OMODA employees completed their Business English course, organised by WINNISH.

This week, employees of OMODA that attended the 15-week Business English course completed this course by taking a Cambridge exam in speaking.

Earlier, in April and early May 2022, students continued to expand their speaking abilities and developed their reading and writing skills by writing a report in which the Pre-Intermediate students researched a topic that would be innovative for their department at their workplace.

The students held their presentations about the following issues:

• What are the benefits of advertising in podcasts?
• What recommender system is best suited for Omoda: collaborative or content?
• Full funnel Affiliate marketing, focus on all 4 levels in this funnel.
• A cookie-less future?
• The on-boarding program of the logistics department of OMODA.
• Improving web care.
• Research SEO Blogs and Campaign blogs.

All students presented their reports in a presentation at the OMODA head office to their colleagues and me last Monday.

The topics were really interesting and we shared opinions about its content and conclusions.

I was happy to hear that all students said they are motivated to present their ideas and conclusions on the matter they had chosen to their colleagues in the department where they work.

During the Business English course, students developed soft skills, currently known as power skills such as:

• Developing critical thinking skills both in deciding what to research and what to do with the information they find. 
• Improving efficiency. Students soon learned how to share the workload and best use their time in the classroom
• Communicating clearly: whether they were presenting their ideas to the class, or writing a report, communication was a central part of almost all classroom projects.

They developed active listening skills. The students were engaged during presentations. While one student made a presentation to the class, the others practiced active listening by taking notes and after the presentation, asking questions. At the same time, those presenting learned how to reformulate or expand upon their ideas so they were clearer for their audience. 

While role-plays are a staple in the English language teaching classroom, they were also used to enhance other skills, like negotiation.The key was to add an element of reflection, so that students not only practiced the target language but also thought about their communication techniques. For example:

In pairs, students took turns in being customer- service employees and a customer, with the customer having a complaint about the product he or she had bought. Afterward, they reflected on what was and was not successful about their answers and suggestions. This pushed the students to show leadership skills and critical thinking to overcome their partner’s objections. 

Units we discussed and researched during the course were:

Companies, Contacts, Products and Services, a Company Profile, Orders, Selling, Performance, and Future Trends.

Besides speaking, writing, listening, and reading, they made online modules about the topics at home and in the classroom, we had discussions and made up our minds about topics such as: “Your head office wants to stop all business trips and use video conferencing instead. Have a meeting to predict the effects of this measure on your company, using the ideas below; 

• reduce costs
• buy new equipment
• special training
• technical problems
• clients have video equipment “.

We talked about what global issues are most often in the news?

Which issues are you most worried about and why?

In the practice files, the students trained the grammar skills like tenses, conditionals, phrasal verbs, etc.

Soon we’ll have a party at OMODA because all students passed their exams with a good result and their certificates will be festively awarded to them!

Congratulations and thank you for being such motivated and devoted students!