Language Learning Method
What Is Your Method?
At Language Intelligence, we use the Communicative Approach. This means you learn your new language through communicating about topics that are meaningful to you. Instead of first memorizing vocabulary and studying grammar to tediously build correct sentences, with the Communicative Approach you will hear and use complete phrases and sentences from day one, all exclusively in the language you are learning. This is easy and fun. You are an active participant in your learning.
All of your learning materials, audio-lingual, books, multi-media and online programs are primarily in the target language, as is your interaction with the teacher. Themes are illustrated and words are learned in context, and always arranged around communicative functions. For a newcomer to the language, this means functions such as introducing yourself, sharing some information about yourself, making appointments, asking for directions, and more. Themes are introduced through dialogues and short narratives in which the learner is an active participant. Grammar is learned inductively, and only after a particular language structure has been mastered through practice. Reading and writing are integral to this approach and serve to reinforce and enhance retention.
For more advanced learners, the themes become more complex and the program includes authentic materials. Research shows that learners who have acquired their second or third language with the communicative approach are better able to apply their learning and to transfer it to new situations. They develop better comprehension skills and are able to guess from context much more readily than learners who have learned through memorization or grammar-translation methods.
Language Intelligence’s method calls on the creativity and intelligence of the learner and active participation in the process of making meaning in the new language. It is fun and engaging and has proven to be a very effective way of learning a new language. The results speak for themselves.
