My name’s Kip Kelland and I teach English. After running Keep Talking as a traditional language school since 1989 I have now decided to work on my own and focus on what I feel I do best, offering a range of quality English courses to companies and professionals and those individual students who want to improve their conversational skills or pass international exams. If you want to learn a bit more about me, please read my CV.
DELTA qualified native speaker
Extensive experience teaching in the UK and Italy
Vast range of resources, many designed in-house
In-depth understanding of how English works
Top corporate clients in FVG in a variety of sectors
Experience of funding packages (Fondimpresa, Fondirigenti, etc.)
Creative producer of tailored materials
Proven ability to motivate and get people talking
Friendly and professional approach
You could be one of the following:
Anyone who simply loves learning languages or recognizes that travel and using the internet and social media are so much easier if you can speak and understand English well
A company which is part of an international group or which sells or purchases abroad, or which wants to invest in its employees’ professional and cultural development
A professional whose future depends on the ability to communicate internationally
Someone who aims to study/work abroad
Enjoy all the benefits of a natural classroom experience. This is the best solution if a company plans to include a more practical, hands-on approach where the companies facilities, machinery and products are incorporated into lessons. This type of course is also best-suited to anyone whose job involves a lot of screen time and who wants to get out of the home or office into a different, more relaxed environment.
Since Covid struck in 2020 I think everyone has been surprised at how quickly we all adapted to remote working and learning. And the benefits, so long as your broadband speed is up to it, are there for all to see: you can study from the comfort of your own home/workplace, share whatever you want on screen (documents, drawings, photos, emails, etc.), have immediate access to video clips and everything the internet offers the language learner.
Lessons can be recorded, shared and studied again later. And with the chat and whiteboard functions, the opportunities for post-lesson feedback are endless. Last but by no means least, Breakout Rooms allows me to replicate the separation of the class into pairs and small groups, just like in a real classroom.
The trend away from larger groups towards a more personalized and more flexible approach has been constant over the last few years and many people now opt for individual training. It’s the perfect formula if you are someone with specific needs, such as the professional who has to prepare and practise a product presentation or the university lecturer who wants to publish articles in English or the student preparing IELTS or Cambridge exams in order to study abroad.
Or you could be two colleagues or friends, or a couple who would like to learn together. It could even be a small group (max 4), so long as level, aims and motivation are all compatible. While 1:1 is probably the most ‘natural’ form of learning, this type of small group adds an extra dynamic and offers a range of opportunities for developing dialogues, simulations and role-plays.
The bottom line in these courses is that I give you exactly what you need. This usually means a focus on communicative, spoken English, where everything we do together in class and the work you put in between lessons, including learning grammar and vocabulary, is part of the process of helping you speak and understand better.
Most of the company courses I organize are held at the company itself. What I need is:
groups which are as homogeneous as possible
course participants who free to attend training sessions without being disturbed by phone calls or other interruptions
a spacious training room equipped with whiteboard, wifi, projector and screen
My online courses, preferably held on Zoom, are ideal for companies which have offices in different towns or regions or whose staff frequently work from home.
General English
A complete course in everyday communication. All classroom activities will help your staff communicate more confidently and appropriately in a variety of real-life situations. Students work on all aspects of the language: the four skills, vocabulary expansion, fluency and accuracy.
ENGLISH AT WORK
A course designed to help your employees interact more effectively both inside and outside the company, whether they are welcoming visitors, describing products or services, engaging in telephone calls or video conference calls or writing emails or reports in English.
TAILOR-MADE COURSES
Working in tandem with the company I design the course to meet the specific demands of your sector or the needs of a particular department. In this kind of course we work extensively on functional English, on simulations of real-work situations and on the specific vocabulary and constructions appropriate for your particular area.
A modular Business English course built to meet your needs:
Presentations: gain more confidence in speaking in public, improve your presentations of your company, its products and services, and learn to speak more accurately and effectively
Socializing: learn the vocabulary and useful expressions you need to manage those everyday non-work contacts better, from simple ‘small talk’ to entertaining guests at the restaurant to those situations you find yourself in when travelling abroad
Emailing: your emails will be so much better when they are clear, correct and sound less like a direct translation from Italian. Working on examples of your own emails, I can help you to learn the most useful expressions, at the right level of formality, and project the right image of you and your company.
Telephoning: with the advent of emailing and messaging, telephoning went out of fashion for a while. Now it’s back with a vengeance and video calls are the norm. Learn the standard expressions you need, and improve your pronunciation and listening skills so you feel more in control during calls.
Meetings: learn how to manage formal and informal meetings in person or online, agree and disagree with others’ opinions, handle negotiations and find solutions to problems. All in clear, comprehensible and natural-sounding English.
After getting a clear idea of your current level and analysing your needs, I will design a highly-motivating, tailor-made course which gives you exactly what you require in order to get concrete results and do your job better. This type of course is perfect if you:
know the more ‘technical’ language you need in your job, but struggle to express yourself on other subjects
are in the process of changing your job and find your English is not good enough for you to cope when travelling abroad, during meetings or when socializing with colleagues or clients
you’ve learned the spoken English you need to get by in the workplace but now need to focus on improving your accuracy so that you can write better
This is a kind of “conversation plus” course in which you work on developing your fluency through a variety of communication activities, exchanging information and opinions, working on your listening skills, improving your pronunciation (key to understanding spoken English better) and learning natural, everyday idiomatic expressions. Course input comes from newspaper articles, websites, podcasts, YouTube and other online material such as TED Talks.
