Callan School Brochure

57 Pages·1991·23.113 MB·English

by  Robin Callan

cA
SCHOOL
FOUNDED 1960
ENGLISH IN A QUARTER
OF THE TIME!
As this brochure is rather long, it has been divided
into three parts. Only the first part needs to be read
initially. The second part contains the student's
guarantee and further proof of the Callan Method's
claims, whilst the third part explains how the Method
works and only needs to be read when the student
starts his studies.
PART ONE
30 GOOD REASONS FOR CHOOSING
THE CALLAN SCHOOL
No other school in London offers the student the following
conditions - they are nearly all unique to the Callan School.
The Callan School teaches English There is little or no homework.
in a quarter of the normal time,
With its "3 lessons for the price of
And at a quarter of the cost. 2" the School's fees are some of the
lowest in London, and the student
It gives every student a written does not pay for public holidays.
guarantee of success for the Cam
bridge exams in a quarter of the Because of the School's smallish
time taken by any other school in classes the students enjoy 40% more
London, and for any other exams at speaking time than at most other
the same level, schools,
And gives free lessons if the student And due to the unique nature of the
fails. Callan Method the students speak
the entire lesson.
It has a 95% pass rate for these
exams. The School's 40 classrooms and
1,200 students make it the largest
It allows the student free trial les school in London,
sons before enrolling.
Which allows it to grade students
The student pays. for his lessons in more accurately.
arrears and on results, and does not
pay if he is not satisfied. The Callan Method is infallible - it
works with everyone.
He is guaranteed to reach a certain
level in a certain number of lessons, It is easy, interesting and pleasant to
and never pays for more lessons use.
than he is guaranteed.
The claims of the Method have been
checked (with positive results) by
And he can monitor his own one of the highest authorities in the
progress. English-teaching profession.
The School is open from 8.30 a.m. not allowed trial lessons, is nearly
to 8.30 p.rn. always obliged to study 3 hours a
day whether he wishes to or not,
The student can start, stop, and re and is given a limited choice of
start his studies whenever he wishes timetable. He is almost never
without damaging his studies or refunded his money, and usually can
forfeiting his fees. only begin his course on certain
dates.
He can choose whatever number of
hours he wishes to study per week, The Callan School's conditions are
and whatever hours of the day he made possible only by the extreme
wishes to study, and, because of the flexibility of the Callan Method and
extreme flexibility of the Callan the size of the Callan School. They
Method, the student can move with cannot be matched by any other
ease from one course to another and school, and surely make it
change his timetable whenever he impossible for the student to enrol
wishes, elsewhere.
And he can sign on for any number If the claims and conditions of the
of weeks. Callan School sound too good to be
true, it must be remembered that it
If the student wishes to pay in is against the law in England to
advance (for a discount), his money make false statements in publicity.
will be refunded if he finds he
cannot complete his course. One of the reasons the School offers
such remarkable conditions is that,
The student does not need to book with its new and revolutionary
his course in advance, even from method, it has something very
abroad, and consequently does not special to offer the student, and
need to make any deposits or consequently wishes to remove all
advance payments lo secure a place obstacles that might be in the way
on a course - a place is auto of the student signing on.
matically guaranteed him - and he
does not have lo sign anything or
agree lo any terms of enrolment. In addition to its normal courses the
School holds special courses for
At other schools the student has to those wishing to improve their
pay for his lessons in advance, is pronunciation.
not guaranteed a result, is not told
how long he will lake to reach the Founded in 1960 the School is one
level of the Cambridge exams, is of the oldest in London.
PART TWO
15
A Magazine Article on the Callan Method
The following article appeared in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language)
Gazette in 1986. Mr David Morgan, who investigated the claims of the
Callan Method, is an Oxford professor and has been associated with the
teaching of English as a foreign language for over 45 years and, as a
member of the British Council Institute, is an inspector of language
schools. He was not able to commit himself to finding the Callan Method
four times faster than any other method because in order to do so he
would have had to keep his own statistics on Callan students independently
of the Callan School for about two or three years, which was not part of
his investigation. It is sufficient, however, that he found the Method faster
than any other he had ever known in his 45 years experience. That it
teaches English four times faster is proved by the guarantee which goes
with the Method.
Despite the fact that 4,000 copies of the article were sent to schools all
over the world, not one school enquired about the Method. The
profession's fear of the Method and the fear of losing three-quarters of its
income is so absolute that it will only be overcome when the Callan
Method goes into the shops.
16
Fast talking - does it
bring faster results?
by Jeff Harvey
FEW EFL institutions outdo Oxford Street's Callan School when it done the number of stipulated
comes lo strong selling. lessons. Three of them have taken
I ls brochure proclaims a method that can "teach English in a up the offer of free lessons. The
quarter of the time taken by any other method on the market." The others can come back whenever
school backs up its claim with a survey of a dozen London schools, they like."
showing how long each would need to take an average beginner up to the Is the Callan method chiefly
level of the Cambridge First Certificate. about passing exams?
Callan's average is 200 hours at a cost of £600, the rest average 1,186 "No. Our main aim is to teach
hours al a cost of £3,635. people English. Exams are a by
As the brochure admits, the claim is difficult to believe. product. The reason we give a
In support of the claim, the guarantee based on the Cambridge
