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Why language classes do not work | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Emilia Newbie Italy Joined 5477 days ago 26 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Italian* | Message 25 of 28 30 December 2008 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have the opposite experience! Maybe I was simply lucky in terms of professors, materials and classmates, but all of the language classes I have had made wonders for me. None of them taught me the language - but that is not the purpose of language classes and they were always very clear about it: they would give you start and formal background (regarding the basic morphological patterns, phrases and so on), and it is up to you to build it up. It is impossible to learn a language in two 90-minutes lessons a week, but it is possible to work through the formal part and, if accompanied by your own self-study, make an excellent base.
That works particularly well for people like myself, who are very quick, but chaotic learners. Language classes introduce some order in my studies, make me go through some things I would probably miss otherwise and make sure I have regular contact with language even in weeks in which for some reason I am too busy to do much on my own (since when you pay for classes, you are not likely to miss them just like that, right?), and I am completely free to supplement them with whatever I find important (music, books, native speakers to speak to, and so on), as well as to skip a level if I really go past the group a lot (I have been in that situation, and they normally allowed me to skip a level and join more advanced group after the end of one semester). Language classes, of course, are only temporary measure, and once you get past them, you no longer use them, but instead have private classes with native speakers, or simply implement the language in your life and use it in other ways; still, why not make use of something which can be of use while you can, if prices are not exaggerated and you have some time? That is how I think about language schools, but as I pointed, perhaps I was lucky since it seems that my experience is not exactly a representative one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| joaopferrao Pentaglot Newbie Portugal Joined 5141 days ago 25 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Icelandic | Message 26 of 28 06 January 2009 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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My experience: 5 months of Italian, 4 hours a week, with an Italian teacher. Well, all I learnt were basic phrases (voglio un espresso è un biglietto per Napoli), the plural and the Passato Prossimo (ho fatto...). All this for "only" 125€. Great, isn't it?
After two months of training by myself, I was able to read Italian with quite ease and even speak with native speakers in my class (though with some errors, of course). My biggest problem is writing, but I guess that just requires training. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5260 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 27 of 28 09 January 2009 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I did! But yes, I wouldn't set foot in a language class nowadays. Another problem is people's motivation for being in a language class. Few are there to actually learn, most go back to their 'high school' personality, some are there because they've nothing better to do, some are there to get laid, some are there to prove they already know everything, some are there because their parents made them, some are there only to distract the teacher and ask dumb questions, some are there just to say to their friends that they study X language etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5830 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 28 of 28 11 January 2009 at 9:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I've seen language classes for mixed level, they were really disastrous. All the bad points mentioned in the first post were present, and the lazyness of some below-intermediate students was irritating. BUT!
I've studied at a very productive language class, that was preparation for test of Italian at advanced level. I guess, there were 3 parts of this success: 1) the character of the teacher. We really loved her for her brilliant personality! Positive thinking and diplomatic, yet honest and direct when estimating our abilities and performance. 2) the end goal - that is a strong motivation, so when you have it and you put it to yourself, you invest 10 times more energy. 3) the already achieved level or fluency - few people reach the level where we were at that time, so this automatically filtered out any lazy person - the material was irrelevant for them. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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