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What to choose?
In summer, the range of offers from foreign language schools expands significantly. Programs that combine language learning with leisure, entertainment, sports, and hobby activities come to the forefront. The choice is as wide as the range of interests: from theater studios and computer clubs to beadwork, carp fishing, football, hot air balloon rides, sailing, and so on.
The student body also changes – it becomes noticeably younger: in summer during holidays, language schools are filled with schoolchildren and teenagers. As a rule, summer centers are opened specially for them at private schools and universities. The campuses of these educational institutions have numerous sports fields, well-equipped classrooms, laboratories, and lecture halls. Various gym complexes, exercise machines, and other equipment for children's recreation are ideally suited for young participants of summer programs.
Children's programs come in group and individual formats. Group programs are good for those sending their child abroad for the first time and looking for economical options. The larger the group, the cheaper the program per participant. Children are usually accompanied by a teacher or a representative of an educational agency (group leader) tasked with solving all problems. This is a plus for particularly worried parents. But group trips are fixed and lack variety (standard option: 15 language lessons plus excursions, sports, and evening activities). The choice of duration and location is also limited.
If the child is old enough and independent, it is better to opt for an individual trip. In this case, you decide where to go and for how long, what to include in the program, and where to stay (with a family or in a residence). This option is more beneficial for language learning: the child spends all the time among foreigners and locals with whom they must communicate only in the target language. By the way, foreign camps can be either international or local. In the first case, they are created specifically for foreigners; in the second, they accept both local and foreign children. Additionally, a camp may have a specialization – for example, language, sports, computer, music, etc. Most do a bit of everything.
If desired, the recreational program can be replaced with an academic one, for example, preparation for further study abroad at school or university. Many language schools offer such courses for academic purposes or exam preparation, and in summer they also accept teenagers. In camps based at private schools and universities, one can go even further and take specialized subjects in addition to language.
There is also a completely opposite option: a vacation with no study at all or with a minimal number of foreign language lessons. As a rule, such programs are held somewhere on the coast of a warm country (Italy, Spain, Turkey, Malta). In this case, the educational and cognitive component is ensured through constant communication with teachers and foreign peers, as well as intensive exposure to the country.
For those who love the road, changing landscapes outside the window, and new impressions, travel programs are suitable. They last on average two weeks: participants travel by bus through the country, visit major cities and attractions, and study a foreign language on the road. Such educational travel is offered, in particular, in Germany and Canada. A relatively recently organized program, Out There, is built on a similar principle – learning the language not in the classroom but during excursions, travels, and walks – and its geography is expanding every month.
Another option is family programs, for children with parents. They are offered different activities, of course (adults can also learn the language or take interest-based courses), and they are held in different places. But they live together and go on excursions together as well.
Discovering the World
There are many options for spending holidays abroad; we will consider just a few.
The professional football club AC Milan and the Emerald Cultural Institute organize a summer football camp with English language study for teenagers aged 12 to 16. In the first half of the day, students attend three-hour lessons at the school (which, by the way, is one of Ireland's leading language centers). In the second half, experienced Italian coaches conduct training sessions according to the professional football club's program. All participants receive a gift set of football uniform from Adidas, which they can show off to classmates. Two weeks will cost young footballers €1,450 (including accommodation).
A similar program, but with the participation of the British Football Association and UEFA, is offered by the Academy of English Studies Folkestone (Kent). Teenagers aged 12 to 18 are invited to participate. It includes: 15 English lessons (methodology 'Learning with Fun' – fanlanguage activities), two hours of daily training with professional coaches, visits to the stadiums of London Premier League teams, one full-day excursion (to Brighton or Cambridge), evening activities, homestay accommodation, free transfer, and a place for a leader in a group of 15 or more. The program lasts two weeks, price from £350 per week.
The city of Narbonne, located on the Mediterranean coast at the foot of the La Clape mountains, is awash in flowers. The local school Village du Soleil invites young French enthusiasts (ages 11-17) to spend their holidays in this beautiful place. Tuition - twenty hours per week in groups of five to eight people. By the way, English is also taught here. School staff try to house children of the same age but from different countries together. The cultural program is truly summery: visiting the Cap d'Agde water park, a trip to Carcassonne, the Sijon safari park, "Miss and Mr. Sun" contests, an amusement park, the town of Gruissan, and much more. Two weeks of "French life" will lighten the wallet by an average of €1,000. Additionally, you will have to pay for airfare, visa, and insurance.
Canadian International Student Services (CISS) organizes summer programs for schoolchildren in various parts of Canada. For example, you can go to a camp based at the prestigious private school Ridley College for a month: spend three weeks at the school and one week traveling around the country. Armed with knowledge of English (15 lessons per week), children go to collect impressions in Montreal and Quebec, Ottawa and Toronto, and Niagara Falls. Life at school is also not boring - there is basketball, football, tennis, squash, swimming, volleyball, painting, sculpture, computers - computer desks are in every classroom. Staying at the school will cost an average of 2,000 Canadian dollars, trips around the country - $500.
