Standards of being a good English Training Program ?

上一篇 / 下一篇  2006-05-23 08:30:27

查看( 473 ) / 评论( 6 )
Many people asked in this forum: which English Training Program or school is good? ... I deleted almost all such kind of threads, because, they didn't set up their own standards of judging a good English Training Program before raising the question. In this way, what they can get is nothing but advertisement and quarrels between the schools.

Then I'm thinking of why don't we setup a list of standards? to help people choose the program they are satisfied with.

The standard list may contain several parts, under each part there are several items with scores , like,

facilities:
location (close or far from you home?), 1 point if the answer is "yes"
classrooms(how many do they have?), 1 point if there are more than 3 class rooms
equipments(do they have enough electric equipments? like air conditioner,DV, TV, recorder, speaker, internet connection, etc), 1 point for each kind of equipment.

Teachers:
how many teacher do they have?  1 point if there are more than 3.
what about teachers' education backgroud?  1 point for every teacher finished college English education
Are the teachers kind to student?  1 point for "yes"
Did they speak English between each other?  1 point for "yes"

Students:
What do the studnets look like toward the class? 2 point for "good", 1 point for "so so"
Are they happy? 1 point for "yes"

Program:
What is the choice of their text book? 1 point for famous ones
What's the goal of the program? It is hard to give score on the point...
How long will it take to finish the program? 1 point if they follow the advise from text book,
How would they compose a class? Only teacher talking and student listening? or something else? 1 point for a interesting class.

Put all the points together and compare it between different schools, then maybe you can find out which one is more suitable for you.

And please follow up what you think should be put into the list, while I missed

[ 本帖最后由 ocherry16 于 2006-5-23 08:34 编辑 ]

论坛模式 推荐 收藏 分享给好友 推荐到圈子 管理

TAG:

莽夫发布于2006-05-23 10:19:44

QUOTE:

原帖由 ocherry16 于 2006-5-23 08:30 发表
Many people asked in this forum: which English Training Program or school is good? ... I deleted almost all such kind of threads, because, they didn't set up their own standards of judging a good E ...
You did it right and your idea is great!
garywhit发布于2006-05-23 14:56:35
I think it is a good start but most of the things are superficial.  What really is the purpose for your taking English? Reading, writing or speaking?  Are the students actually learning or improving thier English language ability.  I have been to many schools and classes and many times only see students learning by rote and not actually improving.  How do other students feel about the teachers and school?  Are they really improving?  Do the teachers take and have time for each student?  So, there are many criteria to consider and is difficult to evaluate.  The bottom line is the opinion of the exisiting students and whether they are reaching their goals.  You have a good start though.
ocherry16的BLOG ocherry16 发布于2006-05-23 19:52:11
I just want to make a start on this topic and what I wrote was just what came into my mind at the moment.

The standards are not suitable for every one, I hope that those who want to take a class have a clear understanding of what they hope to get from some easy accessed way. The numrical standards are only guidance
garywhit发布于2006-05-23 21:07:14
I think it is definitely a good idea and something that needs to be fine tuned.  How DO you know if a school is good and will meet your requirements? Do you know what your requirements are?  Do you know what you want to accomplish?  I think the good teachers are a must.  Ones that can and will work with individual students are very valuable.  Many students want to learn through osmosis and not hard study.
lateblue发布于2006-05-24 06:41:21
For students with strong will power, they will learn English well as long as they have opportunity to be exposed to correct English. I remember talking to some professors who went abroad in 1930s. They told me that they simply pick a small dictionary and memorize it from cover to cover, and went abroad.

For the rest of us, we need motivation, interest, and good atmosphere. Obviously, a good teacher is the number one factor. A good teacher does not necessary mean just good English. A good organization, knowing how to motivate students (especially not to demoralizing the students), picking an appropriate pace to cover the material to suit the current level and devotion of the students, are other factor. For advanced students, a teacher with a good command of English, preferrably a well educated native speaker, is obviously very important. For beginning students, teaching skills become more important as long as the teacher knows sufficient English to cover the material. This is the same reason as the fact many successful people consider their elementary teachers as the most influential persons in their life.

Another factor, especially for oral English, the class size and the opportunity to talk is also important. If you can offord private tutor, that's certainly the most ideal. On the other hand, the students should try to use English as much as they can in order to accelerate the learning process. No matter how good the lessons are, you cannot learn without hard work.

On the other hand, I certainly would not dismiss the factors listed by Ocherry. Typically, a school of significant size with good environment already put in a lot of investment in the program, and needs to care about their reputation. Such a school typically can afford hiring good teachers. However, there are a lot of exceptions to this rule. If the school knows the rating system, and pays more attention to make the rating rather than improving the quality of teaching, then these rating system may become superficial.

Another thing I would like to mention is the fact that those test preparation programs do not necessarily teach you English well. I have seen some Chinese students with GRE verbal score of above 700, much higher than a typical college graduates in US, but cannot speak or write very well.
ocherry16的BLOG ocherry16 发布于2006-05-24 09:12:14
Thanks Gary and Blue for your comments.

A big and well equipped school maybe attract good teachers, but only maybe... I know clearly what I list is only a part of things a student should consider when he/she want to pick a school. I fully agree that teacher is the most important factor in one's study. But how can we tell a teacher is good or not in a short time? This the true goal of the thread. You know, in Beihai, the schools usually hold public lesson for those want to join. It will last one hour or two. I don't think people can tell if the teacher is good or not in such a short time. If the school promise refund within 5 or several lessons after the student join, the things will be better... since the students have enough time to see how does the teacher fulfill his/her duty. this is only an advice.
I hope this thread can give something to students and schools to follow or refine their work.
我来说两句

(可选)

Open Toolbar