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It’s never too soon to start English, so here, at Speaker’s corner of London, we start the children off at the ripe age of 3.
Our classes are organized by age and level. Normally everybody’s the same age; you will never find a difference of more than two years between students (pupils). Level difference occurs when new slightly older children join the school not having done much English. These children can not go straight into a class of their age, who have already done 2 years here at Speaker’s Corner. The level would be too high and would only serve to demotivate them.
Having said this, it’s also never too late to start. Many children develop at a later stage and at Speaker’s Corner there is always a place for them. Motivation is our speciality. We take all children, from P3 right the way through to Bachillerato (6th form collage). Needless to say, all university students would pass directly through to our adult courses.
The children’s classes are very different than what they would normally expect. Here, the emphasis is on the training of their listening skills and oral expression. In their mother tongue, babies listen to and absorb their language. It takes them quite a few months before they can speak their first words; two or three years before they can reproduce sentences; four of five to start writing. Why should it be any different for a foreign language?
Here at Speaker’s Corner we don’t use books until they are at least 8 years old; and only then, if they have already completed two or three years at our school.To the contrary, would be very counterproductive.
What are our classes like?
The school can be found in Piera’s main street at the beginning of the historical centre. It forms part of a large building owned by the school. The rest of the building is a family residence. There’s no necessity to pass through the house to access the school, however, while we are giving the classes, depending on the day’s activity, the children can enter into another world. The classes are extremely practical, and when it’s time for them to talk about everyday things like cooking, doing the washing, food, etc., well, then we go to the house and visit the kitchen or dining room. Instead of books, they can see, touch and experiment everything for themselves. Such is the speed of learning, that even in their first year of English; they are able to handle simple tasks well.
In this way, all the grammatical structures are taught without the children knowing they are learning grammar. We always start teaching in the present tense and until the children have learnt it from top to bottom, we don’t move on to the other tenses. There’s no point until they can use it comfortably. The present occupies over 90% of our everyday language and it’s no different when the language is foreign. So, in the first place, we concentrate on this tense, using everyday language, vocabulary and its structures. All of which are taught through our unique oral and listening techniques. In time when the children are ready, they’ll move on to the other tenses and little by little we introduce them to books and take them to the end of their cycle.
It’s important to note that groups are small, limited to a maximum of 10 children.
