for 4 weeks, than you can offer your 4-week asynchronous program for 3000. It was not easy for me, I felt that the asynch is worth less but then I tried it as a student, too, and I realised how much faster I improved. So as a teacher I had to accept that students shouldn’t pay for my time But they pay for the change they can make with my help they pay for the transformation they can make with my help. Let’s say, you invent the magic pill that you just have to take and then you can speak a language at B2 level I'm sure that people would pay zillions of Dollars or CZK or whatever's but taking that pill takes only two seconds and maybe you have to wait 30 to 60 minutes for the effect of the pill but people won’t pay you the same amount as they would pay for a 30 or a 60 Minute lesson because it's not about the time it's about the change you make
End notes
Before we go on with your questions - I hope you have a lot, I would like to share with you what was the number one thing I learned from this, from from starting to work asynchronously. Number one is that just be brave, don't be afraid of experimenting. And I realized there are so many great ways and methods out in the world so I have to be open to new ways and new Solutions and we can always think outside the box and apply or even invent new ways and new methods. It's wonderful, I love my job!
Thank you very much and let's see if you have any questions or comments on these.
