Our Approach

At the Berkshire Language Centre, we believe in providing the best possible environment for all of our learners.  Our approach is built around a number of key beliefs and principles.

Our Beliefs

Our language teaching is informed by two fundamental beliefs:

• We learn a language in order to communicate.
• We learn a language most effectively by communicating with others.

This means that our language classrooms are highly interactive and communicative.  We create a physical and emotional environment in which learners are encouraged to participate – to communicate with each other on matters of mutual and genuine interest.

Our Principles

We can identify a number of principles which underpin these beliefs and therefore, our approach to language teaching:

• We look at how people use language in their day-to-day lives rather than just looking at formal structures.
• We recognise that communication is unpredictable and there may be many different, acceptable responses to any given situation.
• We place a high value on human relations and personalising situations in the classroom.
• We look at the needs of our learners and prepare activities which address those needs.
• We use materials which are appropriate to a particular group of learners; materials which they will find engaging, meaningful and useful. This often involves using authentic materials (those written for native English speakers).
• We maximise learner talking time in all sessions.
• We encourage learners to be as active and autonomous as possible. A good language learner takes responsibility for their own learning.
• We know how important it is to create an awareness of non-verbal communication such as body language.
• We recognise that language has a function as well as a form. The function of language is dependent on the context in which it is used.

Using these beliefs and principles, it is our aim to create a learning environment in which learners thrive and marked improvements are achieved and recognised.