would you send your child to learn a language?

[purplebear]

Hi everyone Im in the need of your advice...i am looking to set up a language school for children and want to know if this is something you would be interested in.
I have pasted some general information about the academy, classes etc below and want to know your thoughts, especially on our methodology and our prices- do you think this is reasonable?
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Little Language Academy is a play based immersion school teaching 5 different languages from the ages birth - 11 years.

Our Methodology
Children?s minds are like sponges, they absorb and can retain information from a very young age. Their minds are naturally primed to learn any language effortlessly from birth to the age of 7. They are also born with a natural ability to acquire language simply through hearing and use.
By immersing a child in a given language from an early age they are more likely to become fluent, have better pronunciation and will make it easier for them to learn a language through a traditional academic route once in High school.
Research shows children learn better through play, our play based learning method will maximise and enhance the child?s language learning experience.

Languages taught:
ArabicChineseFrenchItalianSpanish
Our Curriculum
The classes will involve physical movement, play, activities, games and general fun our program has been developed with maximum sensory and intellectual activities.
The curriculum and scheme of work is developed based on the early years foundation stage guidelines and on the national curriculum for MFL and we have incorporated learning through a play and fun based environment. It is a spiral curriculum so the themes taught will be reintroduced over the terms.

Classes:
Mums and Tots:
Age 1-3 and 3-5 yrs will be a 1hour session with a 15 min break in-between for snack, nappy change etc. (siblings under 1yrs are free)
Child only classes
5-8 yrs 1.5 hours.
8-11 yrs 1.5 hours.
Price per term: 12 week sessions@ £108 (discount available for siblings)

Our website is under construction at present but will be up and running very soon, this will provide you with more information about the academy, research and evidence on language learning, more information on the curriculum and methodology, and general information on classes.
All of our staff have an enhanced CRB check
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so what do you think guys...interested or waste of time

I used to teach English to children in Germany and it was very well received so I do think that there is a market for lessons.

Your lessons are too long for 5 - 8yo, IMO. We did 45 mins and by the last 5 minutes their interest starts to wane. Even 8 - 11 yo will struggle with that.

Are your teachers to be native speakers? If so, I would mention that, and what training they have.

If you don't mind me saying so, you need to work on your text. There are a few grammatical mistakes, and it does not read smoothly.

I can't see why anyone would pay that much money to attend a "language class" for 1-3 year olds tbh. The very fact that you are offering this would put me off as I would question your motivation.

Age appropriate language classes for over 3s are good but they definitely need to be run by native speakers - I would never pay for language classes run by non-native speakers. 1.5 hours is far too long as MmeLindt already said.

I like your choice of languages offered - our school has just introduced Chinese for the younger years which I think is fab. There are lots of people offering languages for kids so you will need a stand out website. "First class free" is always good marketing.

I think it's a fantastic idea, go for it!!!

I think its a great idea - I would definitely do this with DD (aged 2). Second the need for free trial lessons...

I like the idea very much and have thought about trying to do something similar here in Greece where I teach english.

As a TEFL teacher in Greece working with young learners, 5-10 years old, I agree that 1.5 hours is too long for one session.

I'm afraid I also feel that one session per week (as I understand from what you have written) is too infrequent. Two 45 minute sessions per week would be far more beneficial in my opinion.

Also, yes, definitely native speakers.

Sunny
The youngest "pupil" I had - and I use the word very loosely - was just 4mths old when he started. It was more a mother and toddler group that happened to be in English. We sang songs, recited rhymes, did baby signing, played games. It was a lot of fun and the DC had their first positive experience with the English language.

One thing that we did was to have CDs so that the children could hear the language daily. They came to lessons once a week, the rest of the week they listened to their CDs at least once a day, about 15 - 20 mins.

I could tell which children had been listening to the CDs, they were more advanced. The idea is that they learn the vocabulary at home, while they are playing, cleaning their teeth, getting ready for bed. In the lesson they are taught the meaning of the words, using role play, props, silly games etc.

Price is ok. I charged eu40 a month.

Agree about the length if the classes - shorter and more frequent definitely better. Native speakers is a must, or at least someone who has lived the greater part if their life speaking the language and is completely bilingual.

Also agree there are a few errors to be corrected. 'developed with maximum sensory and intellectual activities' stood out for me in particular. Are you missing a word?

You will need to reassure parents who think it's too young/too old for the approach and also how you plan to start introducing grammar etc, because I think particularly in the 8-11 age group they may start to expect a bit of writing and grammar.

