Language Camp for teenagers in Spain
Does language learning fit into a summer holiday? What do young people think about going to a language Camp in summer?
Summer holiday means to relax in a classical sense and do something out of the ordinary, so that, at first sight, teenagers are often not really amused about going to a language Camp until they find out that there are different approaches to languages learning. First of all because the teenagers in our summer camp in Tarifa are immersed in an international environment where they can practice languages during the whole day.
How do the Camp teachers organize their languages classes?
In a language Camp the young people get to know another kind of language learning, which is distinctive from language classes at home. The groups are smaller and teachers can adapt the pace of learning individually. Students can dive into the language as they listen to it constantly and speak it frequently inside and outside the classroom.
The creative side of Spanish or English learning can be discovered. Every activity they do can help them to progress in the language they have chosen to learn or to improve as they are constantly in contact with native speakers, which makes for the fact that the teenagers unconsciously pick up words or sentences in the target language.
What is the advantage of learning languages in a language Camp?
The teachers in the language Camp do not have to prepare their students for the next exam so the approach is completely different as they can offer in the class linguistic activities which are fun nevertheless instructive and focused on communication skills. What is most satisfying for us is when students from the language camp return home and show a much greater motivation in language learning than they did when they arrived to the Camp. It is easy to understand that this happens as language learning is paired with fond and eventful memories of a holiday with teenagers of the same age and from different parts of the world.
Lenguaventura’s conclusion
It is important that young learners link up language learning with great experience and this is guaranteed in the Lenguaventura Summer Camp. It is the luxury of a summer school to have no need to lead the teenagers through the next exams so that we can use fantasy, creativity and personality to bring them further in their effort in language learning. Finally it helps them indirectly to prepare the next exams with less effort.
This short video about tongue-twisters during a language session outside the classroom on one of our fieldtrips shows that language learning has a broad spectrum and is not limited at all. For sure students will remember what a tongue-twister is.
