Language schools where you start any Monday

[smallwhite]

In many language schools, you just go there and "start any Monday" instead of wait for semesters to begin. How does it work? How can they be so flexible? If it takes 40 weeks from A0 to C2 that'd mean they'd have to run 40 different classes every day...

[Cavesa]

They have a common curriculum, all their teachers and groups adhere to. For example:
A1 level: BeginnercoursebookX
week 1: lessons 1 and 2,
week 2: lessons 3 and 4,
and so on.

Advantages:
-much easier to join an already running group, based on testing
-easier to skip weeks and go to more advanced groups, if the school allows it (some test people weekly, but this option depends on the school)
-it is impossible for an incompetent teacher to fall too far behind the plan (which is a good thing. Ages ago, I had a bad teacher in a private language school. We were supposed to cover half the coursebook, 6 units, in 5 months, as the next level started with unit 7. Impossible, as she spent half the semester on unit 1. And she was not the only teacher like that I've encountered, it's actually pretty common).
-as everyone follows the same coursebook series, you can usually find the information on the website, no mysterious "course chosen by the teacher" or teaching based only on a chaotic pile of copies from various books.

Disadvantages:
-not only the curriculum cannot be altered for individual needs (which is normal in language schools), but not even for needs of a group (again, this might go to advantages too, if you happen to be in a too slow and lazy group)
-it doesn't count with some units being more difficult than others. Despite the authors trying to chop coursebooks into even chunks, some units are simply more demanding, but still need to fit into the one week.

[WalkingAlone13]

My experience is very similar to that of Cavesa.

I could not make the official "start date" but was told that one could join at any time, it would just mean that others would have already started. When I joined the course I attended, I was allowed to pretty much test myself by sitting in on several of the classes. I moved three times in the end and eventually settled.

The joining in approach was not ideal in my mind as I had a lot of trouble remembering character names in the book. Just for a little perspective, we were using the Schritte neu books, which follows a specific family for the entirety of the books. I joined in from midway through the book, meaning I had missed all of the earlier activities (learning about the professions and such, which character is married to whom, how many children someone has, etc) So listening comprehension questions were a nightmare for me. It would mention someone s favourite music (Insert famous German composer) and then if I happened to be picked to answer, it would be assumed I knew the back stories for all of the characters. Maria or whatever her name loves to listen to ... it was disclosed earlier in the book, and obviously the rest of the group, those that were there from the start would know it.

So yes, it is generally a chapter of the textbook per week. You may also get additional tasks such as grammar homework and told to read a chapter of a book, for example, but generally it is mostly from the book you are using in class.

Again, this is probably very different per language course, but we would get tested every week, and anyone that did not score the benchmark score, would get sent down a group or would have to repeat the group. There were actually people in the group that had been in the same level for 20 weeks or so. One guy had been there almost a year, learning from scratch.

In short, it is only possible if you are either able to catch up or have already studied certain aspects and are able to continue with the flow. In the earlier levels this should be fine, in my opinion. The higher levels may be tricky if you are joining very late.

[smallwhite]

I'm sorry my question wasn't clear, though Cavesa's and WalkingAlone13's answers turned out more interesting that what I originally wanted to ask I hadn't gotten so far as to think about the class contents, because I couldn't understand how the classes are run in the first place. I've revised my first post, and my original question was:

How can these schools be so flexible? If it takes 40 weeks from A0 to C2 that'd mean they'd have to run 40 different classes every day...

Let's say they teach one lesson per week. To provide such flexibility, they'd have to teach Lesson 1 every week, and for these students to proceed, they'd have to teach Lesson 2 every week, and so on, and thus all 40 lessons every week. But these schools don't seem so big to me.

Thanks.

[Cavesa]

I'm sorry my question wasn't clear, though Cavesa's and WalkingAlone13's answers turned out more interesting that what I originally wanted to ask I hadn't gotten so far as to think about the class contents, because I couldn't understand how the classes are run in the first place. I've revised my first post, and my original question was:

How can these schools be so flexible? If it takes 40 weeks from A0 to C2 that'd mean they'd have to run 40 different classes every day...

Let's say they teach one lesson per week. To provide such flexibility, they'd have to teach Lesson 1 every week, and for these students to proceed, they'd have to teach Lesson 2 every week, and so on, and thus all 40 lessons every week. But these schools don't seem so big to me.

Thanks.

Well, to add my experience with this type of organisation: Years ago, German. I was put into a group that had been learning for three weeks, two units per week. I belonged there because of the past tense, which I hadn't known before. But the group was mostly below my level in most other aspects, due to passivity of the learners. The second week, it was pretty clear that many people still weren't comfortable with the damn past tense from the first week(as you simply need more than the one week to digest this thing), even though other things were progressing quite according to the plan, at least when it comes to learning the content of the coursebook. Most people not only weren't studying in the free time. They obviously weren't even using the awesome and fun opportunities of being in Berlin. But I already wrote about this elsewhere.

There were two teachers, each morning was divided into two halves. Each with one teacher working on one unit of the book. The two were being learn in paralel.

There was a test on Friday (I came late, so I didn't write it, but I still wouldn't have been moved forward, I think), but it meant nothing, as not even the Japanese guy still struggling with his first words had to repeat a level.

