"Boardman & Williams taught weekly English courses for us but what I really appreciated was their flexibility. For example, they were also able to attend and support us on last-minute teleconferences, correct Power Point presentations, and record promotional video clips for our marketing department. They could solve any English problem we had. That was really nice."
- Elias Chisari, founder & CEO of epex Holding GmbH
Philosophy
At the core of our teaching philosophy is a network of qualified, experienced, and native-speaker teachers, each specialized in business, technical, or general English language instruction. Instead of forcing a fixed teaching method to fit to every individual student and class environment, we first identify the learning style of the students and goals of the class, then assign the appropriate teacher. Our teachers then further adapt their teaching style to the needs of their students.
Placement
Each student first takes an online grammar and vocabulary test as well as a listening comprehension test. Next, an online test is taken to analyze and ultimately help determine the learning style of each student. The students are then invited to a comprehensive interview with our Pedagogical Director, who discusses and confirms the results of the online tests and also ascertains learning objectives and places the students into groups with compatible goals and English skill levels. The Pedagogical Director then passes this information on to the teacher for each group and each teacher conducts a goal analysis at the beginning of the first class.
Feedback & Progress Reports
After the initial three months of class the first feedback form is given out to the students. This is a chance for the students to share their experiences as well as their opinion of the class and the learning material. It is also a chance for the teacher to modify the class if necessary to more accurately reflect the students' expectations. At about the midway point of the class, progress reports are created and distributed by the teacher. These progress reports are an important source of information to the student, and help students see what they've accomplished, which skills still need working on, and outline the path to fulfilling remaining learning goals. A second and final feedback survey is distributed after six months of class time. This feedback is then filled out by the students, turned in to the Pedagogical Director, and used to confirm that the class is still meeting the needs of the students, and that the modifications made after the first feedback have sufficiently met student expectations.
At the end of the course each student receives a final evaluation, which documents the students' progress and gives the students (and the HR department if desired) an idea of how they performed throughout the course.
goFluent
Because making significant progress learning a language often takes a lot more than 90 minutes of class once per week, we also offer an auxiliary learning product, the online Self Access Center, goFluent. This cross-platform online portal offers students 24/7 access to English-language videos, articles, and exercises. goFluent can be fully integrated into the lesson plan, and helps to maximize the return on investment made into students' English learning. It also provides a wealth of user data which can be used by student, teacher, Pedagogical Director, and the students' HR department alike to verify progress, track engagement, and quantify results. goFluent is the final piece of the learning puzzle that ties student, teacher, and Pedagogical Director together.
At the core of our teaching philosophy is a network of qualified, experienced, and native-speaker teachers, each specialized in business, technical, or general English language instruction. Instead of forcing a fixed teaching method to fit to every individual student and class environment, we first identify the learning style of the students and goals of the class, then assign the appropriate teacher. Our teachers then further adapt their teaching style to the needs of their students.
Placement
Each student first takes an online grammar and vocabulary test as well as a listening comprehension test. Next, an online test is taken to analyze and ultimately help determine the learning style of each student. The students are then invited to a comprehensive interview with our Pedagogical Director, who discusses and confirms the results of the online tests and also ascertains learning objectives and places the students into groups with compatible goals and English skill levels. The Pedagogical Director then passes this information on to the teacher for each group and each teacher conducts a goal analysis at the beginning of the first class.
Feedback & Progress Reports
After the initial three months of class the first feedback form is given out to the students. This is a chance for the students to share their experiences as well as their opinion of the class and the learning material. It is also a chance for the teacher to modify the class if necessary to more accurately reflect the students' expectations. At about the midway point of the class, progress reports are created and distributed by the teacher. These progress reports are an important source of information to the student, and help students see what they've accomplished, which skills still need working on, and outline the path to fulfilling remaining learning goals. A second and final feedback survey is distributed after six months of class time. This feedback is then filled out by the students, turned in to the Pedagogical Director, and used to confirm that the class is still meeting the needs of the students, and that the modifications made after the first feedback have sufficiently met student expectations.
At the end of the course each student receives a final evaluation, which documents the students' progress and gives the students (and the HR department if desired) an idea of how they performed throughout the course.
goFluent
Because making significant progress learning a language often takes a lot more than 90 minutes of class once per week, we also offer an auxiliary learning product, the online Self Access Center, goFluent. This cross-platform online portal offers students 24/7 access to English-language videos, articles, and exercises. goFluent can be fully integrated into the lesson plan, and helps to maximize the return on investment made into students' English learning. It also provides a wealth of user data which can be used by student, teacher, Pedagogical Director, and the students' HR department alike to verify progress, track engagement, and quantify results. goFluent is the final piece of the learning puzzle that ties student, teacher, and Pedagogical Director together.
Advantages
At Boardman & Williams you don't just benefit from the individual experience of Luke Boardman and Christopher Williams, but from our entire network of teachers. We do not run a school in the traditional sense but rather coordinate and support a network of the best educational professionals in the region. After years of living and working in the region, Luke Boardman and Christopher Williams know almost every English instructor in Ulm and the surrounding area. We know which teacher would fit best to the individual needs of our clients.
Because we have very low advertising costs, don't employ a full-time secretary, and don't spend money on an extravagant downtown office, we are able to outbid all private English schools in the region when it comes to teacher compensation. That in turn means we are able to attract the best talent in the region while still offering competitive prices to our customers.
Higher quality teachers means more experience, better certifications, a knowledge of the German language, and a passion for the craft of teaching. All of that means better results in the classroom.
And our competitive prices don't devolve into something less appealing when you study the fine print. At Boardman & Williams there are no hidden costs, such as administrative, signup, or processing fees, which many other schools use to make their bid prices appear lower than they actually are.