Finally can you back up that your method works for all those languages with research if necessary? I only ask because ex-charge is learning Chinese at school and it's a lot of choral and individual drilling and tightly structured role play which makes me think there must be a reason for that, although he does learn little songs etc.

I don't even want to think about how much I paid over the years for Russian and Italian lessons etc. I find the price ok. Would depend on my view of the effectivity of the courses though whether I would continue with it after say an initial 3 months.

In Berlin theree was great demand for English, French and SPanish classes of the type you are offering - and supply seems to have met demand. Of course Germans do need good language skills and languages are taken more seriuosly in German secondary schools than I think in the UK generally, so the motivation of the dp would have been different.

What I also liked about places I saw advertised there (but did not actually use) was the idea of offering activities held in a target language, getting progressively more challenging as the dc get older and their language ability refines. So for instance they offer yoga for children in English or drama for children (musical style thing) in Spanish etc.

Hi everyone, thank you all for your positive and encouraging feedback...

The information about the academy is a rough draft and will redraft the whole thing once I go ahead with the academy...
I am soooo pleased that almost everyone is positive about the school, I have some bad feedback on other forums which left me very deflated, up to the point where I was seriously thinking to forget about the whole thing and it was just a waste of time and effort...

in response to your suggestions...

the tutors will ALL be native speakers, I understand that is a must and research also suggests so ...
I have been querying the time myself, as I initially thought of 45mins and/or 1 hour sessions, but thought/presumed that parents may not want to travel or want to pay for short classes, hence why I thought of inserted a break in the sessions.

In regards to the curriculum design I am working with native speakers/teachers to adapt each language to each age group using our methodology...we will encourage the older age groups to do some writing in a fun based way i.e. colouring, whiteboard etc

I really like the idea of the CD I think that is something which I would definitely invest in...I would suggest to all parents to come to 2 sessions per week at a concession...but for those who may not be able to afford it the CD's are a great idea.

One question I do have is on the location...the academy will be opening in Birmingham...I have looked at renting a building, but wasn?t so sure if parents would be willing to travel out...another option was to work in community centers, afterschool clubs etc, which I think is a great idea...but may involve a lot of groundwork and time...which I may not have if I am planning to open by September, plus this could be something which we could pursue once we are up and running...
if we had our own premises, it would be fully equipped to cater for the sessions and the classrooms would be child friendly and any equipment toys etc would be accessible. Also I was hoping to have wall displays etc according to the term themes, which will also involve the children playing games e.g. find the body part.

I was thinking of offering free taster sessions over the summer, but not too sure how to go about it at the moment...
the concept, research, language teaching I have knowledge but it?s the marketing I?m unsure of...I was thinking of offering a discount in a local newspaper, giving leaflets to children?s centers and schools, any other suggestions/ideas would be much appreciated

I think you are casting your net way too far. I would offer one or two languages max.

Better by far to do 2 x 45 minute sessions a week than to do one long session.

Having your own premises would probably make you look more serious, but I would imagine your start up and subsequent fixed costs would be pretty high. If you ran the classes in different locations you would probably have a wider market (I think a lot of people will choose local, convenient over having to travel to nicer premises) and if you found that some locations just didn't work it would probably be easier to get out of an agreement with, say, a community centre fairly easily. Breaking a commercial lease will cost a lot.

You need to do some market research in your proposed location(s) to identify which languages are of most interest. If you design a BRIEF questionnaire you may be able to persuade people at community centres/health clinics/your kids' school to let you talk to parents (I would always try and keep questionnaires to a maximum of 5 questions). If you leave questionnaires to be filled in and go back to collect them the "return rate" is generally accepted to be 2/3% - it much more successful to fill in a questionnaire with someone face to face. Once you get going you need to make sure you are clear about the minimum numbers needed to make a class run - you don't want to end up running a 1:1 because you forgot to put it in the brochure! As a customer I would be tempted by free "taster sessions" and an assurance that the class would eventually move beyond the "je m'appelle x" level - I think one of the problems with languages for kids is constantly having beginners added to classes where the others have moved beyond that stage. That obviously requires sufficient numbers to have different ability groups. Lack of progress made me pull DS1 out of two different French programmes.

Good luck with it all anyway (I really have too much time on my hands, don't I!!!!).

I like the your idea, but would question your choice of languages. Why not offer the languages that children learn at school, so that they can supplement their learning at school. I'd be interested in Spanish, German and French.

Yes, a few people might be interested in Italian, Arabic or Chinese, but they are probably the minority and sometimes such communities have their own lanugage Saturday Schools anyway.

Good luck anyway .