When we take our car to a garage, few of us can tell whether the work was done properly. English lessons are similar: you pay, you attend, you like the teacher, and only months later do you realise you still can’t speak. Robin Callan, the creator of the Callan Method, said students should behave like attentive customers, because they pay with three valuable things: time, money and energy.
The good news is that there are objective signs anyone can check. Use this list.
1. Lessons start and finish on time
Five minutes late in a 50-minute lesson is 10% of the lesson. Over a year, that adds weeks to your course for the same result. If a lesson starts late, it should end late.
2. You speak more than the teacher
This is the most important point. Nobody learns to speak by listening to someone else speak, just as nobody learns the piano by watching a concert. In a good lesson you are answering, building sentences, repeating and being corrected all the time.
3. No small talk to fill the time
Chatting about the weekend is pleasant, but you only practise the English you already know. A productive lesson gets straight to work. Why conversation alone doesn’t make you fluent.
4. Your pronunciation is corrected, again and again
A good teacher doesn’t let pronunciation mistakes go, especially at the beginning. In Callan’s guidelines, during the first stages the teacher corrects a word in almost every sentence. Uncorrected mistakes become habits, and habits last a lifetime.
5. Everything is reviewed systematically
If every lesson brings new material and nothing comes back, you forget almost everything. Good teaching returns to the same structures lesson after lesson until you answer without hesitating. How review works.
6. The pace is brisk
Slow lessons feel comfortable but let your mind wander. At natural speed or a little faster, you have to concentrate and you have no time to translate in your head.
7. Everyone gets a fair share
In groups, one or two talkative students often take over. A good teacher spreads the questions evenly. In private lessons, the whole lesson is yours.
8. Reading and dictation are not forgotten
Speaking comes first, but in the Callan Method readings and dictations appear at fixed points in the book. They break up the question-and-answer work and teach you to spell the words you can already say.
9. The teacher follows the method, not personal whims
Callan compared his method to a piece of electronic equipment: press the right buttons and it works; tamper with the mechanism and nobody can guarantee the result.
10. Progress is measured
You should know where you are and how far you have to go. In the Callan Method, each stage ends with a test of questions, vocabulary and dictation.
And if your teacher fails the checklist?
Talk to them first. If nothing changes, look for another teacher, without guilt, exactly as you would with a restaurant that served you badly. Your time is the most expensive part of the equation. See also native or non-native teacher?
This article was inspired by Mr Q’s study of the handbooks written by Robin K. T. Callan and by the dozens of hours of conversation he had with Mr Robin Callan at his home, conversations that were recorded and that Mr Q considers a treasure trove of knowledge.