FREESL Blogging
A Blogging Community Exclusively for ELLs
References
Alcázar, Inma (2009). 10 Learning Communities for ESL Students. Accessed on July 23, 2012.http://myeslcorner.blogspot.ca/2009/12/10-learning-communities-for-esl.html
Beare, Kenneth (2012). About.com. ESL Market Statistics. How many people learn English worldwide. http://esl.about.com/od/englishlearningresources/f/f_eslmarket.htm
Campbell, A.P. (2003). The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2. Accessed July 20, 2012. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html
Cummings, M. C. (2004). “Because we are shy and fear mistaking”: Computer mediated communication with EFL writers. Journal of Basic Writing, 23(2), 23-43. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ684124).
Graddol, David (2006). English Next. British Council. Accessed July 21, 2012. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf
Santiago, R., Nakata, M., Einwaechter, N., Marschmeier, R., & Shimada, R. (1996). Integrating technology in the writing curriculum of Japanese learners of English as a foreign language. Educational Technology Research and Development 44(3), 103-109. Retrieved July 19, 2012 from www.springerlink.com/cntent/7q423567758350
WolframAlpha.com (2012). English. Accessed July 21, 2012. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=English&lk=1&a=ClashPrefs_*Language.English-
Wu, W. S. (2005). Using blogs in an EFL writing class. Proceedings of 2005 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL & Applied Linguistics, Taiwan, 426-432. Retrieved July 18, 2012 from http://web.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/book_chapters/01.pdf
Wu, W. S. (2006). The effect of blog peer review and teacher feedback on the revisions of EFL writers. Journal of Education and Foreign Languages and Literature, 3, 125-139. Retrieved July 18, 2012 from http://people.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/journals/04.pdf
Self-Evaluation/
SWOT Analysis
Conclusion
FREESL Blogging is the real-world English Language Learning web 2.0 tool. This venture offers investors an opportunity to take part in carving out a niche market for language learning spaces in the realm of social networking. As an exclusive blogging community for English Language Learners, FREESL Blogging is sure to generate the interest and registration to make it a success!
Organizational Structure
Management & Administration
B.A. Hons. English & History
B.Ed.
ESL Part 1 Additional Qualification
M.E.T. Candidate
Taught ESL in Taiwan, Germany, Turkey
Sheza Naqi, CEO
Maria Ming,
Marketing Manager
Henry Reynolds, HR Manager
Irfan Tahir, IT Specialist
Teaching Faculty
Qualified ESL Teachers
Native English Speakers
(cc) photo by theaucitron on Flickr
Revenue
Our Pricing Strategy is geared towards bringing in clients on the basis of offering our main service, which is the blog exclusively for ELLs at no charge. Having successfully registered the potential clients for our pay-features, different fee structures will be offered. It is projected that approximately 50% of the users will subscribe to one or more pay-feature.
Projected Earnings and ROI
Taking the conservative projected figures above, this venture is a low-risk investment, with the ROI period of approximately 1-1.5 years.
Fee Structure
For example, clients may choose to purchase access to only one of the pay-features. This will be available to them for an annual rate of $10. However, should a client wish to register for two features, they will receive a discount of 25% and a client who registers for all three services will be entitled to a discount of 35%. The membership plans could be offered on either a monthly or an annual basis, depending upon the market response to our features products and the level of competition in the market. It is possible that schools and other such institutions on long term contracts with the company will be offered deeper priced subscription discounts.
Market Readiness
The total investment required for this venture to take off is estimated to be $100,000,000 over a period of two years. Start-up costs include obtaining the domain, web-hosting package to begin offering services, aggressive advertising to attract users, and development of institutional infrastructure to provide efficient, reliable and timely services to clients.
Once initial funding is received work on the venture can begin and it is estimated that within 6 month's time the site together with the pay-features will be ready for offer to the public.
Competitive Edge
FREESL Blogging will be the first social networking site exclusively for English Language Learners. Though there exist language partner exchange sites they do not integrate the aspect of social networking and use of web 2.0 tools to encourage improved speaking and writing skills in ELLs.
Given the success of this venture, FREESL Blogging can maintain a competitive edge by providing such exclusive blogging and social networking spheres for other language learners, such as Spanish, German, Italian etc.
Market Share
Out of the total market size of 110,000,000, if we can target 10% market share in the first year, that equals 11,000,000 users.
The total market share will continue to increase on two accounts:
- Improved access to education worldwide
- Improved access to technology in the developing world where English is not the first language
My educated guess is that the % of learners who have access to the Internet is much lower than this- perhaps half the figure above (so, 110,000,000 people).
If this is so, then FREESL Blogging has the potential to reach an estimated 12.7% of total possible online audience, which sounds like a more reasonable number.
How many of these speakers is it possible to reach online? Taking into account all of this, perhaps we can assume it's only possible to reach a maximum of 22.7% of the world's language learners, which means 220,000,000 people.
Then there is the question of how many of these learners of English use the Internet. There are 1,571,000,000 Internet users in the world (again via Wolfram Alpha), so that's 22.7% of the world's population.
When you look for estimated figures for 'speakers' of English, you find the following figures:
- 371,000,000 people 'native speakers' of English
- 760,000,000 people are 'speakers' (native or second language speakers), which is 11% world population (via Wolfram Alpha), so there are more people learning English than there are who speak it.
The figure of 1,000,000,000 is interesting. The total population of the world is currently 6,894,200,000 (US Census Bureau). So that means an estimated 14.5% of the world is learning English.
High-visibility advertising will make online language learners aware of this service. In order to achieve this objective, FREESL Blogging will reach its market share through aggressive online advertising campaigns on social networking sites such as Facebook and Google Plus. Advertisements will also be placed on other educational sites.
Secondly, a more direct approach will be taken in reaching ESL educators through Boards of Education, presenting workshops at education fairs and contacting privatized language learning institutions worldwide, especially in countries where English is not the first language.
Market Size
David Graddol estimated the figure of 1 billion 'learners' of English in English Next (2006), saying it would increase to 2 billion in 10-15 years.
Marketability
Opportunity Space
Venture Pitch
by Sheza Naqi
The Venture Concept
There is a plethora of ESL resources on the web today drowning English Language Learners in language learning games, worksheets and activities. However, there is as yet no authentic English language learning environment that is exclusively dedicated to improving spoken and written English skills.
Solution
Differentiation
Blogs are nothing new. However, creating a social media site exclusively for English Language Learners is an innovative idea. But, why a blogging site and not something like Facebook or Twitter? Blogs have been found to be highly beneficial in improving ELLs' writing skills and what sets FREESL Blogging completely apart from other blog sites is that members are offered blog editing services by qualified ESL teachers. They are also blogging in a sphere where the majority of members will be functioning at similar English language levels, thereby fostering a safe and non-judgemental environment to practice English.
Paid Native English Speakers
Another key difference between FREESL Blogging and existing language partner exchange sites is that those members who decide to practice their English by talking to native English speakers won't be let down. Such services are usually offered on a voluntary basis and usually these types of language partner relationships fall apart. But with FREESL Blogging's paid native English speakers such a problem will not arise. Instead, ELLs will have an opportunity to participate in authentic conversation.