12 Tips for Choosing a Good English Language School

Many Spanish people, of all ages and backgrounds, have set themselves a goal when it comes to learning English. Nowadays it’s common to travel abroad or to use the internet in order to discover new information. More and more companies are looking for both qualified and unqualified personnel with a certain level of English to fill vacant positions.

In addition, secondary school English classes are mainly based on learning grammar, in large groups in the classroom, with very little student interaction and engagement. This ultimately leads to people not becoming very fluent in English.

See 3 Basic Tips for Learning English

Choose a good English school that won’t waste your time or your money.

There has been a boom in the number of language schools, especially English, within recent years in major cities such as Barcelona. These schools contain a little bit of everything. From English schools with years of proven experience to academies that promise quick results at very low prices and end up turning out to be a scam. It’s important to choose a good English school that won’t waste your time or your money.

The wide range of English language courses on offer in Barcelona makes it increasingly difficult to choose a centre and make the right decision. Going by a single criterion, such as price, timetable or location, is not the best option, although sometimes you may have no other choice.

Taking an English course is a significant investment of time, money and personal expectations.. For this reason, we recommend that you take your time and consider a series of aspects before deciding on the the right English language school for you.

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The school nearest to you isn’t always the best option.

It is clear that location and timetable are two very important factors when choosing an English language school and sometimes you may have no choice but to choose the school that is closest to your home or where you work, or the one that offers the timetable that best suits your needs.

However, if you can choose between several schools, it is advisable that, before making your decision, you consider more criteria than just proximity.
Choosing a good English language school is essential if you want to learn English for real and not feel like you are wasting your time.

How to know if an English language school is good:

There are a number of factors that you need to consider when choosing the best English language school for you.

Don’t just look at how close it is or why a person you may know goes there. As said above, studying English is a significant investment of time and money, so it’s worth taking the time to visit different schools to get an idea of whether you’ll feel comfortable and eager to learn over the next few months. What fits others needs might not fit yours.

12 Factors to consider when choosing your English language school:

The type of courses the school offers;

Knowing what kind of English courses they offer will give you some good clues about the school and whether it suits your needs. Do they have intensive and extensive English courses? Are all the courses general English or are there any specific courses? Are the English courses in groups or do they also offer private classes? Do they prepare you for an official certificate such as TOEFL, IELTS or Cambridge Certificates? Do they offer online courses?

The classes should be both comfortable and convenient for you;

Proximity is important, but it does not guarantee good quality teaching. Therefore, we believe it is more important that it fulfills your learning requirements, even if it is not close to your home or work.

This aspect is much more important than it seems at first glance. If you are enrolled in an academy two days a week and it is not convenient for you to get there, you run the risk of losing motivation to attend, especially if the results you get are not what you were aiming for.

The academy gives importance to conversation in the classes;

Our main shortcoming when dealing with English is the lack of practice in conversation. In our immediate reality, we speak and listen to very little English (although this has improved a lot with the rise of different TV series and digital platforms). When we do try and speak, we are often quite embarrassed to be heard making mistakes. Even though you may not be bad at grammar, it’s very common for people to feel nervous or embarrassed about their pronunciation.

Our advice is to look for an academy where conversation is a focus and one where they provide all the tools to help you to improve it.

Their team is made up of native and qualified English teachers;

Make sure that the English language school you choose has a team of native and/or bilingual English teachers, preferably of different nationalities (you will get used to the sound of different accents from multiple English-speaking countries). It’s important that they have specific qualifications for teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL, TESOL, etc.) or if they are not native speakers, that they have language certificates of C1 or C2.

In addition, find out if the teachers have specific training in the school’s method and if they take continuous training courses.

That the language school has a good reputation and track record;

Find out as much as you can about the language school before signing any contract. How long has the school been open? What professional associations does it belong to? Is it officially recognized as an official qualification preparation centre? or has it received any awards?

These simple questions will give you an idea of the school’s experience and track record and give you more confidence in its teaching methods.

