OUR TEACHING METHOD

The inlingua Method takes a unique approach to language training. Unlike less effective ways of language training, our highly conversational method is designed to give our students the skills necessary for practical social and professional communication in English. From the very first lesson, you will begin speaking and interacting in English to quickly move toward fluency.

Hands on Learning: Because we believe speaking is the quickest route to fluency, the inlingua Method emphasizes not only understanding the target language, but also speaking it. Our conversational approach enables the student to practice English in a realistic way. By communicating with a highly-proficient English speaker about interesting topics, the student gains the ability to react to and produce English naturally in everyday environments such as the grocery store, shopping mall, restaurant, and airport. This immersion in the spoken form of English will prepare you better than a CD program to interact with speakers of the language in the real world.

Participation: You are invited to ask questions. This allows you to experiment with the structures of English and enables you to be creative and use language in new and interesting ways. Our classrooms are highly interactive and are not like attending a passive lecture. We encourage active participation and spontaneous production of language from our students. At inlingua, you can look forward to never having to read out loud from texts, memorize large vocabulary lists, or write out long translations.

Learning by example: Our principle is to learn by doing rather than learn by analyzing. Knowing how to drive a car does not require knowing how the engine works. Similarly, knowing how a language works is not the same as being able to speak it. At inlingua, we believe that using examples is the best way to communicate and intuitively use the rules of English grammar without getting lost in describing those rules. Our language trainers avoid heavy theoretical explanations and keep grammatical analysis to a minimum because many students tend to “tune out" when learning grammatical rules.

MORE ABOUT OUR TEACHING METHOD

The inlingua Method has been designed to ensure that language learners gain the maximum competence in the target language in a minimal amount of time while making sure that certain standards are met, whether in English, Spanish, Chinese, or any of the many other languages we teach. This highly effective and proven method also assures learners that they are following a tried and tested course of study which is both systematic and successful, which greatly increases learner motivation both in and out of the classroom. Our language school ensures that all of our instructors are experts in not only the languages they teach, but also in our teaching methodology, instructional philosophy, and pedagogical techniques.

Our teaching method relies on ten basic principles:

1. Our highly-qualified and experienced language instructors use the target language only in the classroom. We avoid translation as a teaching strategy, as it encourages mother-tongue interference, interrupts the flow of a lesson, prevents learners from thinking for themselves, slows down learners’ responses, and encourages learners to seek an exact equivalent in their own language for every new item, which all hinder our ultimate goal, which is to guide our students to fluency in the language they are studying.

2. Our students learn through speaking and listening, not through reading and writing. In fact, the student books are closed for most of the lesson. In modern communication, listening and speaking are more important than reading and writing, and research shows that a functional, communicative method that emphasizes the rapid development of speaking and listening skills is the most effective way to learn a language.

3. Our language instructors use examples instead of explanations during the lesson. In fact, the inlingua materials have carefully selected, graded language, so learners build on previous knowledge. Language learners learn better if they induce rules for themselves from examples rather than try to memorize rules they are told. During our language classes, explanations are kept to a minimum, which allows our language courses to avoid the unsuccessful, traditional “grammar school” approach to language instruction.

4. During our language classes, we get the learners to do the talking, making our students the focus of the lesson. Our instructors minimize the amount of time they spend talking in the classroom so that our students get the maximum amount of time possible to practice their new language skills. In addition, we strongly encourage students to practice the language they are learning as much as possible, which results in better results and a more enjoyable experience for the student.

5. Our language instructors take special care to create a positive, motivating learning atmosphere. They always take the learners’ needs and personalities into account during the class, adopting a flexible approach to the lesson. After all, different classes often need different atmospheres.

6. During the language lesson, our instructors always handle students’ language mistakes with care. Our language instructors are always sensitive to motivational issues and adapt the form and timing of correction according to the stages of the lesson and the needs of each student in the course.

7. Our language instructors always check students’ progress during each class. They consistently find out if learners already know something before they teach it, in order to minimize boredom and maximize the students’ class time. In addition, answers are elicited from the learners themselves whenever possible, which further engages the student in the language learning process.

8. Our classes are structured to give students opportunities to experiment with the new grammatical structures and vocabulary they learn during the lesson. We strongly encourage our students to be creative with new language and to express their own ideas throughout the course.

9. Our language instructors have variety in their teaching, relying on a wide range of instructional techniques to achieve effective, enjoyable classes and enhance each student’s progress toward fluency in the target language.

10. Finally, we rely on three key techniques during our language classes, which further enhance each student’s progress throughout the course. Our language instructors encourage students to ask questions rather than make statements, have learners use new language in authentic interactions, and keep the student books closed during the lesson so that learners remain actively engaged and thinking in the target language.