This same organization offers learning English on the road in 16 days - ESL Road Trip. You could say there are only 20 hours of classes, or you could say they last around the clock, since visiting any city or place is not without excursions, stories, histories, and explanations. The trip begins in Toronto, then goes to Niagara Falls, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, again Toronto, Calgary, Banff, Kamloops, Whistler, Vancouver. The program is designed for teenagers 12-18 years old, the cost of the tour is about 3,000 Canadian dollars.
In the most beautiful part of Bavaria is the international children's camp Sport & German Language Camp. In this sports town on a picturesque mountain slope are typical Bavarian houses, tennis courts, an indoor pool, a gym. Classes (20 hours per week) take place at the school located in the very center of the camp. More than half of the children vacationing here are locals. The excursion program includes visits to Munich, Salzburg, Neuschwanstein Castle, Lake Chiemsee. The cost of two weeks is €1,490.
The youth camps of the Spanish language school Enforex are located in Madrid, Marbella, and Salamanca. Here, if desired, you can learn two languages at once - Spanish and English. The latter is mainly for local students, but foreigners can also choose it. After classes, children are waiting for excursions to Seville, Granada, the water park, caves, Gibraltar.
Summer camp in Cambridge - Riddlesworth Hall school, which is housed in a Georgian mansion located in a beautiful park of 30 acres. The summer program consists of 20 English lessons per week. Each day is entirely devoted to one of the themes: "Royal Family Day" or "Sherlock Holmes Day", "James Bond Day" or "Peter Pan Day". After lessons and on weekends, excursions are provided to Cambridge, Ely, Norwich, London, the Pleasurewood Hills amusement park, Great Yarmouth beach. A two-week trip for a group of 10 people will cost £990, for a group of 15 people - £899.
The Lines School offers an intensive (32 lessons per week) and super-intensive (40 lessons per week) language program. Despite such a workload, the children will find time to appreciate all the charms of this private school - there is a beautiful park, a pool, tennis courts, and excellent meals. Excursions are preceded by careful preparation: all students are given thematic materials, and after the trip, questionnaires to check how interesting the excursion was and how well the children absorbed the historical material.
The Royal Holloway language center at the University of London also organizes a program for teenagers 12-18 in the summer. On 100 acres of land there is a magnificent Victorian building, tennis courts, a sports center, playing fields, a pool, a beautiful garden. The English course is standard - 20 lessons per week. They say that students are most impressed by nature: you study English in a cozy classroom, while nearby rabbits jump in the meadow and squirrels leap through the trees.
The school week at Stafford House Summer School (Canterbury) is structured unusually. Three days of study, three days of excursions and entertainment (visiting castles and cities, swimming, basketball and other sports games). Children from age 7 are welcome at Felsted School. For younger children, language courses are organized in a special way: learning takes place through play. The main technique is role-playing. Children learn to communicate in everyday situations and get used to free speech. The school building has been recently renovated and equipped with modern facilities: language labs and computer rooms. For sports and recreation - indoor and outdoor sports grounds, an indoor pool, tennis courts. Accommodation is in small houses.
For those who want to take a break from studying and just laze around, the Village Camp school offers a summer camp in the company of English peers without language learning. This is also an excellent place for football and tennis lovers, as you can order a program in one of these sports. Those interested can book a language course. The cost of stay depends on the "saturation of life". Just camp will cost £504 per week, £576 with a language program, football classes - £550 (the cost includes tuition, accommodation, cultural program).
And for those who, on the contrary, want to dedicate summer to studying - the Concord College program. This is the optimal option for those who plan to continue their education in a British school. The three-week course includes English, mathematics and other subjects from the school curriculum. A week of almost real 'British school' costs 570 pounds.
And yet summer is impossible to imagine without the sea and sun. And although at this time of year the coasts of England and Ireland also turn into a resort, real warmth - or rather heat - must be sought in Malta. Of course, sitting at a desk in such weather is tiring (even though schools are equipped with air conditioning). So it's better to go on a language trip, which is offered by, for example. Link School of English. English lessons take place directly during excursions around the island with inevitable stops at the 'bluest sea', which is everywhere here. The school also organizes various sports activities, such as scuba diving accompanied by English-speaking instructors.
International School of English is for those who dream of continuing their education at the University of Malta. This is a real chance to see student life from the inside, because the school is located directly on the university campus. The main methods used in the learning process are group work, discussions, role-playing games, presentations.
The Maltese school NSTS - English Language Institute was opened by a professional teacher of English as a foreign language from England about 40 years ago. At the school they make you understand that you are the most important person, and learning English is not cramming but pleasure. Linguistic games, pair work, modeling various situations - all this allows students to better navigate the language. In summer, schoolchildren (from 10 years old) are offered special weekly programs with an intensity of 12 and 20 hours, including a huge number of excursions around the island, trips to the cinema, karaoke evenings.