The duration and frequency depend on your level and your needs. Company group courses usually last from 30 to 50 hours with 1 or 2 lessons a week. One-to-one courses last for a minimum of 20 hours. Most people choose to have lessons once or twice a week but courses can be more intensive.
Enrolment fee: a one-off charge of €50.00 to cover materials
1:1 €50.00 per hour
2:1 €70.00 per hour
Company training: please contact me if you need a quotation for online or in-house company courses.
You have to do a complete entry test before starting a course. This consists of an online multiple-choice test which gives me a general idea of your passive understanding of grammar and vocabulary (max 30 minutes). A written test of everyday expressions, vocabulary and writing (30 minutes). Interview (either in person or via Zoom) to evaluate your speaking/listening skills and to analyse your needs.
Since 2015, I have worked with many companies in FVG, including:
Collaboriamo da molti anni con Keep Talking e siamo estremamente soddisfatti per i risultati ottenuti. La professionalità e la capacità di motivare del prof. Kelland sono speciali.
I can say that Keep Talking is something more than a normal supplier for CATAS. In fact we consider the school to be a precious partner of our Institute. We have been working with Keep Talking for more than 30 years, when our testing and certification activities also started to be required and appreciated abroad.
We consequently had, and we still have, the necessity to rapidly and continuously improve our skills not only in our knowledge of the English language but also in the way of appropriately using it in our daily activities which means the precise consultation of working documents, the writing of quotations and test reports, the preparation of our speeches for the meetings and the congresses which we organize or take part in. Today in our annual training programme we normally plan several short seminars in English and we also publish a monthly newsletter together with other announcements, press releases and so on.
The good English level achieved and constantly improved by the Catas staff, thanks to the long and fruitful collaboration with Keep Talking, is now essential in all our activities, and is considered by the whole team as part of our "company culture".
KT has been at our side since 2018, when we first decided to organize English training in our company to give our team members the possibility to improve their communicative confidence. It was a winning choice since Kip is very supportive and extremely well-prepared, always able to turn each lesson into a rich learning experience. Highly recommended.
Kip has been teaching English at Lima for well over two decades. My experience of working with him has always been extremely positive, both related to the appreciation of his teaching style and to the way he manages every kind of learning path.
Very attentive, reliable and accurate both in the preparation of individual or group courses and in providing me with progress updates and the students with feedback on their learning outcomes. With his sense of humour and empathy, he succeeds in making any lesson pleasant and engaging, regardless of the topic.
La Keep Talking di Udine ha erogato dal 2020 ormai 3 cicli di corsi di inglese per Insiel S.p.A. conseguendo ottimi risultati sia nel miglioramento del livello delle competenze dei colleghi sia nella gestione delle relazioni con i partecipanti ai corsi e con noi della formazione interna.
Oltre alla grande competenza, all’ottima organizzazione e all’impeccabile professionalità Kip ha dimostrato di amare profondamente il suo lavoro ed è stato capace di trasferire questo amore per lo studio dell’inglese a noi di Insiel.
I have been taking English courses at Keep Talking for over 24 years now! I started practically from scratch, but thanks to the professionalism and skills of their teachers, I was able to learn English very quickly.
When I attended courses in the classroom, the interactive and engaging methods used by the teachers, were fundamental for learning the language well, but also an opportunity to make new friends. There are people and moments that I will remember forever!
For years now, I have been able to communicate in English, both for business and on private occasions, pretty well. However, I still continue with one-to-one lessons; to keep practising, but also because of the long friendship with Kip Kelland.
Moreover, I have all my company colleagues, who need to improve their English, attend Keep Talking courses. In fact, Kip Kelland is a teacher I recommend to anyone who is seriously motivated to learn English.
I started attending Kip's one-to-one English lessons a few years ago, my goal was to overcome my limit in communicating in English, especially in the workplace where it was increasingly needed. The lessons have always been personalized, focused on my needs and really enjoyable . Thanks to them, English was no longer a problem when I decided to accept a job offer from a foreign company. I believe that Kip's level of professionalism and expertise is the best we can find when we are truly intent on learning English.
I've known Kip for over twenty years and I've had the opportunity to appreciate his great professionalism both in company courses and in many 1: 1 courses that I've attended over the years. In addition to Kip's undisputed professional ability, I've always greatly appreciated his vast general knowledge; this has allowed us to develop 1:1 lessons which are always interesting, and always managed in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
I'm a Chief Financial Officer and I needed to improve my business English. When I began my English course with Kip some years ago, my colleagues and I immediately understood the difference between native teachers and Italian teachers especially for pronunciation. This experience has been very useful for me. In fact I'm still studying at Keep Talking. You never stop learning!
I recently took a 40-hour one-to-one course with Kip and found a fantastic teacher, with an extraordinary ability to help you understand the English language regardless of your ability and level. Excellent approach to the spoken language while at the same time teaching grammar rules and typical English phrases. I highly recommend this type of course to anyone who wants to improve their English with an innovative and engaging approach.
Io e il mio team abbiamo scelto KT nel 2006 e da allora abbiamo continuato ad avvalerci della loro professionalità e preparazione e continueremo a farlo. Personalmente ho fatto anche corsi one to one accrescendo ulteriormente il mio livello ma soprattutto la sicurezza nel raffrontarsi in lingua inglese.