Online English learning for children – pros and cons

The education of children today is significantly different from what it used to be. Pupils have the opportunity to study modern sciences, acquire skills that will be in demand in the future, and learn to use advanced technologies. Parents can choose not only the subjects their child will study, but also the format of teaching. Learn English online with experienced teachers your child can do so on an interactive platform https://learnlink.com/.

English is one of those areas that no adult or child can do without. The earlier children begin to familiarise themselves with foreign languages, the easier it will be for them to perfect their knowledge. To make learning as effective as possible, parents use a variety of methods and formats. Despite the variety of choices, it is difficult to decide which way is best for your child to learn English. Offline and online forms of learning have their advantages and disadvantages. How to understand which English courses for children will bring the most effective results?

Offline learning

Classical classes are more familiar to adults. In the time of parents’ education, there was only such a format, so they often send their children to study in this way. However, you need to realise that there are both pros and cons to this kind of learning.

Advantages of offline learning:

  1. Children get live interaction and perceive the language better by listening “live” than through a computer screen. There is an opportunity to observe the teacher’s facial expressions and reactions.
  2. Pupils practise socialising and communication skills both with adults and peers. They make friends and make new acquaintances.
  3. Group learning allows them to learn to work in a team, to accept their failures and successes with dignity.

Cons:

  1. The personality of the educator may influence the child positively or negatively. Therefore, personal contact may not be beneficial. In addition, it is not easy to find a teacher who will be able to approach your child immediately.
  2. Teaching children in groups requires the teacher to distribute his or her attention to everyone at once, so some students have a hard time.
  3. Parents will have to spend more money. Offline lessons are more expensive because the teacher spends time and money travelling. If you travel to the teacher’s place, these costs are on you.
  4. If the pupil is small, he cannot get there on his own. They have to be driven by their parents, which means that adults spend their free time travelling.

Online English language learning

With the advent of numerous gadgets in every family and the development of the Internet, online learning is becoming increasingly popular everywhere. And this is not surprising, because this format has significantly more pros than cons.

Let’s look at the disadvantages of this way of learning together:

  • it is necessary to monitor the quality of the Internet, so that the connection is not interrupted;
  • If there is a power cut or a breakdown in the network, the lesson will not take place;
  • there are children who need “live” communication with the teacher, it is difficult for them to absorb information if the teacher is not sitting next to them.

As for the advantages of online courses, there are quite a lot of them. Here are the main ones:

  1. Regardless of your place of residence, your child can study with an excellent teacher. You don’t have to live in Moscow and spend half a day travelling to get there. Even from a remote village, you can learn English from a highly professional teacher.
  2. If a pupil studies online, his parents save not only money but also time. Usually young children are taken to classes by their parents. You have to pay for travelling, spend hours on the road and sit idle while your son or daughter is studying. Online gives the parent the opportunity to spend the child’s study time on his or her own activities.
  3. There is no need to buy numerous notebooks, textbooks, manuals and other teaching materials. The teacher has it all in electronic form.
  4. The child does not have to carry heavy things on his/her back – all the information is stored on an electronic medium.
  5. Children get sick quite often, so classes are cancelled. If your child is not ready to go to class, but feels well enough to speak English, the online format always helps.
  6. By studying online, you can learn using completely new methods. Interactive games are much more interesting for every child than an old textbook.
  7. Using a gadget helps the teacher to involve the student more in the learning process. In addition, they often come up with rewards for children who do well – for example, an online game on a tablet using the material learnt.
  8. As practice shows, modern children are much more willing to learn if a gadget is involved in learning. They like to spend time on their smartphones and laptops, which they don’t want to put aside to cram words from a textbook.

Online or offline?

Many parents still believe that a lesson should be one-on-one with the teacher. They were taught this way, so it is quite difficult for an adult to adjust to the modern format of learning. Besides, they think that the child spends a lot of time on the phone as it is.

But it is obvious that it is much more useful to learn English with a tablet or laptop than to play useless games. In addition, children often miss offline lessons because of bad weather, illness, sickness or tiredness. You can study online with a teacher sitting in your own room on a comfortable sofa, so it doesn’t matter what kind of snowstorm is outside or how much the student sneezes.

Each parent chooses the learning format that best suits their children. However, we advise you to try a more progressive format, which allows you to apply all the innovations and modern teaching methods.

Both offline and online classes have their pros and cons. But, as experienced parents say, once you try to study from home, you won’t want to go to a class if you can get excellent knowledge sitting in a seat.