WHY did we make this program?
The Philippines is famous for 1:1 classes but there are also demerits because it’s difficult to see the improvement.
- Broken-English can even make sense because teachers already get used to all countries’ pronunciation and accent.
- I’m not sure if I will use what I’m learning now…
- Improvement is not so visible than I thought…
Purpose
Students can initially think
- “What is the phrase that I really need to know??”
- “Ah, this is what I need to improve!!”
because of actual going out and mainly focused on Role-Play.
This lets students feel their improvement than having indoor classes since the they would be having real spontaneous conversations with Filipinos and local or foreign visitors. They can see what they really need by communicating with strangers outside.
For this program, Baguio is appropriate because of
- High educational standard
- Good temperature to go out
- Safe location
and WALES is the best because of
- the academic concept that we focus more on “Actual Situation”
- Its location, near the town
Program detail
Morning : Group class
Each week has these and students learn phrase, idea and expression based on it. They go out on Friday morning in order to apply what they have learned from Monday to Thursday.
Example：
1st week『 Informal Greetings 』
- Mon.：Introduction
- Tue. – Wed.：Class, based on textbook, YouTube…etc
- Thu.：Role-Play, inviting other teachers and staffs.
- Fri.：Actual interview to people outside with “Informal greeting” in city park. Teachers are biside students to check and take a video.
- Next Mon.：Feedback and correction with videos taken.
Afternoon : One on one class
Pronunciation, Phone call, Vocabulary and Writing are arranged for practical speaking. Curriculum is designed that all skills they learned can be applied for speaking.
Feedback from students
“I’m learning contents which are directly connected to speaking compared to ESL Flexible that I took last month.
For example, Writing is usually giving tasks that students only write but in this course, a teacher gives me a task about dialogues that I have to imagine conversation among 2~4 people.
In Phone call class, I downloaded FB messenger and practicing calling with a teacher. It’s hard because I can’t talk face to face like usual ESL speaking…
I’m quite shy person, so I don’t basically initiate to talk to people. However, this program forces me to do that and ends up training me a lot..haha ”
“When I was about to enroll, I was really thinking if I would take ESL or REAL-TALK ESL because the course requires me to talk outside…
After a few days of considering, I decided to take this program because ” I didn’t want to regret after I come to the Philippines. ” As expected, all classes are more difficult than I thought…lol But I can feel that I’m learning techniques to be able to speak up.
Indeed, I had interviews to 5 filipinos last Friday. First 3 people depressed me because I couldn’t continuouslly talk… During talking with last 2 people, I could keep having a conversation somehow. That time, I felt getting tips like “Ah… I see.. This is kinda what I need.” But I’m still nervous by not being used to it…haha “
We are currently changing its module in order to improve the program based on checking classes proceeding and feedback from students.
There might be some changes such as subjects, target level and revision of some contents. Kindly understand in advance.