THE STUDY OF ENGLISH COACHING

INSTITUTES

1. INTRODUCTION
A language is a systematic means of communication by the use of sounds or
conventional symbols. It is the code we all use to express ourselves and communicate to
others. It is a communication by word of mouth. It is the mental faculty or power of vocal
communication. It is a system for communicating ideas and feelings using sounds,
gestures, signs or marks. Any means of communicating ideas, specifically, human speech,
the expression of ideas by the voice and sounds articulated by the organs of the throat and
mouth is a language. This is a system for communication. A language is the written and
spoken methods of combining words to create meaning used by a particular group of
people.

Language, so far as we know, is something specific to humans, that is to say it is the

basic capacity that distinguishes humans from all other living beings. Language therefore
remains potentially a communicative medium capable of expressing ideas and concepts as
well as moods, feelings and attitudes.

Nowadays the most widely used language all over the world is ENGLISH. Keeping in
mind the increasing importance of English and softskills, we were given a project to visit
English Coaching Insitutes of our choice in small groups and to bond among ourselves as
a group and to socialize with other people at that place.

1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Just consider the following case: Alpa Patel, daughter of a diamond cutter in
Bapunagar, completed her B Com last year. She tried hard to get a job, but without
success. "I realised my poor English was the problem. I decided to attend spoken English
classes and now, look where I am!"

Indeed, Patel currently works with a city-based BPO, earning Rs 25,000 a month.
English may be a funny language for some, but the business of English speaking courses
is way too serious in India, as poor knowledge of the language is a stumbling block for
many students here.

English language coaching classes, which earlier catered only to students and potential
immigrants, now attract people from varied age groups, vocations and economic classes.
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"In the past 10 years, business has grown by 300 per cent," says Dr Shrenik Surana,
director of VETA Institute of English Speaking.

1.2 PURPOSE, SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

The main purpose of this project was to help each one of us acquire the knowledge
about the English Coaching Institutes that would help us improve our communication,
people management and increase cultural awareness. The primary objective of the project
was to enable us to gel well with our group members by interacting with each other as
well as to communicate with other people also. But at the same time it wanted us to know
more about each other so that we work efficiently as a team and at the same time learn the
reasons as to why English Coaching Institutes have become so popular these days and
the methods adopted by them to teach.

However the scope of our project is limited to only discussions and interactions among
the various team members and with the officials of the English Coaching Institutes. It
does not deals with any statistical information since it is not a technical report.

Also we have limited our study to only 2 institutes : VETA and LET’s TALK, since it
was not possible for us to get permissions from other institutes , and also because of the
time constraint that we had.

1.3 SOURCES AND METHODS ADOPTED

The main source through which we gained details of the institutes was the internet.
First we collected the addresses and the names of the various coaching institutes in
Mumbai. Then out of those we selected 2 English language Coaching institute of our
choice. i.e , VETA and LET’s TALK. During our visit we interacted with each other and
got more closer and at the same time we also communicated with the people in those
institutes We shared this experience together as a team and analyzed each other nicely in
this visit and at the same time gained information about those institutes.

1.4 REPORT ORGANIZATION

This report is organized into various chapters starting from the introduction of this
topic, followed by a detailed discussion of the institutes that we visited and at last
winding up with our conclusion and recommendations. This report mainly focuses on the
methods followed by each institutes and the way in which we managed each and every

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one of them. By the end of this report we can assure that many people would wish to go
on at least one such project in their life keeping in mind the fun we had as well as the
important things that we learned through this project.

2. DISCUSSION
2.1 ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT INSTITUTES TO VISIT
As soon as the groups were announced we started taking into consideration the
different Coaching institutes that we could visit. The various places that came across were

1. VETA ( Kandivali branch)

2. Anand’s English coaching institute (Chembur )

3. IMS ( Sion Branch)

However there were many problems with the above topics. In case of VETA , first of
all it was very far off and even if we went there we were not sure whether the people over
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there, would be ready to talk to us because they had clearly said on phone that they wont
be entertaining us for much time. Then in case of Anand’s coaching institute, we didn’t
find it much popular to visit. As for the IMS , all the group members said that it was not
exactly dealing with English Coaching but are into teaching English for different entrance
exams and so our objective wont be met properly.

As a result we weren’t able to arrive at a mutually agreed decision and as a result learnt
the first lesson of our project that working in a group is much more difficult than working
individually. We have to take into account everybody’s suggestion in such a way that
neither of them gets upset or angry.

2.2 THE FINAL CHOICE

Finally after much debate on the topic we finally decided that we need to go to an
institute where we can meet people from varied backgrounds and where the people are
ready to talk to us. We needed an intitute where we can understand the methods adopted
by them more clearly and at the same time is easily reachable. So understanding of others
way of life is another valuable soft skills. So we decided to go to the Plaza building at
Bhandup where there are 2 institutes i.e VETA, and Let’s Talk.

Plaza building is situated near the Bhandup Station where you can find different
coaching institutes especially English language coaching institutes. On any given day it is
always buzzing with people. Here, people from all section of societies come since you get
all kinds of good quality materials at a very modest rate.

