What is more efficient? Learning a Language in a classroom or
online? Based on an interview with our very experienced Trainer
Michael Reith living in Canada
Many BCU customers are still skeptical about ONLINE language courses because they prefer learning in a classroom with other learners. Therefore, we asked our trainer Michael about his experience in more than thirty years of teaching both face-to-face & online. Since he moved to Canada he has been teaching lots of online classes with German & international students.
He is convinced that both teaching methods can work perfectly well if the trainer is aware of the differences in building a relationship with the groups. Of course, one aspect is the trade-off between the convenience of doing classes from home in contrast to that special atmosphere in the classroom created by the personal meeting of the trainer & their learners. You can compare this situation with working from Home or in the office where you work in close contact with your colleagues. Here you can build personal relationships, you can discuss relevant topics & solve potential problems by means of personal communication. The same is true in a classroom setting where the aspect of learning in a group creates a feeling of belonging as well as a greater motivation to achieve your learning goals.
I was wondering if the role of the trainer was very different when teaching online & how the trainer can contribute to making online classes work well & effectively.
According to Michael, here the role of the trainer is to manage both the technical & personal factors professionally. That means he or she must be able to deal with the technical equipment & find the right solution in case of technical defects. But the most important factor is the class size. Michael is convinced that large language classes (i.e.more than 4 people) do not work well online because supervising all the students is much more difficult than in a classroom. Here the teacher can be ‘everywhere at once’. For example, when students practice speaking in pairs or groups, the teacher hovers around, managing the activities & giving directly necessary feedback. Even if the platform offers “breakout rooms” for group work, supervising these rooms is not so easy & effective.
One very important advantage of a large group in a classroom is that good trainers can create a certain motivating energy the moment they enter the classroom, which can influence the whole lesson positively & which is much harder to create online. Here I totally agree with Michael, because that’s why all my trainers are personally “handpicked” because their positive energy has a great influence on the class atmosphere as well as on the learning progress
According to Michael there’s not so much of a difference when it comes to teaching small groups (1-4 people) online. The kinds of activities you do will be similar and you’ll be getting opportunities to speak and getting feedback in pretty much the same way you would in a classroom. Perhaps the trainer will have the additional task of helping the students to build personal relationships & creating a positive social climate, but a good trainer should be able to do that.
Due to the permanently increasing digitalisation BCU is forced to offer more & more online classes. This is particularly true for our foreign learners who have problems with their visa or who don’t find a flat but want to start their classes as soon as possible. Fortunately, all my trainers are used to teaching Online, Hybrid or Face-to-Face with similar good results, because our focus is always on interaction & personal commitment, i.e. taking care of the individual needs of our learners. Therefore, we are very glad that BCU is always getting very good feedback from our learners!