I was chatting tonight with my flatmate and asked her how her Czech classes went. She wasn’t too happy to be honest with the lessons, so she decided not to continue this semester.
What she said reminds me of things many students have told me over the years. There are a lot of dissatisfied students out there but I wonder how many learners take the time to find the answer to some important questions before they enrol.
The most important question is simply:
- What will I be doing in class?
That is, what activities will I be doing? Will I get to speak? Who with? Will I be doing just grammar? Will I interact with other classmates? Will we look at the main skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) or is it a more traditional division between vocabulary and grammar?
In my flatmate’s case, she was not happy with the methodology. Sometimes learners are not happy when schools promise one thing, and then do another, but in this case the school advertises clearly that their courses are held using ‘the communicative approach’. And my flatmate has learnt she doesn’t like this approach.
The main point here is that she didn’t check the school’s website or ask about the methodology in person before she paid for the course: if she had, then she would have known more about what to expect.
What about you?
Before you pay for your course, I highly recommend you find out the answer to these questions:
- What is the school’s methodology? Does this sound appealing to you?
- What will you be doing in class?
- Is there a maximum class size?
- If you are not happy with your course, what can you do about it? Is a refund possible? Is there some way teachers and learners can give feedback to each other?
- How will I know if I have made progress? Will there be some kind of assessment?
Paying for your language course will cost a lot of money, and yet so many students out there do not take the time to find the best school or teacher for them. In the case of my flatmate, it meant she became an unhappy client and is now likely to get a private teacher.
Finally, one thing to ask yourself: what are your beliefs and values about how to learn a language? The values that you have will ultimately decide if you will be happy or not with your choice of school.
David Sweetnam
Engage sro, Prague
IČO 28400852
DIČ CZ28400852
Contact:
For English lessons to arrange a free consultation in Prague: david(at)engage(dot)cz
David Sweetnam
English Teacher and Trainer
Engage s.r.o.
david [at] GetIntoEnglish [dot] com
