One-to-One English language immersion courses – do they work?

As an English school in London that offers One-to-One English language immersion courses, the question of do they work is often debated by our academic staff, and as with many subjects dependent on many variables, the resultant conclusion is often…it depends.

Depends on what…well, the main ingredients are the school and its ethos, which flows down into the teachers used and the academic management employed to oversee and direct the course. Equally important is the English language level and clarity of objective of the student and last, but of course not least, the motivation and expectation of the student.

Intensive One-to-One English language courses are typically at least 20 hours or more a week. It is quite common for English language schools to define an immersion type course as 30 hours a week or possibly more. One clear implication of this is the importance of the English language level of the student…if a student is of a particularly low level, beginner or elementary, the effectiveness of a 30 hour immersion course is questionable. The ability of a student to concentrate, particularly if the lessons are being conducted in English, is limited and a 30 hour course could well be counter-productive with the student running out of steam halfway through the day! This is an important consideration that needs to be sorted out before the course starts. A 15 hour semi-immersion course would probably best suit the low-level student on the basis of efficient learning.

Of course sales departments might take a different view…..If the customer wanted 30 hours per week then sell the customer student 30 hours per week I hear them say. Of course, this links to the ethos of the school and how professionally and rigorously they approach an individual’s course. Much ‘fancy talk’ surrounds the marketing of One-to-One English immersion courses, but in essence it boils down to establishing clearly and absolutely what a student wants as well as, through assessment, what it is that a student needs. Often referred to theoretically as a ‘negotiated syllabus’, once the ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ are collected and considered, an academic manager would discuss and agree on the syllabus of the course with the student as well as agree with student on realistic and achievable goals. As you might expect, this type of approach best suits students who have well-defined and specific needs and objectives. This often, perhaps a little lazily, is linked to Business English students, but in truth applies across the board to anyone who has a strong motivation to improve their proficiency in English.

An important complement to a thorough and high-quality approach to planning a course would be the selection of teachers to execute the programme. If well-qualified and experienced teaching staff are a given, then the task of matching teacher and student becomes paramount. If pronunciation work is the key focus then the main tutor should be the resident phonology expert. If a key objective is to better communicate in English within a financial context, then the tutor who comes from a financial background should be selected. This matching exercise does pre-suppose that the academic manager of the course is able to draw on a sufficiently large pool of teachers with a good range of backgrounds and expertise. This may or may not be the case and it would be advisable for the student to investigate this aspect when considering buying a course with a particular language school.

So a course gets completed, the student goes home and life goes on…did it work? Was it a successful course? Well customer feedback both written and verbal is a good starting point. One thing for sure, the school has to always set out with the intent of providing an excellent course and if that objective is adhered to in a steadfast manner then one is maximising the possibility of indeed providing an excellent One-to-One English language course.

Read more about our English courses in London.