Hello everyone and welcome to learn English Live
My name is Steve Ford and today I have a question from Ahmed from Saudi Arabia.
roll the question
Before starting my own online business in 2007
I taught at ESL/EFL schools in the Americas and Europe for 16 years
So I am going to give you some tips to make sure you can fully take advantage of studying abroad
All over the world, in July and August there a good number of people who are on holiday
and many will come to North America to enroll in an ESL course
ESL schools are simply buzzing with activity from morning to afternoon
Some students most definitely benefit from being in a high energy environment
since they learn better in groups
Watch out for ESL schools who take more students than their school has space for
Youíll know straight away who your teachers are if you can see them on the schoolís website
This is a good indication that a school invests time and money to hold onto their teachers
yes!! hold me!
However, some schools have teachers coming and going and usually pay them less
Here are some questions to ask
Does your teacher have a few years of experience?
Does your teacher have training and certificates for teaching English?
Is your teacher experienced if you are taking a special business, test preparation course?
Since weíre living in a global community
itís so important to guarantee that your classmates are all from different countries
Too often I hear of students who are very excited to go to the USA or Canada to study English
only to find out that half of the people in their class are from the same country
Once again, this usually happens at lower end ESL schools.
But at any rate, google it, beforehand
Some schools will promise you everything, but if you donít have it in writing
they can go back on their promise
You want to be sure that you are getting what you are paying for
Also in the event that you have to cancel or drop out
check to see what the schoolís refund policy is like
Some will refund nothing, others half, and if youíre lucky, you might get a full refund
My personal experience was the last school I worked at
where I was teaching a student who had a medical condition
so she had a note from the doctor saying so
but was only refunded half of what she had paid initially
All ESL schools will organize visits to local tourist attractions in and around the city where youíre staying
This is a great chance for the students to get to know the local culture and practice their English
Some students who are more target-oriented may find that the focus of the school is not for them
So try to determine what your goals are for learning English abroad before setting foot in an ESL school
Check to make sure that your ESL school has proper air-conditioning or heating
I'm serious
Does the ESL school have a good cafeteria or canteen?
Does the school have a good computer lab with a cool selection of software to practice English?
What is the ratio of students to computers?
Are there enough TVs and computer projectors for all your classes?
Well everyone, Iíve given as many tips as I could fit into this lesson
have a great day!
bye for now!