Like UFC Gym, Better-U uses state-of-the-art, science-based approaches to help members to Train Different®. In much the same way, &IA has developed a unique, science-based Learn Different® approach to teaching English that is far more efficient and effective than the traditional teaching methods employed throughout most of Japan. The &IA Learn Different® approach is based on three key concepts:
EMPOWERING: All &IA teaching methods are extremely student-centered, the core of all modern communicative language learning approaches. A key aspect of our approach is a strong focus on student-engagement. Rather than having students listen to teachers passively, &IA students are involved in active learning, especially in ways that develop their critical thinking skills through interaction and cooperative learning with other students. Students also develop mindfulness skills through activities and techniques that help students to be fully present and aware of what they are doing without being reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on.
FOUNDATIONAL: At the heart of &IA’s approach is the science of corpus linguistics, which helps us to identify the most important words in the English language for student’s specific needs, and then teach them systematically to our students. Although there are more than 600,000 words in the English language, we have identified 2800 general English words that covers 92% of all the words learners need in their daily life, 1000 fitness words that cover 92% of fitness English and 700 children’s English words that covers 92% of the English words children need for the situations where they need English. These words, as well as important grammatical structures are not taught in isolation but in contextualized ways such as graded reading, graded listening and story-telling.
FUN: When learning is fun, student motivation and confidence rise and language ability improves quickly and naturally. &IA’s approach to teaching English involves a variety of principles designed to accomplish this including use of movement, total physical response (TPR) and songs with young learners, authentic, high interest graded-reading and listening materials, and story-telling, which contextualizes the meaning of new words and phrases. &IA supports in-class learning with a variety of science-based online learning programs, applications and activities, all of which employ principles of gamification, which helps to make the learning fun.