Callan method at the Callan School of
London
Official surveys have
demonstrated that with the classical teaching methods of the English
language the results are ineffective, antiquated, boring and slow to
achieve. If you compare the prices of some Schools of English in your
own country, you will notice that they are, at least, double in amount
in respect to those offered by the Callan School. The reason for this
may be found in the poor quality of teaching a normal school is often
offering you, providing little return for high prices. Further, these
schools also have the aggravating circumstance to employ no native
English teachers.
More and more companies are nowadays requiring employers to posses the
English language certification by a Cambridge examination. Today the
English language is the communication language of our time, useful in
many cases, a must in others, above all within the world of business and
trade. Learning a language, especially for a beginner, is best
accomplished in the country where it is spoken and it is likely that
fluency would take longer than months, or even years to be achieved. For
instance, many of the Callan School customers are professionals who have
only weeks on hand. As a matter of fact, the secret of learning a
language is the repetition of it: repeating without thinking.
Learning a language the best way requires a sort of conditioned reflex.
Speaking a language is like playing piano or typewriting on the
computer; there is an intrinsic need to develop a rapid reflex without
thinking. For instance, in order to learn a language, experiences show
that one must learn to speak and to understand without thinking. A
linguistic reflex hence starts from the mouth not instead of from the
brain as the pianist does not have the time to think where to put his
finger. A rapid reflex can be obtained only by mechanical repetition.
As language learning is a question of developing quick reflexes, how
else can this be done than by a system of stimulus and response? The
same psychologist went on to offer an exaggerated example by adding that
one could teach a monkey to play the piano given such techniques. In
other words the monkey, like a pianist, a typist or a language student;
is learning to perform a trick, and tricks are best learned through
practice and through a system of stimulus and response, which in the
case of the Callan Method means quick-fire questions and answers.The
difference between the monkey and the pianist, typist and language
student, however, is that the monkey cannot do much with the trick he
has learned; whereas the pianist, typist and language student can. For
them the trick is a means to an end. For the monkey it is an end in
itself.
The average student usually takes 350 hours to obtain a diploma of
English with the Cambridge First Certificate, whereas the same needs
only 200 hours with the Callan Method. Further, 95% of the students
using the Callan Method are recorded to have succeeded in the
examination against the 70% of the normal schools of English which are
said to be slow and boring as they are still based on the classical
teaching of Victorian grammar.
Mr. Callan has invented a method called Direct Method. As stated
above, its main advantage is the rapidity of learning. Children learn
the language with a precise method, which is translated in the Callan
method by the formulation from the teacher of quick-fire questions to
which the students in turn must give a quick answer, in an instinctive
manner, pronouncing the same words of the teacher.
Again, as stated above, the Callan School boasts a percentage of
students promoted to the Cambridge First Certificate and to the various
examinations of English at University level of 95% against a poor 70% at
the average international level. Further, in the rare event of
unsuccessful results in the examination, the Callan School is the only
school worldwide to guarantee free lessons until the achievement of the
certificate.
