DynEd and Polimoda Fashion College offer a Successful Intensive-English Course

Polimoda, s.r.l. is a branch of the internationally-renowned fashion college Polimoda, based in Florence, Italy. In its quest to achieve a more effective instructor/multi-media balance in its tailor-made intensive training courses for Manpower, Inc., Polimoda hit on the solution of using DynEd's Business English Advantage Series (BEAS), which includes New Dynamic English, The Lost Secret, English by the Numbers, Dynamic Business English and Functioning in Business.

Polimoda's corporate client Manpower, SFLT (Italy). wanted a two-week intensive English course of 50 to 60 hours for its applicants who were to be placed in companies requiring an intermediate level knowledge of English. The challenge was to find a way to attenuate the fatigue of the course for the participants by diversifying their activities. Another obstacle to overcome was how to get students to practice what they were studying so as to achieve true mastery of the course contents. And as the courses were for fifteen participants, it was necessary to find a way to cut down on costs in a way that also allowed us to provide students with the individual attention they needed.

The DynEd Business English Advantage Series allowed us to achieve all of our aims. While all students used New Dynamic English as their core English course, pre-intermediate and intermediate students were able to do something a little different by working on The Lost Secret, whereas the higher intermediate and advanced students got additional variety through studying English by the Numbers, Dynamic Business English and Functioning in Business. The combination of in-class teaching hours, the regular computer lab hours and the variety of educational programs to choose from cut back on the fatigue students usually experience during an intensive course.

This combination was also important as it gave teachers the chance to focus their lessons on speaking activities which allowed students to consolidate and personalize what they were learning during their guided multimedia self-study sessions. This tight inter-connection between computer lab activities and communicative practice in the classroom follow-up was made possible by the well-designed Instructor's Manuals, which gave a full account of the contents of each unit on the discs, as well as helpful suggestions for in-class games and activities, and DynEd's Records Manager, which gives teachers a detailed report of student progress and level of mastery.

If we hadn't used this cost-saving program, we probably wouldn't have been able to afford to break the groups into two different levels. This, along with the fact that DynEd's programs allow each student to study exactly at his/her own pace, made it possible for teachers to provide students with much greater individual attention.

"Because of all of these advantages, and DynEd's very flexible and affordable per student subscription pricing policy, we will definitely be using these programs again in the future."

Sean Cook
Head of the Department of English, Polimoda

E-mail: CookS@polimoda.com

For more information on DynEd Solutions, please contact us at info@dyned.com.