The Association of British Language Schools was founded in 1993 by a group of EFL providers who felt that the language-travel industry in the UK needed a regulatory body with a wider remit than that offered by the British Council. Their aim was to set up an association whose membership covered TEFL in all its different guises. Today, providers as varied as individuals running one-to-one courses from their own homes, to companies giving tuition on hotel premises, to more traditional language schools have all been inspected by our team of well qualified and experienced inspectors. However, one thing that the majority of our members have in common is that they offer a highly specialised service. English? Yes, of course, but with a difference!
One such difference is provided by those offering 'home tuition' or one-to-one lessons in the teachers' home. Until last year, the British Council didn't recognise any organisation offering 'home tuition', regardless of the quality of the courses being offered or the qualifications of the teachers. However, ABLS felt it was important that companies or individuals offering such courses should be able to have them inspected and their quality recognised. As we were the first EFL organisation to provide this service, many of our members fall into this category.
As the many 'home tuition' students who have studied with our members will know, the benefits of such courses are almost limitless! As Ian Josephs of Home Language International points out, "This is the only system in which the student cannot speak his/her native language after the class is finished." Our inspection process ensures that in all of our organisations, teacher and student are carefully matched to make certain that the clients' linguistic and social needs are fully catered for. One advantage of this system can be that it allows you to work at your own pace rather than in a group, but the primary benefit of 'home tuition' has to be the guarantee of complete immersion in British culture and home life as well.
For some students, improvement of English and insider knowledge of the British way of life are not the only reasons for coming to the UK to study. Some wish to further their professional knowledge of the language; for others it's the pursuit of a favourite leisure activity. As well as offering English for Business, many of our members also offer 'English Plus' courses, with the 'Plus' depending on your particular interest. The Oxford College of English is currently running Aviation English courses for pilots based at Sywell airport, Northampton, whereas in Swansea, South Wales, The English Study Centre offers English tuition with golf! Here, students spend the mornings improving their linguistic skills in small groups, whilst the afternoons are employed honing their sporting talents on a wide range of stunning golf courses with the resident ex-international golfer, Geoff Clement.
As Judith Godfrey, proprietor of Manchester Language School says, 'Small schools can often be more flexible and versatile than their larger counterparts because their overheads are lower. This means that they can really respond to some extraordinary individual requests. A good example of this was the request to my school for a course in English with dog grooming!' In fact, this school could almost be said to specialise in specialisations by offering a range of 'English Plus' courses on cultural themes; Literature, History and Gardens are just three of them.
Other schools offer similar courses but with different 'added extras'. For example, another of our members, Linguacentre, offers a course for all ages, entitled the 'London Learning Experience', run in conjunction with 'Welcome Assured', a member of the London Tourist Board and Convention Bureau. This is a total immersion programme, with sporting activities, shopping trips and fully escorted visits to sites of historic interest around London, offering the participants an insider's guide to the capital.
Yet another difference can be found in the way that courses can be funded. ICS, a school based in Norwich in East Anglia, offers a Work-Study course which lasts a minimum of eight weeks, aimed at students aged eighteen years and over from EC countries. The work element of this course involves helping a local family for fifteen hours during the week, with one evening of baby-sitting. In return, the student is given two complete days off, free accommodation and food, plus most importantly, a generous discount on English lessons at ICS. But maybe, as Diana Lowe points out, the biggest bonus for participants is the kind of experience such a course offers: "Almost everyone who participates in this course comes because they recognise how good such an experience is for their future employment prospects."
The premises a school uses could be said to be another difference when it comes to some ABLS members. Home End Farm, which specialises in English courses for children aged between seven and seventeen, is actually based on a farm, complete with resident animals! Who could imagine a more idyllic place to experience life away from home - in the case of many of the students, for the very first time. English classes take place in the mornings, and in the afternoon there is a fully supervised activity programme of sports, visits and project work. Their main speciality is catering for some of the children being sent here to attend the large number of Boarding schools in the country. For such students, there is a programme of Intensive English alongside English for Science, Geography, History and Maths.
For students who are older and higher up the educational ladder, English Language Support is another service offered by private language providers in university cities, especially to postgraduate students. These students are often quite isolated, and appreciate the additional individual attention they can get from highly specialised, one-to-one language tuition. In fact, individual attention is what students at ABLS-approved centres really come to expect from their schools. Proprietors often become involved in their student's welfare, taking an active interest in helping with such time-consuming and confusing problems as their visa applications. Louise Magnus, proprietor of Linguacentre, relates a sadly familiar story of how it took numerous phone calls, emails and letters to an incredible number of different people in order to gain a work permit for a former student from her school. With Louise's perseverance, the student was eventually granted a full two year permit and an apology for all the trouble she had gone through. This very personal experience is what learning English in the UK should really be about. English - yes, but with a difference!
Information about
all ABLS members can be found at www.abls.co.uk.
Author
Hannah Godfrey-Mahapatra
Secretary to ABLS
