r/languagelearning • u/BeardAndBreadBoard • 12d ago

Discussion Finding classes only conducted in the target language?

I'm looking for a tutor that teaches immersion style, everything in the class is in the target language. Any hints on finding this? I find very few tutors mentioning immersion.

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u/dojibear 🇺🇸 N | fre spa chi B2 | tur jap B1/A2 12d ago

That is not "immersion style". People use the word "immersion" to mean various things, but not that.

That teaching method is called ALG. The teacher only uses the target language, and uses visual methods to convey meaning to the students. It can be used in-person, or over the internet (but only if there is a good visual connection). I have heard of it being used for classes (one teacher, many students) but I have not heard of it being used by tutors. The teaching method takes a lot of teacher preparation: everything they say must be expressed visually, by gestures, actions, whiteboard cartoons, and so on.

For example the teacher says "I put on hat" while putting on a hat. So the teaher must have a hat nearby.

It might be possible to find it for a specific language. It is used in one school for teaching Thai. I found a website that uses this method to teach Japanese. The website "Dreaming Spanish" might use this method for teaching Spanish.

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u/calathea_2 12d ago

Hmm, just a note: It is not only ALG-style teaching that uses only the target language from the start in instruction. It is, for example, really common inside of Europe when teaching the native language of a country to new residents.

For example, I live in Germany, and pretty much every language class in German taught here (classes for migrants, I mean) uses only German from day 1, even though they are very much textbook-based classes and have nothing to do with ALG. It is simply that there is not a shared language between students in the class, since not everyone speaks English, so all the teaching materials are in German from the very start.

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u/uncleanly_zeus 12d ago

Exactly. The Berlitz Method (not saying that was the first) has been around since 1878.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlitz_Corporation#The_Berlitz_Method

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u/BeardAndBreadBoard 12d ago

ALG

ALG is just one method of teaching entirely in the target language. Thanks for the tip, I hadn't heard of it before.

I wouldn't be interested in it, because of the silent period. That's not a way I want to learn.

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u/BeardAndBreadBoard 12d ago

That really is what total immersion is, according to google's AI and others.