Learning a new language is no easy task. The truth is that, through the years, I have understood how complex it is for my students. I come across several people each day who say the exact same thing to me:
→ It is obvious that the problem lies in the method: many hours of study and hardly any time spent to put it into practice.
Oxinity proposes a different system, but completely anti-academic; against the grain. It is true that it causes some mistrust, as it differs a lot from the common methods which most people are familiar with: institutions, academic years, level achievement guided through books, or passing exams, together with diplomas and accreditations. Or, on the other hand, working with a private tutor who will help us, in a more or less enjoyable way, to complete some of these theoretical books.
→ At Oxinity there are no books, no tests, no exercises, no homework, no grammar theory; languages taught as something alive and organic. Very awkward stuff. But then, how can this method be so effective? It is unlike any other, with multiple subtleties that meet a single objective: better and faster language acquisition. Strange as it may seem, everything in this methodology fulfills a specific function, nothing is given for granted and each element fits in its place.
Teacher rotation (among others) is what contributes to this method’s high quality, which I will try to explain it as best I can through → these first four points:
1. natural learning approach
2. asynchronous training
3. conversational method
4. 30' classes
1. Natural learning approach
We all learned our mother tongue in a → "natural" way. That is to say, we never had to study, we never had to "cram” at school, or never had to pick up a book, let alone study grammar. We were simply exposed to the language; meaning we heard, listened, assimilated and mimicked. And this is how we learned to speak as children: by simply → listening to an infinite number of interlocutors.
A seven- or eight-year-old child will not be able to explain grammatical structures, but will be able to express his or her ideas perfectly. This is Oxinity's approach to language teaching: expose your students to the language, look at how its parts are arranged and copy them. There is no problem in copying structures without knowing how to explain them, because the aim is to know how to use a language and how to speak it, rather than knowing how to explain its technicalities.
2. Asynchronous training
The problem in academies (and schools) is that all students are expected to advance at the same pace. They are all prepared as a whole, and exactly the same is expected from all of them as well. But, in fact, this is an unnatural procedure. → Each student advances at different rates and the problem lies precisely here: not everyone is prepared for the same challenges on a given day. Thus, some students are exposed to content for which they are not yet ready. As we will see, Oxinity's pedagogical method is asynchronous thanks to the → use of Big Data, being able to adjust and customize the materials to each student’s needs, and thus avoid possible blockages and the dragging of basic errors.
3. Conversational method
→ Speaking can only be learned through speaking. Just as what occurs to these people who approach me: a method based on gap-filling, multiple choice, repetitive exercises and passing exams is a waste (or slowing down) of time. This is not what a class should be used for; sessions with a teacher should be spent speaking as much as possible. At Oxinity we work with exercises, obviously, but they are solved orally and not by remaining silent while completing a book. Paying a teacher to do theoretical exercises is a waste of time (and money).
4. 30’ classes
One of the aspects that surprises people the most is the 30-minute class format. It is a unit of time → where our attention is kept at its highest, and extending this time means a decrease in focus and concentration which reduces our ability to learn. At Oxinity we work with macro-stimulation, and that is tiring. It is not a traditional class where the teacher asks the student how they spent their weekend in order to create a comfortable environment and make them feel safe. The student most likely already knows how to explain how their weekend went, so there is no need to repeat it. You should attend a class to learn new things, not to waste time repeating what you already know.
What happens with Oxinity's method is that it uses a → very active and intense rhythm. Because the day you will have to face a real situation using your new acquired language, that will precisely be the dynamics in which you will find yourself. → We try to mimic real life, where there are no books, no teachers at our side, and no one to create those artificial environments of comfort and security. In your travels, or in your meetings with foreign partners or clients, you will most likely be alone, and you will have to know how to react and have your ear to the ground, probably → with multiple interlocutors. It is due to this that in our classes we try to recreate what happens in everyday routines, out of those academic and protected environments.
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