SPECIALIST ENGLISH TRAINING
Overview
For over twelve years now, I have taught Business and General English to students and professionals in a variety of disciplines in different countries. My business language courses are tailor-made to meet the specific requirements of English for special purposes (e.g., marketing, project management, public affairs, energy and the environment). I also help my clients create, edit and improve the impact of their Curriculum Vitae. I am highly-qualified in the field of Language Teaching, and a holder of the CELT certificate and DELTA (II & III) diploma.
Intercultural Awareness
In recent years, I have seen an ever-increasing need in business and academia for greater intercultural awareness. I see this kind of professional and personal development as a natural progression to language training. It is not enough to speak a language well if what you are saying and doing is culturally inappropriate. Accordingly, a fundamental element of my language training work focuses on developing intercultural awareness through the sharing of personal experiences, and the analysis of stereotypes and situations of intercultural differences with the aim of preparing learners to find possible resolutions to realistic problematic intercultural scenarios.
Approach
I prefer helping clients develop self-confidence in English through practical, “hands-on” learning rather than simply preparing them with the ability to pass examinations. The approach I use is holistic, with a strong focus on encouraging clients to share their own opinions – through speaking and writing – about issues which affect them personally and professionally. I prefer to allow lessons to take their natural course, rather than sticking rigidly to the planned lesson. I truly believe this approach provides better results as the content has emotional meaning for the client and therefore has more concrete learning value.
Thanks to my professional background, my courses include a great deal of role play, presentations and group work. I feel these are indispensable tools in language learning, and provide students with a safe environment in which they can experiment and put into practice new language elements they learn.
About my work
I have taught English as a Foreign Language to hundreds of university students and professionals over the last twelve years. I first took an international Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate – RELSA/CELT accredited by the Government of Ireland. I subsequently passed parts II (Professsional Practice) and III (Specialization – teaching English for specific purposes) of the internationally recognized Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers (DELTA) accredited by the University of Cambridge, UK. The DELTA is an intense and comprehensive post-graduate diploma programme and is widely considered to be the most illustrious advanced English Language Teaching qualification in the world.
I have also successfully completed two certified courses (Developing People Internationally and Teaching Intercultural Communication Skills) offered by York Associates, UK, one of the industry leaders in international team and leadership training.
Client Portfolio
Il Sole 24 Ore Business School
The post-graduate training programmes comprise a period of 5 to 6 months in the classroom followed by a real-world business internship. As well as developing language skills in business contexts, I encouraged discussion and debate on intercultural and interpersonal understanding, in order to help the future professionals develop tools they would need to successfully manage potentially conflicting situations or delicate intercultural meetings, and to transform “culture shock” into a resource. To this end, I used various techniques such as role-playing and group work. Examples of topics covered in these training programmes include: Corporate Crisis Management, Intercultural Business, International Teams, Project Management.
LUISS University
Under contract with the British Council, I designed, developed and implemented English language courses for LUISS University students in the fields of economics, jurisprudence, and political science. These courses were developed to mirror the real-world future needs of these students and to equip them with greater accuracy, efficacy and self-confidence in terms of the English language.
British Council
This work comprised teaching general English to adults. While developing and implementing lessons, I placed strong emphasis on oral practice in order to present new cultural insights on language learning methodology which were more “student-orientated”.
Aix-Marseille Université
I taught business and scientific English to undergraduate and postgraduate university students and designed tailor-made English courses to be used by various faculties in their future language learning programmes. My collaboration also involved facilitating weekly informal chat sessions with university staff and students, whereby participants could practice their language skills in an extra-curricular environment.
Testimonials
ADRIANA ANCESCHI – Senior Training Manager- Il Sole 24 Ore Business School, Rome
“Jude is.. a fundamental reference point…he is demanding, stimulating, engaging, dynamic, able to transform the English laboratory lessons into moments of high-quality training…ability to manage various situations, optimizing timing and efficiency, all with the single goal of ensuring the end-user’s complete satisfaction.”
“He is demanding, professional and qualified, in his course I was able to learn more than in years of school” and “The best English teacher I’ve ever had”. These are some of the comments from the Business School Sole 24 Ore students.
Jude was and continues to be a fundamental reference point for the Business School Sole 24 ORE. After years of working together we understood each other immediately and achieved significant results.
Motivating students ahead of interviews, preparing them in presentation techniques, public speaking and drafting CVs, these are only some of the dimensions he covered with success in our classrooms. Jude is demanding, stimulating, engaging, dynamic, able to transform the English laboratory lessons into moments of high-quality training.
What has always struck me about Jude is his eclectic personality and his ability to manage various situations, optimizing timing and efficiency, all with the single goal of ensuring the end-user’s complete satisfaction.
Working and consulting with Jude is a real pleasure!”
PATRIZIA CARRIERI – Director of Research in Social and Public Health epidemiology, INSERM, Marseille
“Jude is simultaneously interested in the content and form. He is curious about understanding the true meaning of the results, the argument put forward in the text and possible repercussions… Jude has always shown himself to be efficient, and is especially fast when deadlines are tight… Since first turning to Jude for his services in 2004, the number of our scientific papers accepted for publication has increased greatly… In the preparation of oral presentations his expertise goes beyond any expectations, thanks to has teaching and coaching skills, ranging from content analysis, to tone of voice to gesturing… it is always a great pleasure to work with Jude…because of his strong human energy, sense of humour and tremendous didactic generosity.”
“I am an Italian researcher in epidemiology Social and Public Health (Infectious diseases and use of drugs or alcohol), and work in a research institute in France.
For more than 12 years now the members of my team and I have worked with Jude Sweeney on revising texts of scientific articles, abstracts for conferences, projects written in English and oral presentations (including PowerPoint) for conferences.
Before I met Jude, I had this work done by other so-called “qualified” native-speaking professionals. This collaboration often proved disappointing both in economic and timing terms (slowness was sovereign), and moreover was sometimes quite dangerous, as the majority of these translators completely altered the style and spirit of the article. I often found transformations that radically changed what was written about the methodology or that reversed the results we found.
When I started to work with Jude Sweeney I was very surprised by his approach: Jude is simultaneously interested in the content and form. He is curious about understanding the true meaning of the results, the argument put forward in the text and possible repercussions. His analysis is often disconcerting, as his comments on logical coherence would sometimes lead one to almost think that he is a journal reviewer, not only a translator/copyeditor. Jude always provides effective work, and is especially fast when deadlines for submissions are tight (conferences or English language projects etc.).
Since first turning to Jude for his services in 2004, the number of our scientific papers accepted for publication has increased greatly.
I have also turned to Jude for help with the preparation a series of oral presentations, some of which were important for the field of international health policy making. In this sector his expertise goes beyond expectations, thanks to has teaching and coaching skills in oral presentations, ranging from content analysis, to tone of voice to gesturing.
Finally, it is always a great pleasure to work with Jude, not only because I have always something to learn, but mostly because of his strong human energy, sense of humour and tremendous didactic generosity.”