ONE-TO-ONE COURSES WHERE THE LANGUAGE IS SPOKEN

Children learn their mother tongue without any conscious effort and through interaction. Few adults can adopt this approach when they learn a new language. To help you to rediscover this natural approach, DialoguE offers you its programmes within a family setting and a pleasant and non-academic environment, which is in no way reminiscent of school. Your trainers will adapt to you, to your learning style and to your personality. Once you are relaxed and motivated, you can make spectacular progress. What may seem insurmountable at first becomes easy, as if by magic. There are, however, other ways of saving time.

Traditional teaching methods are linear. Teachers usually follow a course book and teach the language as a grammatical system. They pay attention to grammatical progression and correction. They forget a fundamental point: we learn the grammar of our mother tongue after we are able to speak it. Grammar can improve our writing style, but does not improve our speaking. A language is like a mosaic, multi-facetted and complex. The tesserae of the language (word, structure, articulation) form a living and changing entity. The linear approach is radically opposed to this truth.

As we have seen, the complexity of a language does not accommodate the linear and Cartesian approach to teaching a language that fragments its building blocks and prolongs the learning process. We need to foster the assimilation of a language as a whole rather than the acquisition of its individual constituents. Linear teaching, which is centred around grammar, is teacher driven and involves mainly a monologue. In a true dialogue, trainers do not teach; instead they accompany and facilitate. This dialogue creates a partnership: the specific skills of each dialogue partner are channeled towards the objectives that are jointly established. Only this kind of team work can lead to a great deal of progress in a short time.
Linear approach (in red) and dynamic approach (in green)
Results of the two approaches (L = level   W = course week)

This dynamic way of learning in ‘mosaic’ based on accomplishing tasks becomes even more efficient in a complete immersion setting. Experiencing authentic and varied situations from morning until bedtime allows you to make a great deal of progress without having to spend any additional energy. You save time by combining the ‘useful’ with the ‘enjoyable'. You also learn while you are eating, drinking and discussing fascinating subjects in the target language. Adults often believe that they can only learn consciously. We learn more in situations where we forget that we are learning. Complete immersion, like cruising down a motorway, ensures that you cover a maximum number of miles using the lowest amount of fuel.

Richard van Egdom
info@dialogue.com