Helping Others Learn Language--Sources of Income for Teachers and Not-for-Profit Organizations

As a teacher of English language learners (ELLs) for the past six years, I came across many students and parents who needed to learn English.  Schools sometimes offer English as a second language for parents, though parents rarely have time to come to classes.

An affordable online English language learning program that parents and students can access on their own at home could go a long way to help both improve English skills.  As students build their skills in written and spoken English, academic performance can be expected to improve.

 Students who improve their English on their own using an online English language learning program can more more quickly through classes in English as a second language.  They can also engage more in English conversations related to the vocabulary and grammar they build in the basic English class online.

Some native English speakers can also benefit from an online English language learning program.  Any learner whose home or work environment is not used to standard English usage may benefit from a basic study of English language vocabulary and grammar.

The affordable online language program can benefit students learning English and can help students learning French, Spanish, German, Chinese, or Japanese (and three other languages) improve their communication skills in those languages.

In 2009, thousands of teachers in the USA were forced out of their teaching positions due to the availability of funds for education at local, state, and federal levels.  Many of these teachers need to find ways to make ends meet as they search for new jobs or careers. 

There is a business side to the online language learning programs.  This business side can allow teachers to generate some positive income flow while they pursue their job and career search.

Not-for-profit organizations also face a reduction in funding.  501(c)(3) organizations can get a free website and can receive commissions on the subscriptions of the members who sign-up for the program.  This becomes another source of income to help the not-for-profit organization achieve its mission and goals.

I spoke about signing-up for this program to review my French in a previous post in this blog.  I feel strongly that this will be a real help to students and their families and I am actively looking for people  to help me share this program with others.  It's available globally, not just in the USA.  The business opportunity is also available in most countries.

Online Language Learning and Global Business Opportunities

My research into an online language learning system to review my French language skills has led me to a new global business opportunity.  The online system allows subscribers to learn as many as nine languages during the period of their subscription (normaly six months or one year at a time).  One subscription is for an entire family and all of the course materials are online.  They are even interactive and you can record your voice and match it to native speakers.

The online system has been available for about five years and a different online English program is being released for use in China on November 1, 2009.

For the past six years I have been teaching English language learners (ELLs) in public schools in Illinois.  The English program could be of great benefit for almost 100% of the parents of these students.  While many of my former students did not have computers at home, some did and more purchased computers when it became clear that a computer with Internet access would help the students do better in school.

The even better news about the English language programs are that they can help students move ahead in their English skills and in their other academic subjects while allowing their parents to become more fluent in English to bring in more income for their families.

As you will see on my new website, http://www.drm-language.com, there are even programs to build business English and to prepare for the U.S. Citizenship exam and for college entrance exams.

I was excited about having a year's subscription to build up my French fluency and to review my Spanish grammar.  If I end up working with more people from the other six countries that have language courses in this online system, I can begin picking up even more languages.

I like the idea of having something affordable to share with non-native English speakers who are struggling to learn English.  I use audiobooks and eAudiobooks a lot with them and these online courses can focus on building essential vocabulary and basic grammar.  All of the courses focus on practical communication in the various languages.

What's more, I spoke today with Dr. Ivan Dulik who began with this program almost five years ago and who has spoken to about 1,200 people about the program.  Of the 1,200, about 300 decided to enroll in the program and of the 300, about 80 decided to focus on sharing the program.  The program offers free websites to subscribers.  When someone subscribes to the program by using a website of a subscriber, the subscriber earns a commission for each new subscription.  Of the 80 people who decided to share, 35 became really focused on sharing the business and, over five years, have generated almost one million US dollars for Dr. Dulik--see the link for "Two EN101 Success Stories" and remember that the date on Dr. Dulik's story is from 2007.

I don't expect to generate one million dollars anytime soon--though I wouldn't turn it down.  What I do see is that it is a worthwhile, affordable program that lots of people I know in the USA and outside the USA can benefit from.  As they learn, they can also help their families by sharing the program and earning commissions from the people who also decide to learn English.

English language learning is a major global market at this point and I don't know of any program that includes all the values and benefits of this new one at a very affordable price.