A parent asked me the other day on my opinion as to which I think is better way to learn a language, learning each day for an hour, or twice a week for a couple of hours.
I remember when I was learning chinese, I found I improved much more when I only went to school a couple of times a week, therefore I would agree that a couple of time over a longer period of time would work for some.
The flip side of the coin is where I asked my Grade 3 students at Elementary School last week, from those who are learning English at any kind of cram school or private class, how many attend twice a week compared to each day. The majority attended twice a week. I found that without doubt, those who attended each day with shorter times, spoke much better than the two times a week kids.
Obviously, there are going to be other issues that facter into this such as quality of school, teacher, desire to learn etc, but I’d like to find what other think as to which is the better way.
Most of the research I’ve seen on this suggests frequent repeated exposure is the most beneficial, so twice a week is probably the bare minimum. As to the appropriate length of time, it should be in a manageable “chunk”, whatever that means. Nevertheless, there appears to be no hard and fast rule, and there are affective factors to consider such as the learner’s individual learning style and language environment.
I think it might vary for individuals. I think for children studying for a short amount of time every day might be better as they only have short attention spans and may only be able to learn a certain amount of language in a day.
For adult learners though longer periods might be OK as they might be able to better manage the large amount of info they receive in a long lesson and review it independently outside of class.
