How often should the class meet and how long should each class be?

Back to Section I

Experiments have shown that little language learning takes place in classes that meet less than three times a week. The ideal situation for an adult education ESL class would probably be one that meets every day for an hour or an hour and a half. Second best would be a class that meets three times a week for two hours. Meeting less often, even for longer periods at a time, often becomes counterproductive because so much is forgotten between class meetings. If you have control over the length of the class term (semester, quarter, est.), you might try about an eight week course. Courses approximately this long allow students to feel a sense of accomplishment, and at the same time making it possible for new students to join and feel that they are not intruders.