2.3 DAY AND TIME OF VISIT

In order to interact with more people we decided that we need to go on a weekday when
there classes are just over . However our plans to visit that place kept on delaying since
each one of us were from different sections and as a result we were not finding time to go
together. Moreover the terrorist attacks that took place on the 26th Nov further delayed our
plans. But when Prof V. Rajini gave us the ultimate deadline, then each one of us decided
that by hook or crook we have to find time and go. Atleast once ,this thing also came into
our mind to fake the visit but then we thought that how can we become a good manager if
we can’t even manage to find time for such a small visit. Also we would be void of the
knowledge and experience that we could get by actually visiting them. As a result we
choose the day just before our group discussion and went during the evening time as
planned. The other reason for selecting the eveningtime was that some group members

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wanted to prepare for their other presentations also. So this time catered to everybody’s
needs.

2.4 VETA
The first institute that we visited over there was VETA. Veta, is Asia's largest premier
academy for teaching spoken English. Training more than 2.2 million people speak
English fluently is by no means an easy task. But since 1981, this has been successfully
accomplished at Veta, due to the simple and comprehensive course materials and specially
trained faculty. Veta, formerly known as Vivekananda English Training Institute, has more
than 200 centres across India. The training centres of the direct coaching classes are
always abuzz with activity with more than 500 students at some centres.

Over there we met Mr Rakesh , the branch manager. Initially he was very reluctant to
share information because just a few days back terrorist attacks had taken place. Even
after showing our Identity Cards, he was not ready to open up. But Kavita and Surabhi
kept on pleading him saying that we needed some information only for our project and
not anything else. As he was interacting with the gals , I and Kunal grabbed the
opportunity and started asking him questions. We began by asking vague and small
questions such as ‘ What does VETA stands for ‘ and ‘ How old is the institute’ which we
already knew from the internet. But once he got engaged in our discussions, the entire
group became fearless and started throwing questions at him.

From Mr. Rakesh we came to know that VETA caters to students from all walks of life.
Right from college going students to professionals. For the working people, classes are
usually conducted at weekends and in the evening time. For others it is usually conducted
in weekdays. He said that they usually start from vocabulary, then accents and finally
fluency. For Eg . the word “ International “ is pronounced as “ Inernational “ with ‘t’ as
silent. Also when Nitin asked as to what is the main reason as to why there is so much
differences in the accents of the people then Mr Rakesh said that it was due to MTI
( Mother tongue influence ). The main aim of VETA was to reduce this MTI of a person.
Also VETA trains the staff of many corporate companies in good written and spoken
English under the name VETACORP .

After chatting with Mr Rakesh for almost half an hour , we finally decided to leave and
not take much of his time. Also by the time we were leaving, students were starting to
enter as it was time for their classes. As a result we interacted with certain students also
who were very happy with the performance of VETA .

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. 2.4 LET’s TALK

After coming out of VETA , we had 2 choices of either visiting one more coaching
classes or stopping our study with VETA. However we decided to visit one more institute.
Over there in the plaza building there were 2 more coaching classes, Let’s Talk and
English Speakwell. The entire group decided to visit Let’s talk. However unlike VETA ,
here only 2 of us went i.e Nitin and Kavita so that they don’t get nervous and suspicious
by looking at us as it happened in VETA.

'LET’S TALK' English training programs are designed to help ‘ working executives ,
college students, school students & House wives’ move beyond the rules of grammar and
talk smart.There we met Ms Prerna who was the branch manager of BHANDUP. She said
that unlike VETA they have separate English proficiency programs for different people ,
be it someone who wish to start learning English as a beginner or whether a student,
Executive , House wife , they have the right learning package for them, based on their
level.

She also told that the duration of their programs was 3 ½ months generally. She
interacted with Nitin and Kavita very friendly and was behaving very nicely. There was
not a single moment when she hesitated in sharing some information. However we
couldn’t stay there for long as t was time for their closing. So we couldn’t talk to any of
the students out there.

. 2.6 THE FAREWELL

Finallywhen Nitin and Kavita came out of Let’s Talk it was allready 8-30 pm. So we
decided to sit together in Café coffee day at the Huma Adlabs and discuss about our trip
so that everything is clear in everybody’s mind. It was at that moment that we came more
closer to one another and started knowing each other’s taste , preference and personality.
At that very moment we saw the cast of ‘ dil mil gaye’ and as soon as they passed by us
the gals in our group got very excited whereas the boys were amused as to what was so
special in them. Finally we drank our coffee and bid each other farewell.

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3. CONCLUSIONS
Finally after being together for the entire day we came to know each other on a more
one to one basis. As rightly said by our Prof Rajini , we became close to one another and
also gelled with each other nicely. Moreover we came to know about the importance of
English coaching institutes and their mode of working. People with poor English
Speaking Abilities, who wish to move ahead in life, will benefit the most from these
English Coaching institutes. Also we have seen that the people who come here to learn
English do not feel shy to say that they don’t have good command over this language .
This is infact a very good thing. Many people including me are under the impression that
the English Coaching institutes and the language labs conducted in our MBA college are
only for those who don’t know the language properly. But after this study I came to
realize that there are many things for me to learn .This is very important for MBA
students to rightly observe the qualities that they are lagging and behaving accordingly
since they are going to be the future managers.

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4. RECOMMENDATIONS
As a group we would recommend that such a project should be included not only in the
curriculum of MBA but also other professional courses. . Also by having knowledge of
the various courses offered by the various English Coaching Institutes , we can any time
develop our spoken English skills whenever we want. Honing soft skills can help MBAs
to differentiate themselves in the recruitment process. Developing external interests and
placing more emphasis of them on your CV will bear fruit both on a professional and
personal basis

LIST OF REFERENCES

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 www.google.com
 www.letstalk.co.in
 www.vetaglobal.com

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