What kind of language class is right for you?
A guide to balancing the many factors that can make or break your language learning experience
In our last issue, we talked about the role of teachers in language learning, the benefits they can bring, and the qualities that make a good teacher.
But a “teacher” is not just one set thing: some of them do private instruction, others do big group classes, and still others run small group lessons.
And today, we’ll be talking about another practical issue when it comes to finding your perfect teacher: how to decide what kind of arrangement will work for you.
Aside from the main things we discussed last time (having the right teaching methodology, and native vs. non-native speaker issues), the main factors to consider when looking for a language teacher are:
Personality
Price
Time commitment/scheduling availability
What’s on offer during a session
And, most importantly, what sort of input are you likely to get from each type of class.
Let’s take each of these one by one!
Personality
This is one of those fuzzy factors (especially because what constitutes the “right” personality for you will be totally dependent on, well, you!) but it makes a big difference.
We always advocate finding a teacher who you get along with so well that you’d want to talk to them even if they weren’t teaching you the language. That’s the ideal!
Of course, it’s difficult to get to know someone just from a listing on a website or a short introduction video. The sorts of personalities that you learn best from are something that you’ll discover with time, as you take lessons or classes from different people.
Why is this important? Remember that you’re optimizing for the quantity and quality (i.e. comprehensibility) of input. If the person providing that input is someone you want to talk to, you’re likely to come back more often, and it’s likely you’ll feel more confident and comfortable engaging with them.
Price
Price is obviously a big factor! No one wants to go broke over a language learning habit. The price of lessons depends on a lot of things, but in general the following factors drive the price up or down.
Supply and demand: if there are relatively few teachers but lots of interest – think languages like Icelandic – prices will be higher. If the language has hundreds of millions of native speakers and a big pool of teachers to choose from, prices will likely be lower, even if the language is a popular choice for learners – Spanish comes to mind as an example of this case.
Teacher training: if a teacher has some sort of teaching credentials, that teacher will likely be more expensive. But know that formal education in language teaching may or may have given the teacher the skills that are relevant to the kind of teaching that we know helps acquisition the most. And there are certainly teachers who are formally untrained but 100% know what they’re doing. So here price does not always correlate with what you’re looking for.
Your own personal budget, how many classes you want to take, and a whole host of other factors will also influence your choice here. It’s worth also thinking about whether you would get more “bang for your language learning buck” choosing to have a lesson than spending lots of money on resources you’re unlikely to use.
Time Commitment / Scheduling Availability
This one may go without saying, but you need a class that runs when you are available. This can be a problem with respect to time zones, especially if you’re studying a language mostly spoken on the other side of the world from you.
Bigger classes can be harder to fit into your schedule, as there’s generally not much flexibility in their scheduling. Basically, the fewer calendars that need to be consulted, the better!
What’s out there
Depending on how commonly taught the language is, you may have more or fewer options available to you.
However, sometimes the less commonly taught languages are the ones where innovation in teaching is happening. The Living Latin movement is a great example of this!
Quality of input
Last but certainly not least, consider the quantity and quality of the input you’ll be receiving: in a private lesson with a good teacher, almost 100% the input you get will be useful for your acquisition.
In a big group class with a lot of conversation from the other students, that percentage can be a lot lower. If you are more advanced than the rest of the class, the level may be too low. If the rest of the class is more advanced than you, the level may be too high. The topic may be interesting to others, but boring to you, and you may tune out a bit.
You may find a small group to be a happy medium: you’ll likely pay less for a small group class than for one-on-one lessons, but you’ll have a small enough group that you’ll be able to benefit from a high percentage of the class time.
You can even do what we did with Yiddish: created a small group ourselves and then found a private tutor. Because we were all at different levels of German ability (which helps a lot in Yiddish), the classes were adapted to our needs and areas of interest, but Natasha started taking extra private classes to help her to catch up on the stuff she just didn’t have experience with.
One lovely bonus with our tutor, too, is that we have access to a weekly coffee hour with his other students. This means we’re able to meet other learners (including some native speakers who just hadn’t spoken for many decades), get more input, and make new friends.
So, where do you actually find your teacher?
This will, as always, be really dependent on the factors we mentioned above, as well as the language that you’re learning and whether you want to learn remotely or in-person.
One of the benefits of so much language learning going online over the last couple of years is that it has opened up new avenues for people all around the world to access classes and culture in a way that wasn’t open to them before, whether that be due to price, location, other responsibilities or ill health.
Many people thrive in online environments, but for others it is a challenge, and they feel like they can connect better with the material and other people in person.
The easiest place to start is with Google, but don’t be afraid to ask anyone you know who has already started learning the language. Check social media, find YouTube recommendations. It’s worth doing your homework.
For private tutors, there are online websites like italki and verbling, where you can browse the profile of thousands of professional teachers and community tutors. Many offer trial sessions at a discount, so you can see they’re a good match for you. It’s also worth reading the reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about their methodology and particular interests!
For group classes, there are lots of popular websites like Lingoda, as well as language specific organisations like the Alliance Française (for French) and the Goethe-Institut (for German).
With a Google, you’ll find a huge number of organisations that offer language classes in whatever language you’re after. Most languages have at least one well-known institute. But it’s worth noting that these might not necessarily be the best place for you and your goals.
For example, we’ve both taken classes through “big institutions” that used old-fashioned teaching methods that didn’t work for us.
Aaannnddd that’s all from us for today! Join us next week when we start a month dedicated to reading in your target language.
We’ll talk about things like: how to find material appropriate to your level, how to make your own comprehensible reading input, the benefits of different types of reading, and how to use reading for vocabulary growth.
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