Not sure about the 40 weeks, I've just looked at the website of that school I went to years ago. 20 hours per week courses: 8 weeks per level. 30 hours per week: 5 weeks per level. No C2 level courses on the list, as usual, even though the school claims to teach that level. Sure, it is crazy that A1 is supposed to take as long as C1. So, 40 weeks to C1, or the shorter option is 25 weeks. The school is huge. It is totally possible there are 20 courses being taught at once.

But it is now quite sure not all the "weeks" are being taught all the time. Probably, they simply put you to the closest one to your level. And hard to tell how many students get to a different group during their stay, or ask for it. The test is officially meant to let you pass or make you retake a week, but it doesn't work that way in reality, I think. And should someone ask to skip a few weeks, I think they'd need to aim for skipping a whole level or half a level, not one week out of five or eight. To do that, you'd need to work a lot on your own. Which is totally ok, but why pay for the classes at all in such a case?

In general, I think the idea behind this sort of organisation is very good. Practical application has some limits, of course. But it isn't a solution to the usual problems of classes.

[lingua]

I have done several two week Italian language schools. In my experience they start every other Monday. On the first day they give you a placement test for beginner, intermediate or advanced. They also are full on immersion. There is no English (or other languages) spoken during class. Most of the ones I've been to have daily handouts rather than books which include grammar, exercises and articles to read (depending on the class level). The class also includes a lot of conversation. I think they work because the classes are usually small (max of 12 students at most schools) and it focuses on conversation rather than being overly structured. They aren't actual courses though. You can take as many weeks as you'd like.

[smallwhite]

Okay, now I understand how it works for students who are already intermediate or advanced - the syllabus is fuzzy and the student's knowledge also ends up fuzzy

What about students who join as complete beginners and start from Lesson 1? If there's a 40-week course that starts on Jan 1st, and another that starts on Jan 8th, and another that starts on Jan 15th... then there'd have to be 40 different classes on any given day (and the whole A0-C2 syllabus is more likely 80 weeks than 40). You can't just throw all Week 10 to Week 20 students into the same class; there has to be a specific class where you define what an adjective is, and you can't keep defining what an adjective is every week

And since if you didn't pass the weekly test then you'd have to repeat that week - so there has to be that week's class there again for you to repeat, right? So, again, that means there're all 40 or 80 classes running on any given day, all the time? (Maybe the answer is simply "yes". It's just that those schools don't seem so large to me.)

[Cavesa]

12 people, that is not a small group
That is a standard group. And it really matters who is there. It is unfortunately not too likely to encounter such a big group where most people are hard working. 4 or 5 people, that is a small group. And some schools offer that too, for a price. I actually think 4 or 5 people, that might already be worth considering. With a bit of luck, you could get three or four classmates that wouldn't slow the class down, and hopefully a useful teacher. Especially as people paying the much more expensive smaller class are likely to be more motivated.

About handouts in this type of classes: now that I think of it, I once spent a week in a week long course, that was not that German one I already mentioned Spanish. I almost forgot about it! It was not long after the first year of learning it, and before the loooong break during which I forgot it all. There were handouts instead of a coursebook. And it was a chaos, just like most times in class without a good quality course to follow. Yes, some teachers are great at organisation of this, at pacing the progress and so on. But many should simply give up on these attempts on creativity. It is quite a complicated approach even in normal classes over a semester. It must be a hell in such a week based system, where every week needs to fit between the neighbouring ones.

As I said: There don't have to run all the classes all the time, schools teaching over semester often skip levels too. Sure, they probably start a new class from zero every monday. But I highly doubt they start a B2 class every monday. So, if you arrive on the 15th, they feel like you would fit in the second or third week of B2, they put you to the one they've got, that sounds like the logical option.

Yes, in theory you should repeat the week. But from what I've seen: the school may not enforce it. Really, a guy who couldn't say a single word more or less correctly still "passed" the test of the third week.

[DaveBee]

Okay, now I understand how it works for students who are already intermediate or advanced - the syllabus is fuzzy and the student's knowledge also ends up fuzzy

What about students who join as complete beginners and start from Lesson 1? If there's a 40-week course that starts on Jan 1st, and another that starts on Jan 8th, and another that starts on Jan 15th... then there'd have to be 40 different classes on any given day (and the whole A0-C2 syllabus is more likely 80 weeks than 40). You can't just throw all Week 10 to Week 20 students into the same class; there has to be a specific class where you define what an adjective is, and you can't keep defining what an adjective is every week

And since if you didn't pass the weekly test then you'd have to repeat that week - so there has to be that week's class there again for you to repeat, right? So, again, that means there're all 40 or 80 classes running on any given day, all the time? (Maybe the answer is simply "yes". It's just that those schools don't seem so large to me.)

Could they just structure it by sets? You're in the A1/A2/B1/B2 set for 12 weeks, then you move on.

[Cavesa]

Could they just structure it by sets? You're in the A1/A2/B1/B2 set for 12 weeks, then you move on.

No, they couldn't. Students of this kind of schools arrive for x weeks of classes, vast majority for not that many weeks.

Example:A friend of yours and you pay for 3 weeks beforehand. You arrive and are tested on the first monday. You are sorted to B1, third week. Your friend to B1 fifth week. In the structure you mention, you both would end up in the same class, and there would be several B1 classes that would be mixed together like you and your friend. With the week based system, you finish the last week of B1 before leaving, while your friend is half a coursebook before you and already working on the B2 level.