Making vocational online training accessible to adults who don’t have English as their mother tongue Strategies used in the EU funded M-HOUSE project pilot course "Business Skills Explorer" targeted at adults running households who may not be aware how transferable their skills are.

1. M OBILE LEARNING TO UNLEASH
HOUSEHOLDS BUSINESS POTENTIAL

2. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
WHAT I WONDER
How are working people coping with English in their daily work?
Are MOOCs reaching everyone?

3. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
THE OPPORTUNITY
M-HOUSE: Unrecognised competence across Europe
Money management
Conflict resolution
Event planning
Looking after family and visitors

4. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
THE OPPORTUNITY
M-HOUSE: Unrecognised competence across Europe
Money management
Conflict resolution
Event planning
Looking after family and visitors
Remind you of anyone?

5. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
THE OPPORTUNITY
M-HOUSE: Unrecognised competence across Europe
Money management
Conflict resolution
Event planning
Looking after family and visitors
Remind you of anyone?
Get homemakers to value their skills more
Get these skilled people talking & exploring together

6. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
THE OPPORTUNITY
M-HOUSE: Unrecognised competence across Europe
Money management
Conflict resolution
Event planning
Looking after family and visitors
Remind you of anyone?
Get homemakers to value their skills more
Get these skilled people talking & exploring together
How?

7. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
THE OPPORTUNITY
M-HOUSE: Unrecognised competence across Europe
Money management
Conflict resolution
Event planning
Looking after family and visitors
Remind you of anyone?
Get homemakers to value their skills more
Get these skilled people talking & exploring together
How?
Online
In English

8. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
CLIL IN DISGUISE?
How
could
wetell?

9. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
CLIL IN DISGUISE?
How could we tell?
Content
Cognition
Communication
Culture

10. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
The 4 Cs What?
Content integrating content from across the
curriculum through high quality
language interaction
Cognition engaging learners through
creativity, higher order thinking and
knowledge processing
Communication using language to learn and
mediate ideas, thoughts and
values
Culture interpreting and understanding the
significance of content and
language and their contribution to
identity and citizenship
Based on Coyle 2009

11. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
CONTENT
“integrating content from across the curriculum through high quality language
interaction”
Module Title From home to business (Key Learning Situation –
KLS)
Make yourself at home Looking after guests (customer care)
Make your dream come true! Organising the trip of a lifetime (Business mission)
Plan it! Do it! Organising a social event (completing a business
project)
In search of value Making a big purchase (use of resources)
Move & take-off Moving house (starting a new business)
Balancing the books Dealing with fluctuating income
Problem solved! Handling conflict
Branding yourself Thinking about a new business idea

12. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
COGNITION
“engaging learners through creativity, higher order thinking and knowledge
processing”
Reframing: from negative to positive
Eg My worst purchase TO My best purchase

13. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
COGNITION
“engaging learners through creativity, higher order thinking and knowledge
processing”
Reframing: from negative to positive
Eg My worst purchase TO My best purchase
Uniform structure: adopt the same structure for each module as follows:
• Intro activity: a short low risk activity that activates learners to think about
the topic
• Background information: short theoretical background to the topic with
perhaps a low risk knowledge checking activity
• Application of knowledge: A practical task that can partly be completed
offline.

14. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
COGNITION
“engaging learners through creativity, higher order thinking and knowledge
processing”
Modelling: online moderator demonstrates length and tone of expected response.
“I organised the wedding of my friends Davide and Claudia. It was very informal and
laid-back, yet great fun. The location was in the middle of the countryside in a very
simple and cosy restaurant. I believed it was well organised because:
● there was not too much over-organisation, yet the essential things were there. This
created a relaxed atmosphere: not stressed! DropBox helped a lot as we were
able to share the wedding list and coordinate the transport with it.
● after lunch, some live music was planned (which was played by the groom’s
friends) - it was fun and not expensive!
● the total number of guests was about 50, so groom and bride managed to speak
with everybody.
And the best thing was that even though Aunt Maria could not be there, we Skyped the
speeches and toasts to her and she was able to say hello from her hospital bed.”

15. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
COMMUNICATION
“using language to learn and mediate ideas, thoughts and values”
From:
The aim of the
course is to increase
your awareness of
your business
potential and to
valorize your
entrepreneurial soft
skills.
To:
The main aim of the
course is to increase
your understanding of
your business potential
and to make the best
use of your
entrepreneurial soft
skills.

16. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
COMMUNICATION
“using language to learn and mediate ideas, thoughts and values”
Multi-channel responses

17. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
ENGLISH WHEN NECESSARY

18. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
ENGLISH WHEN NECESSARY

19. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
CULTURE
“interpreting and understanding the significance of content and language and
their contribution to identity and citizenship”
I invited an American professor for dinner and my wife cooked corn-
croquettes. Very tasty!
The professor asked what they were
and she said “maïs croquettes”
He understood “mice” croquettes.

20. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
STRATEGIES
Expectations survey
Task (& response) types (minimal language response)
Reframing
English only when necessary eg research can be in mother tongue
Simple English
Modelling
Glossary
Multi-channel responses

21. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
SO IS THIS ADULT CLIL?

22. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
INTERESTED?
QUESTIONS?

23. M - L E A R N I N G T O U N L E A S H
H O U S E H O L D S B U S I N E S S P O T E N T I A L
REFERENCES
Bonk & Khoo, Adding some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating
and Retaining Learners Online (free online) 2014
Coyle, Towards an integrated curriculum – CLIL National Statement and
Guidelines, (free online) 2009
Fox, A, Online Learning: Lessons learned from developing, tutoring and
monitoring online courses (free online) 2014
Salmons, G. E-tivities: The key to active online learning, 2013,
http://www.gillysalmon.com/e-tivities.html

24. This project has been funded with support from
the European Commission. This presentation
reflects the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information
contained therein.
Anne Fox
annef@annefox.eu
Twitter:
@foxdenuk