You receive an official certificate of English language proficiency

It is important that you receive an official certificate of your level of English, using the criteria of the European Framework of Reference for Languages,at the end of your course. This certificate can then be used as a means of demonstrating that you have reached a certain level of English.

The school has a proven teaching methodology;

Choosing a centre that uses an English teaching methodology that suits your learning style is essential for good results.

The best way to check this is to ask the language centre if you can attend a trial lesson. You will then be able to see for yourself how the teacher teaches and the methodology used in their class.

For example, at Callan School we base our work on the Callan Method. A method that has been tested all over the world and stands out for the practical nature of the classes. Active participation of the students is what will allow you to get the most out of your classes and increase your communication skills.

Be wary of centres that promise you will advance more than one level in a year. English is not learned in a hurry.

In addition, each person has a different learning pace and learning style, so you should check that the study method is adapted to the pace of each student and encourages constant progress so that you can achieve your goals.

It is important that there is a level of demand in the academy that motivates you to make an extra effort.

Groups are an appropriate size and level;

Unless you are looking for private English lessons, it is important that you join a group of students with a similar level of English to your own. A class with less than 5 students in it makes it difficult to create a good group dynamic and reduces the possibilities for natural oral exchanges. On the other hand a class with over 12 students, in it makes it more difficult for the teacher to give each student the attention they deserve.

For us at Callan, the ideal point is between 5-10 students in each class.

Good facilities;

At first, this may not seem very relevant, but as the days go by you will care about the kind of facilities on offer. . If you are cold or hot, if the chairs are not comfortable, or if the atmosphere is not good… all of these things make it more difficult to concentrate on learning.

The cleanliness, care and quality of the materials in the centre say a lot about whether an academy is serious about its job of teaching languages.

Another point in favour of the school is whether it offers other complementary services that can help you in your training. Good language schools, in addition to traditional language courses, offer other complementary services such as tutoring, extra content, extracurricular activities, etc.

High quality teaching;

It is very difficult to assess the quality of a school’s teaching when you are not there, but there are some indicators that can help you to know if the school provides quality English language training.

Among these indicators, in addition to the opinion of its students, which you can find out through social network sites, there are also the accreditations that the centre has, which certify its quality in terms of teaching.

That the school has a defined idea and outline of progression;

Good language schools always do a level test in order to assign you to a group that will allow you to improve your understanding and use of English and pass through the different levels that should further provide you with new knowledge and improvements of the language.

That is why, as we said before, that it is important that the school has a proven English teaching methodology with different types of students at different stages of learning.

Find out your English level

The right price for you;

Price is an important factor, but according to our experience with thousands of students who have attended our English academy, it should not be the determining factor.

On many occasions, cheap is expensive and while you may be saving a few euros, you are losing the quality of teaching, so the time you need to learn English is longer and you eat up the savings achieved or, worse still, you get bored because you don’t see progress and you abandon after a few months.

Consider the entire offer as a whole and if it convinces you, even if it costs a little more, it’s worth it, for sure!

How to choose the best English academy for me

As we have seen in this article, choosing an English academy in Barcelona is not an easy task if you want to do it well.

It is worth doing this analysis because you are going to invest a good amount of money, time and effort into learning English.

Be careful to not only think about the location of the academy. Do not forget to value the time that the academy has been in operation, the accreditations it has and the opinions of its students because if all of these factors are positive it is a guarantee that they do a good job at teaching.
Carefully consider the facilities, the extra activities and the groups you join. You are going to spend many hours there and it is important that you feel comfortable and motivated to work.

Just as we have told you not to settle for the nearest academy, don’t make the mistake of choosing your English academy based simply on the price. Many times, in the world of education, cheap is also expensive

If you are looking for an English academy and want to get to know us, you can call us at 93 415 54 52 and we will give you all the information about our English courses in Barcelona.

At Callan School we have been teaching English in Barcelona for over 30 years. Thousands of students have passed through our classrooms who, like you, wanted to learn English in a quick and entertaining way.

^{Translation by Melissa Bland}