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Setting the Pace

A large class which can leave slower students behind or drag on faster students.

While working with a class gives you the benefits of having someone who can (hopefully) answer your questions as well as direct interaction with other learners, it does have the related problem of acquisition speed. A class is meant to make sure everyone learns the language, which means the class can only progress as fast as the slowest learner. If a student isn't grasping the material as swiftly as the others, the teacher may end up spending more of the class time attempting to assist that one student, leaving the other students waiting and perhaps eventually resenting the slower student. This can quickly lead to bad feelings in the class as well as boredom. The alternative is that the teacher continues at a regular pace and any students that can not keep up are left struggling. Meanwhile, there are going to be some students that pick up the material much faster than the others and they will become bored and frustrated with the class as well. This is a problem with classes in any subject. The larger the class, the bigger the problem is likely to be because there will probably be more students that are either slower or faster than the rest. For this reason, many people prefer individual study in which they can work at their own pace.

Immersion

The University of Da Nang's Foreign Languages School

Classes may also use more of the immersion technique, as pioneered by the Berlitz schools. Immersion is when the learner is put into a situation in which they can only speak the language they are learning. They are also only spoken to in that language. This forces them to use the language in a real-world setting they might not otherwise get a chance to experience. A class can simulate this by having the teacher constantly speaking in the new language and insisting the students only use that language as well in response or when talking to others. Of course, this can only be maintained during the class time. Some more expensive classes may involve having students actually traveling to another country and being immersed in the language full time for a period of a few weeks or months. Immersion is considered one of the best ways to learn, and we will discuss it further in another article.

I did find myself attending a French immersion class while I was in my university. The teacher would enter the class and start speaking in French, first greeting us then telling us what we would be covering for that class. The only problem with this was the it was a French history class, and the only person that understood any French in the class was the French exchange student. After a week of this, we finally asked him to stop speaking French, since we were there for the history, not the language.

Costs

A major drawback to taking classes is the cost. If the language class is part of your normal school criteria, then the cost is no more than whatever your normal tuition is (if any, since public schools are usually paid for by the government). However, if you are not in school, then taking classes may become expensive. You are paying for the teacher, the use of the facilities (wherever the class is being held), and any textbooks you will be expected to purchase.

In New York, USA, a Berlitz immersion course can cost $250 per month for 90-minute classes while another course may cost $210 to $285 for ten hour long classes. At the University of California, Los Angeles, a traditional, three-month language class costs $480. These are relatively inexpensive. By comparison, as an immersion course in another country, KCP International offers classes in Japanese in Japan, with a cost of $2900 per semester for just the course itself. Add a few thousand dollars more depending on where you live during that time.

Time Spent

Language school in Delhi

Depending on the nature of the class, whether it is part of your daily school activity, a few nights a week at a local university or course center, or an extensive immersion school, you are likely to be spending a great deal of time NOT involved in the actual learning. If you need to travel regularly to the location of the class, that time is wasted. And during a class, whenever the teacher needs to assist any student who is having a problem with the material, including you, that is time you aren't actually practising and learning. This might make you think then that a full immersion course like the Japanese one is the most efficient. That might be true, yet consider that you are actually dedicating several months to learning the language. How much are you sacrificing when you can't be doing the stuff you might normally be doing back in your own country? No matter what format the classes take, you have to attend them according to their time schedules, not yours.

Tutoring

A related means of learning is taking classes with a private tutor. This has many of the same benefits as a class, but also some further drawbacks. With a tutor, a student will be able to get all the help they need and work at their own pace. However, the amount of social interaction will be severely limited, since the only other person they are likely to be speaking with is the tutor. The quality of their education will also be directly tied to the abilities of the tutor. A native speaker might be ideal as a tutor, but it is also likely the teacher may have simply learned the language in a class they attended a few years before. Private tutors are also likely to be far more expensive than a group class, because the single student is paying for the entire salary of the tutor, rather than having that cost split among many others.

There are many benefits with learning through classes, and they will probably always be a major method of language acquisition. As newer technologies evolve and become integrated, the classroom can actually expand its capabilities rather than having to compete with these alternative means. For example, with software becoming more advanced and the introduction of internet facilities, a classroom has more resources and interactive means. Even more important, a student has a greater chance to practise and expand their learning outside the classroom, either on their own or as assigned by the teacher. This has already led to a hybrid of distance learning, in which a person can attend a class in real time, with full visual and audio, in a class that is hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Imagine sitting on your computer at home in France and being able to attend a Spanish language class being held in Germany. You instantly eliminate the travel time or cost of living there while still benefit from group learning experience.

Classroom of the future?

Classes will not be the best choice for everyone, of course. Those who can't afford them or find them locally will be unable to participate while those that don't learn at the same pace as others are likely to prefer self-study or private tutoring. Still, they should certainly be considered for anyone wanting to pick up another language or three.

We hope you enjoyed this third article in this series of language learning methods. Previous articles have discussed the methods of audio learning and books. We would like your thoughts and comments on the article and your experiences with classes. Please write to us at parrottime@parleremo.org.