The Disneyfication of English teaching
Literally.
The main motivation for setting up official Disney English schools in China is finding a product that isn’t prone to piracy, all parts of all lessons are based on Disney characters, and whatever teaching that leaves for people who are in the room is done by “cast members”. However, as the FT article (free registration needed, but worthwhile) says “$1,770 for 96 hours of classes over a year – not cheap by the standards of mainland language instruction, but almost certainly more effective than having a private tutor drill a five-year-old on flashcards for 96 hours”, and uploading recordings of the students for parents to check up on is probably the kind of thing that we’ll all be doing soon enough. To put it another way, if Disney does take over we’ve probably got ourselves to blame as much as them for an industry that’s sets people’s expectations so low.
Tags: News
