Intensive English programs

<b> Forum for teachers and administrators of IEP programs </b>

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stremblay
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:49 pm

Intensive English programs

Post by stremblay » Wed Feb 16, 2011 6:26 pm

I personally believe in the benefits of intensive English programs. Indeed, they are a good alternative for students who want to improve their English skills, especially in Quebec where we are not provided with many opportunities to practice the language. However, many intensive English programs do not include reading in their syllabus. I think that reading should be more integrated in these programs because books provide students with authentic language and a variety of tasks can be designed around the reading of a book. We must still consider intensive English programs as a great alternative for students to improve their English skills because they get more classes of English per cycle and because students are more motivated to use only English in these classes.

claudie.ars
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:03 am

Post by claudie.ars » Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:20 am

I agree with the fact that in Quebec, students would benefit of intensive English programs. I know that it is done in a few schools. I have heard of some places where children are taught in English for a few months at the end of the school year. I unfortunately do not know where it is, I will try to find out. It must be hard at first because of all the new words used in sciences or in mathematics but with a lot of visual support and with help from the teachers, I am sure it is worth it.

buniac1
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:45 am

Post by buniac1 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:54 pm

Intensive English programs should be intensified through the province of Quebec. We are stuck with a level of English that is acceptable, but it could be improved by having more of these classes. Yes, of course, one can say that there is a selection of students beforehand when creating these classes and you are right.

I can answer to that by saying that some students are not ready yet to attend these classes. The rhythm that students are exposed to is greatly increased but benefits them. Each culture has to build an elite to be able to perform on a worldwide stage and I think this is part of the process. I'm sorry to mention that but some students need to be activated more than some others and these classes are a good opportunity of creating an interest for something so useful.

JEEPY
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:56 pm

Intensive English

Post by JEEPY » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:55 pm

During my first practicum, I was in a sixth grade intensive English class and I loved it. The students spent half a year doing their original program and the other half doing English. I think that it should be something mandatory with all 6th garders. However, not a whole year, but maybe 1/4 of it. It would make the transition to High school much better and also put the students at the same level of English proficiency. Furthermore, I think that intensive English gives a much much much better learning experience. Students have a great time doing it, they learn much more because the learning is concise and compact. Finally, it has been shown in studies that it greatly increases the acquisition of English.

amrif317
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:48 pm

Post by amrif317 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:01 pm

Personally, I totally believe in the efficiency of intensive English programs. It makes all the difference. I was a student teacher who taught and observed English as a second language in an intensive English classroom. I arrived a little after the beginning of the school year and was amazed at the level of English of these 5th and 6th graders. The teacher had an English only class policy and the students would have to try and make an effort in asking and responding to questions. Compared to other, normal, ESL classrooms that I've seen, the students were so much more advanced in the intensive English class.

karineESLstudent
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:56 pm

Post by karineESLstudent » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:02 pm

In reply to Claudie, I have to say that when I was in primary school I was in an Intensive English Program. At that time we called it "bain linguistic". I think it still exists and it was at the school named "École L'Accueil", in St-Émile. The program was starting in grade 4. I remember that English was introduced during the second half of the year and we were singind and dancing a lot, for example "Head and Shoulers..." and we also played the game "Simon says...". This program is great because after that, all the following courses of English I had (highschool and cegep) were for advanced learners.

claudie.ars wrote:I agree with the fact that in Quebec, students would benefit of intensive English programs. I know that it is done in a few schools. I have heard of some places where children are taught in English for a few months at the end of the school year. I unfortunately do not know where it is, I will try to find out. It must be hard at first because of all the new words used in sciences or in mathematics but with a lot of visual support and with help from the teachers, I am sure it is worth it.

sam17
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:45 pm
Location: Quebec
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Post by sam17 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:08 pm

Just like JEEPY, I also did my first practicum in an intensive English program. I began my practicum with 6th graders and after 2 weeks, I transfered to 5th grade students. I loved my experience because I was able to see the students' evolution in English. When I first saw the 5th graders, they weren't really skilled at all. However, week after week, I could see significant improvement. It is this experience that truly convinced me that Intensive English programs really are useful and should definitely be considered by all parents who are wondering where to send their kids to school! Learning a language is difficult after the prime age and therefore requires a lot of time to be mastered. Intensive programs are an effective solution to do that.

ESLchocofish
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:21 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada

Post by ESLchocofish » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:19 pm

Intensive English programs abroad are very beneficial. If some students are shy or even afraid of having to speak English, such programs will help them a lot because they don't have a choice: they HAVE to speak English in order to be understood.
Intensive English programs in the school system are tricky. In order to be fully beneficial, students need to be motivated and serious about learning English. Of course, you will always be confronted with students not working seriously or speaking in their mother tongue but, in some cases, I think students should be selected to do such programs. Also, as mentioned before, some students are not ready to attend such classes.

jeffreyrodrigue
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:39 pm

Intensive English programs

Post by jeffreyrodrigue » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:25 pm

When I speak about my education in Intensive English programs there's one thing that automatically comes to my mind; it was wayyy to easy. For secondary one to cegep I was always in intensive english programs and I only became stimulated and challenged at the Cegep level and even then, it wasn't that challenging. I think if these intensive programs want to be seen as serious and useful they need to be better and more challenging. But then again, it’s maybe because I come from a small place like Saint-Georges and we don’t have good developed programs while here in the Capital it might be better…

Roque
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:45 pm

Immersion

Post by Roque » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:29 pm

Intensive learning is good, but I think there’s nothing like a real English immersion program or even simply studying abroad. Learning language at school will always remain sort of “faked” as it only provides students with predictable learning situations under controlled circumstances. There are obvious advantages to intensive language learning, but immersion is in my view better because it gives students a full spectrum of learning situations, it confronts them to day to day problems and forces them to deal with native speakers using “real language”.

Emhan3
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:56 pm
Location: Canada

Intensive English programs

Post by Emhan3 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:32 pm

Intensive English programs should be more promoted since there is a need for improving student's level of English. When students participate to an intensive program to improve their English, they receive authentic and constant input. In consequence, they absorb the new material since they have to frequently reinvest and reuse it. Moreover, the possibility to improve their skills is increased considering the fact that students are constantly working and manipulating the language. They also can have a positive experience from the intensive program because of the fact that they are getting more comfortable with the language and that they are more aware of their progress in English.
Last edited by Emhan3 on Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AndreAnn
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:15 pm

Post by AndreAnn » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:37 pm

I think that intensive courses are great for students ( especially young learners) because it allows them to have more time to get familiar with the language. I have also notices that students that have intensive courses in elementry schools do much better in highschool and they are also more motivated. I think that for highschool students it might be less important since they can get annoyed with it. Intensive courses allow students to get more language input thus improving all kinds of skills and also to build confidence about their second language.

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