I’m posting this on behalf of a coworker whose high school-age son will be going stateside for college in a few years. The kid attends a local high school, but wants to be prepared with a good command of English before going abroad. How should my coworker go about this? Should he send his kid to a buxiban after school? If so, which one? I hear foreigner-run ones are better, but don’t they mostly cater to elementary school kids? Subscribe to an English magazine for him? Which one? Or hire a private tutor? Frankly, I’m clueless as I’m not a parent. Can any of you parents/buxiban owners/English teachers help? Thanks.
This is a difficult question to answer. There are so many factors invovled. Is he good with languages, does he like to study English, is the family well-off, does he do well in school, is he outgoing, does he like to talk, can he go to summer school abroad, etc.
In general, I don’t think that going to buxibans or hiring tutors will improve the English drastically. It is just an unscientific statistic. Otherwise, the Taiwanese kids’ English should be much better than they are and you won’t ask this question:-)
Tim
The kid has a pretty good command of English according to his father, goes to English summer camps, and apparently enjoys studying English. But all this I got from his dad (my coworker).
I think that’s beside the point. I think in this case, it’s “What will keep the parents happy” that counts. And I’m sure the 'rents are more than willing to fork out the necessary tuition that they think will give their boy better English.
Then send the kid to a summer school in US/UK/AU. Language immersion is the best way to go.
I would recommend Yale’s English Language Institute. I’ve seen the results and was very impressed. I agree with the immersion approach as the most effective but it’s also quite $$$.
Maybe there are other types of heavy duty tutoring that requires a lot of English practice/use on a frequent and regular basis. Maybe there are special teachers out there that can do such a thing.
Going overseas for language training may be the ideal way to go, but I think that’s a bit over their budget.
[quote=“Yellow Cartman”]
Maybe there are special teachers out there that can do such a thing.[/quote]
And if you are one of those teachers and feel too shy to post here, just send me a pm and I’ll try to hook you up with the parent.
Lots of teachers would be willing to teach one-to-one classes. I agree that going to a buxiban or employing a tutor will be generally ineffective unless you’re studying for 10+ hours a week. The question is how a high school student would find enough time for that. If you don’t get many pms, you could pay a nominal fee to find a tutor at myu.com.tw.
Steven Krashen and the Comprehensible Input/Extensive Reading (CI/ER) establishment insists that an intermediate can advance their language abilities to the advanced level (college level?) by reading alone, for pleasure and without the use of a dictionary. If the student is devoted enough he can read books at his level, slowly increasing or decreasing difficulty level as he feels maintains sufficient challenge. It’s a proven and successful method; the challenge is to convince someone that it will really work.
There are many guides to succeeding in college. They suggest that (American) kids read English magazines before going to university so they can be up to snuff. Start with something “easy” like Reader’s Digest, and move your way up through Maxim and Sports Illustrated to Time and Newsweek (or Scientific American if you’re going for a BS).
Thanks for the link, 2Cs. I didn’t know such a site existed. I’ll register and browse it.
I agree that reading is the most basic thing one should do to improve one’s language skills. Combine it with writing is even better. But listening is a whole different ball game for non-native speakers.
[quote=“twocs”] the challenge is to convince someone that it will really work.
[/quote]
And finding someone to do the convincing. 