Inlingua method

At Inlingua you learn a language as you learned your mother tongue, only faster. After all, there is no use of an intermediary language. Translations are detours and slow down the learning process. Language structures are practised until they are used spontaneously. Small groups (6 students at the most) in which every student is given the opportunity to speak makes this possible.

In principle, writing is kept to a strict minimum, so that one can move on to oral communication as quickly as possible. Writing skills can of course be worked on as well with more advanced students.

Main principles

• Direct method:

The teacher conducts the lesson in the target language and uses only the target language. The learner must think in the target language as soon as possible. Overall speaking time is dedicated to the learner: teachers are trained to limit their speaking time to the bare minimum and give the learner the opportunity to speak as much as possible.

• Emphasis on speaking skills:

Language training is primarily oral and the language trainer restricts the use of writing or books to the absolute minimum. Languages are learnt by listening and speaking, not by reading and writing.

• Language patterns first:

Knowing a variety of individual words will not enable you to communicate efficiently. Knowing the proper language structures, however, will enable you to combine words endlessly and creatively.

• Initiation:

The teacher limits grammatical explanations to the bare minimum. It is not necessary to know how a car engine works to be able to drive it. In the same way, the learner will learn a language by deducing its language mechanisms from numerous examples the trainer gives him/her.

• Creative use of the target language:

Thoughtlessly learning standard sentences by heart is not the same as learning to communicate. The language trainer will therefore encourage the learner to apply the language being learnt to his personal environment. Role-play places the student in different situations in which he learns to respond appropriately.