What happens after the course

A fortnight abroad produces a real jump in spoken English, and most of that jump is lost within three months. Not because the learning was shallow — because nothing at home requires it, and a skill that is not required decays.

This is what to do about it, and what to expect in the meantime.

What actually happened to your child's English

Worth being precise, because it changes what to do next.

Fluency improved a great deal. Speed, willingness to start a sentence, the disappearance of the translate-then-check habit. This is the big gain and it is the one most at risk.

Listening improved a great deal. Real speech at real speed, with accents. This one is durable — it does not decay as fast.

Vocabulary improved, unevenly. A hundred phrases that came up, rather than a curriculum. Very useful and full of gaps.

Grammatical accuracy probably did not improve, and may look worse. This alarms parents and it should not. A student who has learned to speak quickly makes more visible errors than one who says almost nothing. The errors were always there; they are now audible because the sentences exist. Accuracy comes back with written work — it is a different skill and a fortnight of speaking is not aimed at it.

Confidence improved most of all, and that is the part that changes school results a term later.

The first three months are what matter

Four things, in order of how much they return for the effort.

1 · Keep one conversation a week, with a person

The single most effective thing, and the one families skip. It does not need to be a lesson. A relative abroad, a friend from the course, a language exchange — thirty minutes of unscripted speech a week is enough to hold the fluency gain almost indefinitely.

Students who stay in touch with somebody from their group do this without being asked, which is a good argument for encouraging those friendships rather than treating them as a holiday thing.

2 · Change what they watch, not how much

English audio with English subtitles — not subtitles in their own language, which lets them avoid the English entirely. This costs nothing and no extra time, because it replaces something they were going to watch anyway.

3 · Write, if accuracy is the goal

If the objective is a school grade or an examination, speech alone will not get there. Written work, marked by somebody, is what fixes grammar and punctuation — see punctuation that trips up English learners for the five marks that cause most of it. Our general English course runs over more weeks with written work marked, which is the other half of what a study holiday does.

4 · Do not start a new app

Every family does this in week one and stops by week four. An app practises recognition; your child's gain was in production. They are not the same thing, and the app is not the reason the fortnight worked.

The two weeks after they get home

Some practical warnings, because they surprise people.

They will be exhausted. Two weeks of concentrating in a second language is genuinely tiring. Expect a flat few days.

They may be difficult. A fourteen-year-old who has spent a fortnight making their own decisions in a foreign city does not always come home wanting a curfew. This passes, and it is a sign the trip worked.

They will not tell you much at first. The standard answer to "how was it?" is "good". Ask smaller questions instead — what did you eat, who did you sit with, what was the host family's house like. Specific questions get specific answers.

Reverse homesickness is real. Some students miss the group badly for a week or two. Encourage the messaging.

Whether to go again, and where

About half of our students come back, and the useful question is not "again?" but "what next?" — because a second course should not be a repeat.

• They loved it and want the same again → a different city, same length. A student who did Peterborough and enjoyed the calm often wants Newcastle next, which is a step up rather than a change of subject.
• They coped well and want more independence → three weeks, and possibly a residence rather than a family. New York or Toronto.
• They now have an examination in view → not a study holiday. A longer course with marked written work, which is a different product; study holiday, summer camp, or language course explains why.
• They found it hard but are glad they went → same city, same family if the family is available. Familiarity is worth a lot on a second attempt, and we can usually arrange it if you ask early.

If you are thinking about a second course, tell us what happened on the first one — including anything that did not work. That is more useful to us than a fresh enquiry, and it is the fastest way to get the right recommendation. The contact page is the place, and which weeks and how early to book is worth reading again, because the reasons change once your child has done it before.

The one thing worth writing down

Ask your child, in the first week home, to write ten sentences about the fortnight in English. Keep them. Ask again after the next course.

Nothing else you can do will show you the progress as clearly, and nothing else will convince a sixteen-year-old that it worked. A grade is somebody else's opinion; ten sentences they wrote themselves are evidence.