5 Reasons To Study English Online - based on a survey in our school in Dublin, Ireland

5 Reasons To Study English Online

After over a year of running online classes almost every day we have recently asked our students why they chose to attend an English course on Zoom during the pandemic. As we are slowly leaving the Coronavirus era behind us, online education (including face-to-face English classes on Zoom) is bound to stay with us.

Here is the summary of the main reasons why adult students decide to study English online:

1. FOCUS. Online classes (if well planned and executed) are very focused with every minute spent on acquiring new knowledge, practise or revisions. The application of online tools makes the classes more engaging and fun through e.g. games and quizzes. At the same time, anything shared on a whiteboard can be saved as a screenshot on the class portal, with relevant notes allowing students to go back and study the class content in detail. This is just one of many advantages online tuition has over a traditional classroom experience.

2. PRICE. During the pandemic foreign students effectively stopped coming to Ireland. To attract those in Ireland and those overseas English language schools had to drop the prices to rock bottom. The hourly cost of tuition in a small, level-matched group of students, provided by an experienced native teacher, has in some cases dropped below 5 euro - including all class materials. It has never been cheaper to learn English in Ireland. In fact, YourEnglish.ie now attracts students from countries that, due to income inequalities in the world (or study visa requirements), would not be likely to ever come to Ireland. This ensures the classes remain as diverse and vibrant as before the pandemic – or even more so.

3. SOCIAL. Covid restrictions on movement, entertainment and shopping have left many 20 and 30 year-olds craving an opportunity to interact with people outside their bubble of close family and friends. Online English classes are a perfect opportunity to mingle with other students, some of them in Ireland, some of them in other parts of the world. The breakout room feature (on Zoom) allows students to interact in a small and cosy group setting and get to know each other better.

4. LINGUISTIC PROGRESS. While in-person education remains off limits due to coronavirus restrictions, language students are faced with several options. They can engage in self-study, follow an online course with pre-recorded content, find a one-to-one teacher online, attend live group classes online on Zoom or just wait the crisis out. The last option seemed the natural choice at the start of the pandemic but as the plague was showing no signs of surrender, more adult students decided to enrol in online classes to progress in English.

5. JOB OPPORTUNITIES. Many adult students who attend online classes during the pandemic are professionals who were either forced to work from home or became temporarily unemployed. Students hailing from both groups decided to up-skill to either pivot their careers or simply to take advantage of the time saved on commuting. In either case improving one’s level of English is a future-proof investment for any non-native speaker of English in Ireland and beyond.