How to choose an English school?

07.12.2016

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Today there are organizations that provide teaching English almost in every town. That’s why it can be hard to make a decision which school to go to. Besides, learning English through Skype is getting more and more popular.
What should you know before you choose a school? How to make a wise choice and not waste your money? We’ll try to answer these and other questions in this article.
Before looking for a school
1.Make a clear goal. You need English for work? Then, maybe Business English course is exactly for you. You want to travel? Welcome to English for Tourism. And so on. A goal is the basis that determines your next moves.
2.Set the deadline. Say, you need to take an English exam in 8 months. Great, now we can tell you how often you should take classes and what method you should choose.
How to choose a school
1.Take a trial lesson. Most schools today (usual and online) offer such a lesson. What can you find out during the lesson? First of all, a teacher will test your English and tell you what your level is. Secondly, you’ll find out what this school can offer according to your goals. For instance, if they don’t prepare students to exams (and that is what you need) then you can forget about this school. Thirdly, a trial lesson gives you an understanding of what method this schools uses, and you can ask all the questions you want during the lesson. Finally, after the trial lesson you will have your first impression of the school: how amiable the staff were, how confident the teacher was and things like that. Conclusion: a trial lesson is necessary.
2.Try different schools. Let’s say that after a trial lesson you liked a school. Don’t stop the search if it was your first experience. Go to other places and see how thing are there. You don’t lose anything. You will either find a better school or make sure that the first one is a good choice.
3.Test the test. We already mentioned the test before, now we’ll tell more. In order not to have students with different levels in one group (some of them already know everything and are bored, others are afraid of making mistakes and prefer not to speak at all) good schools provide an English test. The question is, how the conduct the test. If you came to the classes of spoken English, then a simple interview is enough. If the school is for a more classical approach (grammar-oriented), then the test should be more detailed: besides the interview, a student should do a grammar and vocabulary test. A test is unnecessary only in one case: if the student had never studied English before and is not just being modest.
4.Ask about how big the group is. Again, it all depends on the goal. If you want to prepare for an interview quickly, then you should rather take individual classes. If you need more communication, you should choose a group. Preferably, the group shouldn’t be bigger than 10 people. No matter how talented and experienced the teacher is, it’s very hard to pay enough attention to every student in a very big group.
5.Learn about the teachers. The more reliable source of information is hearsay. If many people say that a certain teacher is cool, it’s probably true. If you don’t know anything like that, trust your instincts. It’s not about professionalism, which is hard to evaluate for an unprepared person. We mean a teacher as an individual: is he/she interesting, can he/she keep the attention of the group, find a way out of an awkward situation. About professionalism: degrees and certificates are cool, we give them that, but they can’t guarantee good results. So, don’t reject a school just because the teachers there don’t have a heap of certificates.
6.Learn about the school itself. Read reviews of the school on different resources. If they try to persuade you to pay for the entire course, say no. If something happens, you won’t get the money back and you can lose a lot. You can pay for the entire course only if you studied at this school before and you know for a fact that they won’t let you down. Also, ask what happens with your money if you miss a class. But there is nothing really bad if they don’t return you the money. It’s like a gym, you skip a class — it’s your fault. Ask this questions anyway, what if the refund is possible?
7.Read the contract. If there is one.
Choosing the place and the way to learn English is both very important and very hard. So, you should take it very seriously. Ask all the questions you want. Competent teachers and secretaries will answer all of them!

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