Job Discussion Forums

[HLJHLJ]

The Callan Method! Is that a route you are going down by choice, or one you've been pushed into by an employer?

[Kirkpatrick]

The employeer insists that I use the Callan method( they have the franchise).. Even though they are trying to drag me away from their competator. They say, I get one month to make up my mind. Not to Keen on it at all..

[HLJHLJ]

Ah, I was going to try and be polite, but in that case... I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Yeah, it's fine for absolute beginners, even elementary at a push, but beyond that it's pretty useless (IMHO of course). Surely the point of learning a language is to be able to communicate with it? The Callan Method seems to miss that point spectacularly.

[Dedicated]

The Callan Method has been around for about 40 years, but is widely discredited by professionally trained teachers. The students speak, repeat and learn parrot fashion from highly scripted "lessons". After 12 stages, students have apparently learnt the 5621 most common words in English.

If you look at their website they say " This method helps students by sparing them from the confusing or fanciful initiatives of inexperienced teachers " !! However, the schools hire unqualified people and generally pay a pittance. Some materials are totally outdated and in higher levels of Book 6 and 7, they even show Robin Callan as a women-hating, racist character.

I would avoid this like the plague and definitely not put it on a CV if you wish to be hired at a professional institution.

[fluffyhamster]

There is nothing wrong with the teacher talking, provided it is considered stuff and representative of natural discourse patterns. Most "Direct Method" guff (and a lot of supposedly "communicative" too) isn't, however!