Teaching in the target language 90% of the time!

When a foreign language teacher tries to stay in the target language 90% of the class time, students become immersed in the target language. Although this is difficult to achieve, and although the native language will be required in certain cases, this immersion is a necessary part of teaching a foreign language, as confirmed by this TELC article. The real problem arises when the students are not exposed to the target language 90% of the time - the learning gains then become minimal. Moreover, students can simply tune out the teacher or their fellow students when they are not actively engaged.

Language immersion

Let's assume a normal class is 40 minutes long and it's scheduled 5 times a week, giving us a total of 200 minutes of potential language immersion. Let's further assume that the teacher has done an excellent job and stayed in the target language all 90% of the minutes allotted, which makes it an even 180 minutes or 3 hours a week. Finally let's assume that there are 6 students in the class and, if we divide 180 minutes by 6, each student gets 30 minutes of direct one-on-one interaction. This is spread over 5 days, meaning that in total a student gets 6 minutes per day to practice speaking.

The most effective way to teach foreign languages

Our offer lets students teach their peers abroad their native language once a week, and be taught a foreign language by their peers during the second weekly exchange. That means the student is not staying in the target language for 40 minutes a week, which is in direct conflict with the rule of staying in the target language 90% of the class time. According to our data, students who study just twice a week via direct one-on-one interaction without any supplemental group classes are improving 1 proficiency level ON AVERAGE every 25 lessons.

It's up to you to decide what is more effective. Is it 30 minutes a week broken down into 5 days of active speaking, or 40 CONTINUOUS minutes of one-on-one interaction in a foreign language with their peers every week. You will still have the remaining 3 days to do you normal class activities. We believe that 40 CONTINUOUS minutes helps immerse your brain in a target language MORE than doing so for 6 minutes per DAY 5 times a week. As mentioned by #Bill_Gates, if you are reading a book for less than an hour, it's harder to focus on what happens in the book.

You can read here a much more detailed description of how foreign language teachers apply the OCTB language exchange program to their classroom. The first month comes at NO cost, so you have nothing to loose. 

Join the teachers who have already incorporated the OCTB language exchange program in their foreign language classes!

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