Advantages for Teachers

Teachers receive three days training on the teaching methodology and use of the software, including many practical tips on literacy teaching, and a set of comprehensive illustrated teaching manuals.

Rapid English can be used for different ages, from year 6 to adult, and for different literacy levels. Its adult “feel” makes it attractive to teenagers and older students, who are often put off by literacy teaching tools designed for very young children. It works equally well for native speakers with poor literacy and for ESOL students. It is particularly effective in engaging
disaffected “problem” students, who may no longer take part in normal lessons.

Rapid English has a powerful diagnostic program. It does not require specialised language training but uses normal communicative criteria to establish each student’s starting levels in different areas such as reading, aural comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, paragraph construction and grammar (these levels equate to National Curriculum levels of attainment).
It also selects a study path set to the appropriate level of difficulty for the student to improve performance in areas of weakness. This can be customised to meet students’ own priorities. 

Flexibility and ‘differentiation’ are built into the course. Once the appropriate study path has been identified, students can skip, or skip through, exercises they find easy and spend time on those they find more challenging. It is best to carry out the student diagnostic on a one-to-one basis, and students may need further one-to-one teaching until their literacy improves and they become familiar with the programs, but after that they can be taught in small mixed-level groups. The system can even be used successfully for whole class teaching, once teachers become thoroughly experienced in using it, particularly if they have a teaching assistant to help.

Comments

“One of the things I really like about the program is that you can use it quite flexibly…. You can tailor the level to the young person’s ability.”

Rapid English Trainer

“It’s a straightforward program and it’s easy to learn how to navigate around it. I think as a system it’s really easy to use.”

Rapid English Trainer

“I always got positive feedback from the kids and I could see them getting into it. They get that instant feedback, which means as a trainer you can see that fast improvement as well, which makes it instantly rewarding to deliver, and gives you that drive to want to deliver it well.”

Rapid English Trainer

“It’s really easy to praise them for [their improvement], and you can see the effect that has on their confidence.”

Rapid English Trainer

The software is easy and intuitive to use. As with all software, however, it is much easier for teachers if they begin using it within a short period of being trained, and it is helpful to start with a practical demonstration by us of its being used successfully with their own students.

Exercises can be printed off and used for traditional paper-based lessons if the computer system is not available, or just to provide further variety, which students enjoy.

Once they are familiar with it, teachers can use Rapid English with minimal preparation. It provides a series of carefully structured interactive exercises they can present to students to meet their objectives. Students quickly learn to use the programs and work happily on their own with minimum intervention. It is like having a series of pre-prepared lessons custom designed for every student, with the computer acting as their personal expert teaching assistant.

The student tracking program makes it easy for teachers to keep records of every session that a student uses Rapid English, and regularly record comments and student feedback. It also provides a set of progress checks to monitor and measure improvements, which can be recorded and kept in students’ files, along with portfolios of their work, and a “Communications Grid” to illustrate improvements in an easy to understand format. The system can also be used to generate collective data on use and results of Rapid English at class, teacher or institutional level. There is also a timetable tool to help manage bookings and resources, and monitor attendance.

Rapid English fosters a positive and constructive relationship with students. Of course nothing can be achieved without basic discipline but where that exists, students respond well to the teacher encouraging them to set their own goals and track their progress towards them. They like being given the tools they need and the control over how they use them. While they focus on the programs, the teacher can focus on the student and intervene only when help is needed. Such help is more likely to be accepted. 

The Course offers an effective solution to endemic problems of underachievement. It can give teachers great satisfaction when students who have given up on education start to use Rapid English and see, perhaps for the first time, that they can succeed, and begin to discover confidence in their ability to learn and to do well.

The Rapid English method is innovative but its results are fully in line with what schools are required to achieve and conform to the requirements of the National Curriculum. Indeed it ticks many of the boxes of current educational policy – for example, effective use of ICT, differentiated and individualised learning, use of phonics to help with basic reading skills, development of ‘oracy’ as well as literacy, and regular monitoring of educational outcomes. The course has been highly praised in OFSTED reports.