Where Am I? - ELC > CILL > Job Application Letter Writer > Teachers' Notes
On this page   - Introduction | Points for and Against the program being educational | Example teaching plan

This page contains suggestions for how to use the Job Application Letter Writer program in your teaching.

Introduction
You may be wondering if the Job Application Letter Writer program is educational, or whether it automates the job application letter writing process to such an extent that it removes the need for such education. The answer is really, "It depends on how you use it".

Points for and Against

Ideas For it being Educational

Ideas Against it being Educational

Students can see the process of analysing the advert, their qualities and abilities, and writing the letter. It needs to be put into a structured teaching plan in which this is a part of the learning experience, but not the end of it. Students can experiment and see what effects various changes have, for example by changing the salutation the signing off expression changes. The teacher can encourage that experimentation in the students search for rules. Students can look at the advice built into the page, for example the advice on the prepositions to use with various sources of job information. For futher study, students who have good IT skills could be encouraged to write small expert system computer programs as group projects about discrete grammar problems. Click here for more details.

Students could just use the program without looking at the advice or doing any analysis, and produce a reasonable job application letter without learning much. Employers will not be able to use job application letters as an indication of a potential employees English ability because employees might be using this program or one like it. However, even in the past applicants came to places like CILL to get their application letters checked. As more and more formulaic text types become more automated, there is less for teachers to teach. However, teachers can concentrate more on other things such as grammar, and would need to spend less time on rarely used text-types. Students might think that this is all there is to writing a job application letter, and not personalise it or make it more suitable for this job.


Example Teaching Plan

Here is an example teaching plan and the corresponding sections of the Job Application Letter Writer program.

1. Introduction to the Process of Finding a Job
2. Analysing your interests, abilities, experience and qualifications
3. Sources of Jobs
   Job Adverts, Employment Centres, Friends and Contacts, Unsolicited Applications
4. How to find information about a company (See 'Stage Two: Details of the Company/Organisation')
   The program includes a search function to help students find out about companies.
5. How to find information about a job (See 'Stage One: Analyzing the Job Advert')
6. Writing a Job Application letter (See 'Stage Three: Writing the Letter')
   Students can experiment with the program to see the effects of changes. The program can also be used to output a basic letter which can then be modified to better suit the job.
7. Preparation for the Interview
8. Interview language and techniques, for example, the Job Interview Questions Exercise on good and bad answers in interviews.
9. Thanking the interviewers
   

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Last updated on: Thursday, December 15, 2016.

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