Language coaching for leaders

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Lexis building clubs

Specific coaching for advanced English speakers

Why choose Tony Corballis for private language coaching?

Here's why your abilities will expand faster and you will be happier, through private coaching with Tony Corballis.

Personal attention
Quality and ethics: avoid profit-geared colleges and coaches
High-level learners in very small groups
Expert coaching method
Available now in central London
Private coaching terms, conditions and prices

Personal attention

My coaching is exactly that. It is an opportunity for personal attention. I am concerned about your needs.

Depending on your preferences, group sessions are either two, four, six or eight students. We never have a group with more than eight. I also provide one-to-one work.

Corballis Communication is small. Although we can prepare you for and direct you to examinations, we do not have an accredited examination centre and so we are not accredited as a school with the British Council. Thus, enrolment with us cannot help you get a student visa into the UK.

We can, nevertheless, guarantee you greater quality: unlike most colleges, you get to try a session for free to ensure you are dealing with a professional.

The rip-off culture of the language industry

Did you know, many very well-known, 'reputable' and accredited colleges:

are accredited simply so that they can operate as 'student visa factories'?
employ under-experienced teachers who are badly paid and unhappy?
charge extremely high rates for one-to-one work with inadequate teachers?
have very highly paid senior managers and private shareholders?
have costly advertising budgets?
do not invest in staff training
do not invest in the learning materials that are right for their clients?
have very large classes where you get very little chance to speak?
are more keen on getting you enrolled than assessing your ability?

Your money is spent only on you

Our fees are fair. You are not paying for expensive accreditation systems, managers' salaries, shareholders' dividends, or high-budget marketing communications campaigns.

The owner is also your personal coach with a keen interest in you being pleased with your experience. And he has nearly twenty years professional experience in teaching all levels and styles of English as a language and in training other teachers, in editing and co-writing published materials and for business clients, in designing and writing curricula for companies and universities, and especially, in business English training.

Quality and ethics

Tony Corballis The Language Coach for Leaders is guided by the code of ethics drawn up by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (The EMCC).

Tony Corballis guarantees to coach only within the remit of his expertise. Where client needs fall outside of this, he is ready and happy to refer the client to a third party practitioner, such as a therapist, psychologist, speech therapist, financial adviser, etc. He guarantees not to exploit the client and aims to bring the greatest benefit (within the client's wishes) at the lowest cost possible.

Unlike many life coaches and therapists who see clients in long-term financial terms, Tony Corballis seeks to quickly and efficiently pinpoint key areas for improvement and finish the coaching course with communication improvements clear to the client. His practice is structured around objectives and is only satisfactory if those objectives are met.

High level learners

At Corballis Communication, we specialise in very small groups of high-level learners of English and bilinguals. Places are limited and we give priority to people who show they take responsibility for their learning.

Our clients generally have a minimum of an IELTS 6.0 or Cambridge FCE equivalent before they come to us, though many are actually aiming for the highest Cambridge qualification, the Certificate of Proficiency in English. Others are working towards diplomas in interpreting, university qualifications, other qualifications or simply professional advancement.

We offer high-level communication skills training to advanced users of English and bilinguals. Lower level students looking to learn English, we refer to British Further Education colleges because we are confident that these colleges provide value and quality: they often have excellent and committed teachers and English courses which are free for European Union citizens and usually affordable for those from further afield.

You can be sure that you are only studying alongside other keen and advanced users of English.

Availability in central London

A few slots currently remain available. Other times may become available. If you are interested, please contact me.

For single whole or half days for specialised training, please enquire.

Typical group sessions:

Lexical-builder conversation club
Subject-specific conversation club
Advanced speaking skills workshop
Impactful presentation training
Impactful interview training
Examination preparation
Intensive advanced writing workshop

Typical individual work:

One-to-one voice coaching
Language support for business English
Study support for academic goals
Self-development life-coaching

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Wide experience and proven techniques

"I have worked closely in group training, one-to-one coaching and distance mentoring, for fourteen years with international professionals. My approach is fluid, human and natural while remaining challenging and rigorous.

I am experienced in working with the following culture identities: Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Persian, Gulf States and Middle Eastern Arab, North African, some sub-Saharan African, Russian, Eastern European, and all western and central European and Latin cultural backgrounds.

I have lived and worked in four countries, visited 37 countries, speak two languages, and base myself in multi-cultural central London."

The Tony Corballis method for bilingual communication skills

Tony Corballis bases his practice on an integrated blend of most areas of thinking about language and training methods, but has a special emphasis on the Communicative and Lexical Approaches to language acquisition.

The lexical focus means every session has a central and interesting theme that engages learners, while reinforcing a corresponding 'lexical field' (area of vocabulary and meaning).

While also informed by traditional structural approaches to language, he is firmly liberal in holding that English is primarily functional. As a means of communication, it is therefore organic and now necessarily global, with terrific variation in convention.

His practice is also informed by contemporary thinking on seeing learners as individuals (with different learning styles and 'multiple intelligences' and with learning informed by needs analyses), and by competency-based instruction and assessment, as well as less known areas such as genre in relation to Systemic Functional Linguistics, and the fundamental principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming for our belief systems.

Then, integrated with a number of personalised high-level language enriching processes which exploit all four language skills (and a fifth, 'metacognition'), individuals' competencies are developed using a range of tried-and-tested training methodologies as vehicles.

Methods used by the coach are smoothly and flexibly adapted according to your needs. Rarely do you find a communications and English language coach so enthusiastic about his work, so thorough and so broadly experienced.

Tony Corballis: Expertise

Broadening your wordbase
Confidence and authority building for bilinguals
Voice coaching
Presentation skills
Interview preparation
Professional or academic examination preparation
Language accuracy training

Media training and image management
Media relations and media training for small business
Research and symmetrical public relations practice
Media release writing

Cross-cultural communication theory and practice
Identification of cross-cultural interference
Identification of second language interference

Business English for influence and change management
Organisational communication theory
Language support for business units
On-call personal assistance for business units

Copy and text editing, and proofreading
Written document screening and improvement
Copywriting and content writing
Advanced writing skills development

Both structural and functional approaches to business text
The lexical approach to language
Rhetoric and subtextual awareness training

Motivational coaching for personal goals, study skills, work or career
Helping people to reach targets, achieve dreams, and turn visions into reality

Self-reflection

Ask yourself these questions:

Are you aware of the impact the order of your ideas can have?
Are you aware how different cultures do this differently?
Are you aware of the subtle differences in formality?
Do you understand why 'formal' to one culture is 'rude' to another?
Are you aware of tone in your voice and in your emails?
Do your readers, audience and you all see 'politeness' the same way?
How could a thinking communications coach add value to your work?

Are you worried about presenting at meetings?
Would you like to sound confident and knowledgeable?
Have you ever had a voice coach?
Do you find that there are obstacles to people understanding you, or vice versa?

Do you need to discuss ideas with someone who understands media, communication with publics and public relations?
Do you need to discuss communication issues with someone who understands leadership, team-building and change?

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