Gerard Powers, Guidant Corporation (Spanish)
The classes are very demanding! I appreciate the time and effort spent by everybody at MIIS during my program. It is a very friendly atmosphere to learn a foreign language.
Tony Venezia, Price Waterhouse (Japanese)
All of the instructors were good and obviously well-prepared for class. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the instructors and the use of audio-video tools was great.
Frederic Surmely, Hewlett Packard France (English)
The course, which was intensive, has covered all items that I expected and has met my requirements and needs. As the training period was short, the instructors have been very adaptive regarding my needs and have been efficient to meet my evolving requirements during this period. I appreciated a lot this dynamic adaptability and the effectiveness with which they are met my requirements.
Ed Mabry, Deere and Company (Chinese)
Excellent instructors. This class was excellent. It gave me the basics to work in China and understand basic communication. Good job.
Mark and Sue Griswold, Aluminum Company of America (Chinese)
Good “tag” team teaching, ending up just about where projected. We were very pleased with our instructors, the program and the friendly atmosphere.
James and Maureen Fischer, Fusion Medical Technologies (German)
[One instructor’s] energy and systemization of grammatical complexities was excellent. She obviously has a lot of teaching experience. [Our second instructor] provided topical lessons and forced us to communicate with her through effective drills. We enjoyed our instruction very much. The instructors also provided many welcome insights into German culture.
Thomas Buzzard, AirTouch International (Japanese)
Great instructors, great facilities, great location. Overall-an excellent program coordinated and maintained by dedicated and enthusiastic people.
Paul Sisemore, Eastern European Outreach (Russian)
My instructor is enthusiastic with an infectious attitude that motivates. I was very much encouraged by everyone involved with CLS. Not only was the environment professional but also warm and friendly.
Kevin McKelvy, Contract Freighters, Inc. (Spanish)
CLS gives a student the elements unavailable elsewhere (anywhere!). Those elements include superior program design and administration, coupled with the finest people (drawn from a rich resource of language heritage unique to Monterey) and set in one of the most picturesque and friendliest settings on earth.
Paul Sisemore, Eastern European Outreach (Russian)
My instructor is enthusiastic with an infectious attitude that motivates. I was very much encouraged by everyone involved with CLS. Not only was the environment professional but also warm and friendly.
Arthur Young, Bridges Electric (Portuguese)
I gained much more than my expectations. It was a great experience. I’m really glad I came. It will help me in my business.
End of the Course Evaluation, Siriporn Chaiyasuta, December 5, 2011
This is an excellent program with great teachers and program management. I came with some reservation whether the course would worth my 4-hour driving each week for 3 months, but walked away with a thought that I must find more time to do it again in the future.
I find that the course is very effective, very useful, and fully addresses my needs. Let me offer my view on what I think is the success factors. My comment does not confine only to Craig Sanders but also for Sharon Gordon, the school and all others who involve in the program.
First, the design and planning of the course is very good. You have a hand full of very good teachers and instructors with variety of experiences. You have studied the needs and objectives of the student and designed the program to serve the purpose. And critically important, you have designated the right teachers that fit well with the needs, styles and circumstance of the student.
Second, the diagnosis, assessment and adaptation are effective. The teachers have effectively assessed the language capability of the student, successfully identified the gap with good root-cause analysis. Then they prioritized and planed for the focus areas that each of them wanted to work on. The assessment continues throughout the course, and the plan was adjusted along the way to custom fit with the needs and addresses certain gaps that they uncovered subsequently.
Third, the teachers are excellent. I have to separate this item as it standout among others. It is the key factor behind the success. (My complement also goes to the one who selected them as mentioned earlier.) Both of them are knowledgeable, skillful and are among the best language teachers I have ever had. Each of them is good in different ways and has their own way of teaching. I would like to elaborate in more details.
