N° 18 Editeur responsable: Jean-Luc Godard, 55, Tonnelet, B-4900 Spa		2009/2010 www.dialogue.com info@dialogue.com
ONE-TO-ONE COURSES WHERE THE LANGUAGE IS SPOKEN

Learning a language quickly and well:
group lessons or private lessons?

language course one to one

No-one likes to waste their time and money. And when we decide to improve our communication skills in a foreign language, we like to find solutions that allow us to learn this language quickly and well.

Most language schools offer group programmes. They can go form a huge group of twenty people, or even more, to a small group of two people. That is understandable, as large groups are more profitable, with the same number of teachers for varying numbers of students.

Inconveniences of a group

Why waste our precious time and money in group lessons? Why undergo the pressure and the unease that may reign in a group, when we can, a little like a VIP, experience unforgettable moments in the relaxed and beneficial atmosphere of private lessons? Why force ourselves to study the artificial vocabulary of a course book that is hardly appropriate to our interests and needs, not to mention specific vocabulary which is only useful for one or the other participant, but rarely relevant to our needs? And, can we honestly impose our choice of vocabulary on them? Why should we have to hold back before we can speak? Speaking time in group classes has to be shared among the participants, and the higher the number of participants, the shorter our time to speak. Why should we have to go at the pace of the slowest participant? Why do exercises that are only useful for some participants and have nothing to do with our difficulties?

Advantages of private lessons

Private lessons do not pose these difficulties. We can, in fact, with almost the same budget, and without any of the draw-backs of a group, learn to speak easily about subjects that interest us specifically. An experienced and qualified teacher is always by our side. Our speaking time is never limited. We use this time as we see fit. We speak six times as much and progress six times as fast as we would in a group of six participants. And at DialoguE, this precious speaking time is not restricted to lessons. We converse in the company of native speakers from morning till night, during meals, breaks and evenings. Another major advantage of a private programme is that no-one needs to spend three or four, even more, weeks studying the language. In most cases, a five-day stay at DialoguE is sufficient for achieving most of our objectives.

The best quality-price ratio

Choosing your course based solely on price is hardly a good solution. It would be better to compare the quality-price ratio of the large number of courses on offer. In all the comparative studies made about immersion language courses that we are aware of, DialoguE has always come out first. According to these studies, the DialoguE programme is both the most complete and the most reasonably priced: complete personalisation in a studious yet warm, friendly and relaxed atmosphere where all the learners’ projects, needs, objectives, difficulties and expectations are truly taken into account. A true immersion in the target language, from morning till evening, in the company of native teachers, and where the language is spoken by the locals.

DialoguE: an unforgettable experience

DialoguE gives us a lot of thought. We do not need to adapt ourselves to a system, a programme or a teacher. DialoguE trainers adapt themselves to us, to our personality, our learning style, our areas of interest, our ambitions and our challenges.

Thanks to DialoguE’s individualised, caring and adaptive training method, we are always working at our level and our rhythm and stay constantly motivated. At no time do we feel as if we are at school. Welcomed like a VIP, surrounded by our hosts and trainers, we experience unforgettable moments.

dialogue language course immersion

You too choose DialoguE’s private programmes.
What are the main reasons?

You progress at a spectacular rate
In private lessons, you progress at your own speed. In a group, the teacher has to inevitably adapt to the speed of the slowest participant.
Speaking time is all yours
You save a lot of time in private lessons. You speak six times more than in a group that consists of six participants, and twice as much as you would in a small group of two people.
You enjoy the best quality-price ratio
A private programme does not cost six times as much as a group programme with six participants, not even twice as much, while the amount of progress you make is considerably more.
You choose the subjects
In DialoguE’s private lessons, you choose the subject of your lessons. It is not imposed on you by the trainer or by another participant.
You do not need to adapt yourself
You do not need to adapt yourself to your trainer. It is your trainer who adapts himself or herself to you and to your learning style. Nor do you have to adapt yourself to the group and its participants, or to the teaching method.
You improve your pronunciation rapidly
In a mixed group of different nationalities, the pronunciation corrections for an Asian student can hardly be of any use to an American student, and vice-versa.
No exposure to mistakes
In group lessons, you are exposed to all the mistakes made by the other participants. Moreover, if the trainer does not systematically correct all mistakes, you do not know what is right and what is wrong. In private lessons, you do not hear anything but correct utterances of a native speaker.
Constant interest
In group lessons, questions asked by other participants are not necessarily of interest to you.
No opportunity for distruption
In a group, there are many opportunities for disruption: a disruptive participant, an unmotivated one, one that talks too much, the other who mistakes himself or herself for the teacher, one that asks too many questions, the know-it-all, etc.
In private lessons, there are no such opportunities. You are in charge of your lesson, if you wish to be. You manage it according to your objectives and you converse with your trainer as an equal. You greatly compensate for your ‘linguistic short-comings’ with your experience and your knowledge of your own subject.

**Comparison Table**
	Group lessons	Private lessons

Progress speed	That of the slowest participant	Your speed = as fast as possible
Speaking time	Divided by the number of participants (10 minutes / hour at the most in a group of six)	The whole time (e.g. six times more than in a group of six)
Quality-price ratio	Usually poor: too high a price for too little speaking time and too little progress	Excellent : Much faster progress for a price that is only marginally higher than a group programme
Length of stay	More than a week, usually 3-4 weeks	Five days are enough to achieve most objectives
Subjects	Often imposed	Your choice
Vocabulary	Often general	Specific, relevant to your needs
Pronunciation	Mostly exercises that do not correspond to your difficulties	Exercises adapted to your specific difficulties
Time Management	Time wasted due to testing to form groups and the different rate of progress among participants from one day to next	No time wasted: Constant evaluation of your progress and systematic adaptation of your trainer to your progress rate
Mistakes	Risk of being influenced by others’ mistakes	No risk of hearing mistakes
Course material and recordings	Impersonal	Fully personalised
Motivation	Often stressful pressure of the group	Complete motivation thanks to being in charge of the lesson
Motivation	Risk of losing motivation faced with faster progress of one participant	Rapid and easy self-confidence building
Adaptation	Necessary to adapt yourself to the group, the teacher and the method	The DialoguE coach adapts herself or himself to you, your needs, your expectations and your learning style
Concentration	Difficult: Risk of disconnecting frequently	Complete: permanent dialogue between trainer and learner
Homogeneity	Impossible: Each participant having a different background, culture, knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and pronunciation difficulties	Complete: Only your background, culture, knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and pronunciation difficulties are taken into account
Feedback	Rare	Constant
Lesson Disruption	Talkative participant or laid-back teacher	You decide your speaking time
	Unmotivated, disruptive participant	You manage your lesson based on your objectives
	Participant who wants to compete with the trainer	You speak with your trainer as an equal