brochure puts forward a variety of First Certificate is that it's the
evidence. The Duke of Edinburgh, most internationally known and
no less. has "had the Callan recognised in the world."
method put lo the lest and found How does the method work, why
its claim to be justified." It says Ai is it so much faster?
Callan students listen and speak "There's a highly structured set
four times as much as students at of course material which teachers
other schools. The claim must be are trained to use. The teachers
true, it goes on to say. since false are interchangeable - you have the
claims are against the law and method there, everybody teaches
would be bad for business. It also like that and all the students get
promises that if any students fail the results. No timie is wasted in
the Cambridge Preliminary exam the lessons and there's no problem
or the First Certificate in the of good and bad teachers.
predicted number of hours, the
school will give free lessons until Urgency
they are successful.
This evidence hardly constitutes There's also a high degree of
proof, but Mr Robin Callan. prin urgency - teachers are trained to
cipal of the school did indeed con- speak at 240 words a minute,
tact the Duke of Edinburgh at the BIT FOR A DUKE: Callan's bl@el rather than the 180 words of nor
end of 1982, who then contacted nd gold brochure cover mal conversation. Students are
the English Speaking Union. 'They continually revising what they've
asked Mr David Morgan, a for a school to answer generally, done before. Everybody starts at
member of their English how long it would toke a beginner page one of book one and goes
Language Committee, to in to get up to First Certificate level? back to it next day, working
vestigate the school's claims. "Why should it be? Why should through the material more quickly
A message from Mr Morgan, via a sludent be obliged to pay £1,000 the second time through.
the English Speaking Union, con for a course and at the end of it Everything is repeated at least
firmed that he visited the school have no guarantee that he's ac five times, often 10 times. It just
and reported in September 1984 tually going Lo learn anything? becomes. automatic - they know
that the method worked and was Let's say I want to learn Polish. I how to say something without
faster than other methods. He want to know how many lessons it thinking about it."
would not, however, commit will take me Lo reach a certain It sounds like a Berlitz-type of
himself to finding it was four level." course with a structured teachers'
times as fast. How docs the gunrnnlee book and a lot of repetition - how
Mr Jon Home, director of the operate? docs it differ from, say, Berlitz?
Oxford Street Callan School, pro When students arrive they are "It's for more structured than
vided answers to some of the ques graded for level and also for speed Berlitz. Whenever we ask a ques
ions readers of the brochure of assimilation. They arc then Lion we want the longest answer
might be prompted to ask. given a written guarantee that possible. For example, 'ls it plea
First of nil, what is the claim Lo they will reach the level of First sant to walk in the rain?'. That's
tench four times as fast based on? Certificate or Preliminary English repented, we ask the question
'It's based on the statistics. Test in a certain number of twice,and the answer we want is
Originally the statistics came lessons. If this is not achieved, the 'No, it isn't pleasant to alk in the
from Cambridge, who stated that student receives free lessons until rain, but it's unpleasant to walk in
the average beginner would take he has reached that level." the rain.'
640 hours to reach First Cer How many students fail after It sounds a bit boring for the
tificate level. Our statistics were doing the stipulated number of teachers - do you hove a high tur
originally based on the first Callan lessons? nover of teachers?
school which was in Italy. They "About five in a hundred." "Most people have a high tur
worked out at 160 hours for our What about the results from the nover of teachers. Whether we
students to reach that level. last First Certificate Exam? have a higher turnover than other
But isn't it a difficult question "Seven students foiled, having schools - I don't think so."
Sels, Cambridge and Berlitz
The figures given by the two schools Sels and Cambridge on the Survey
are rather low, and are therefore probably not for complete beginners. The
Berlitz is not included in the Survey as it does not take complete beginners
or prepare students for the Cambridge exams.
The complaint of the schools
The schools on the Survey tried to take legal action against the Callan
School, complaining that it was not possible to define an "average student"
or a "complete beginner" and that the figures on the Survey were incorrect.
Such complaints could not be upheld. There is an "average" in every field
of human activity, and a "complete beginner" is obviously someone who
knows virtually no English, whilst, as for the correctness of the figures,
these were given by the schools themselves to the student who conducted
the Survey.
The schools were obliged to drop the action against the Callan School, for
if they had shown that they did not know the correct figures for the
"average complete beginner", it would have made them appear incompetent,
whilst if they had refused to give the correct figures, it would have
appeared that they had something to hide. In any case, whatever the
schools might claim to be the real figures, they are of no value if they arc
not supported by a written guarantee. Without giving a guarantee a school
can. invent any figures it wishes.
The ethics of the Survey
The Survey proves quite unequivocally that the Callan Method teaches
English in a quarter of the time taken by any other method on the market.
Under the Fair Trading Act it is against the law to falsify such Surveys.
The Callan School is therefore being quite legally and ethically correct in
publishing the above figures. By law it is the customer's right (under, the
Trade Description Act) to know exactly what he is buying before he buys
it, and also it is perfectly legitimate to publish comparisons between
various products if what is said is true. For example, Volvo advertise in
the following way: "Why is the Volvo twice as good as the Fiat, Ford and
Volkswagen?" - Answer: "Because it only needs servicing every 6,000
miles, whilst they need servicing every 3,000 miles".
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