Craig has a passion in language and in teaching. With that underlying spirit, it makes everything else falls into place. He is technically strong, has excellent teaching techniques, and always stays on top of the linguistic development. One of his strength is in his long and diverse experiences that make him understand the language in depth and understand his student very well. In particular, he has extensive knowledge of several foreign languages, understand their culture and know the needs of people with different professionals and backgrounds. All has enabled him to identify the gaps and know how to fix them. His comparative knowledge and extensive experiences help in his explanation to compare and contrast their logic and usage of English language. He has special techniques that he probably develops overtime to fix that problematic area. He holds his high standard firmly and would work hard until he sees the result. He can go beyond teaching hours, working on his own time at home, and help the student to really “learn”. His knowledge and continued study go beyond language and that make his class and activities interesting and matches well with different type of students. I think the school may underutilize him. He is very resourceful and capable to do a lot of things academically and professionally.
Sharon Gordon is very knowledgeable and very experience. She is like a drinking well that never runs out of water. You can take as much as you can, in depth or in width. It depends on how the student would take it. The class is not an English class but a “communication” class. She teaches how to “effectively” communicate in writing using English language. In fact, she teaches deeper than just the language or writing. A good writer starts with good thinking. I have learnt a lot from her on critical thinking. She has her own way to inspire student and to help the student building their confidence. There is so much to learn in language and this could be a pitfalls. Some teachers may have gone over various types of things, of course, all of which need to be fixed. At the end of the day, a student would learn a bit here and there but might get lost in all sorts of things with knowledge in a piece mill. But for Sharon, even though there are a lot to learn, she identifies only a list of key things that we really need to know and are applicable to the job of the student. This way we can focus and achieve the desired result that is quantifiable. I may not learn all but just about right for what I need for my work considering the time frame we have. This is clever and effective. She firmly scopes them down and stays focus, despites some of my attempt to deviate inadvertently. She teaches language and writing not only from the student standpoint but also considering possible audiences I would have. She tailored-made the sub-content to fit the needs, e.g., what style and level of information would fit for different type of people through different means of communication and in various settings. And she can do so because of he has a vast real experience in her past work in interacting with people of different styles, hierarchy, both formal, information, and in various situations. She selflessly shares her technique and openly shares her thought with practical advice. She is a valuable resource. Having her as a member of your teaching pool, it would make the school profile very attractive.
Both of them are very patient and persistent. It is not an easy task to work on me, particularly to help me unlearn many things that I wrongly picked up and sometimes have developed them as a habit. I have high expectation and have challenging schedule. Teaching and learning are joint efforts requiring a good team work. They have done a good job as a team lead, inspire as well as discipline. They have done in an appropriate way with treat people with respect.
Fourth, the execution is done perfectly. Each of the teachers effectively executes their plan with full collaboration. They did not work in isolation. They constantly discusses, compares their notes, and often time shares views on any problematic areas that they just uncovered and jointly develop a resolution plan. They work cohesively and planned for activities that complement each other. This has made it more convenient for student in taking classes from two different teachers. This also helps seamless transition from Craig to Sharron in the mid of the program.
Lastly, the management and the institution are superior. It would not be successful if all those excellent factors left unmanaged. The program manager has successfully enabled the teacher, the student and all others to ensure the effectiveness of the course starting from the planning to the execution. The oversight and the support are very impressive. In fact, I did not expect that from an academic institution. The program management is very service-oriented with customer focus. The program manager is responsive and runs the program very effective. They have done a great job comparable and very competitive to those well-established non-academic service organizations. The Institution itself is reputable and has attracted me to apply for the course to start with. With my short experience with the school, I can understand why the school is so renowned. The curriculum is very good, practical and customized to fit the purpose. The school has effective system and maintains quality people ensuring the high standard. The institution is the pillar that glues all the success factors above together.
In sum, it is excellent program. I would recommend others to take the course. It is worthwhile both in terms of time and costs. I hope that the view from a student offered above would be of some use for your program development and for the benefits of my fellow language learners. If there is any mistake in this write up, I would take all the blames. The teachers have done a great job in teaching but it is the student who may be able to learn very little. At this end, I wish the school for your continued success.