What is the advantage of private instruction? The example of English vocabulary learning in Greece

Abstract

The differences between language teaching in private and public institutions in the same country may be usefully illuminated through focussed classroom research. Learners' reports about how they are taught and how they learn new English vocabulary were used as a guide to examine the difference between the two prevailing pedagogical environments in Greece—private institutes of foreign languages and government schools. Contrary to the expectation that the private schools would evidence clearly different and better practices, a complex picture emerged. Some marked weaknesses in the methodology of vocabulary teaching, with a consequent reflection in the way vocabulary is learnt by students, were detected in both. Some ways of overcoming these weaknesses are suggested, and the conclusion is reached that the success of the private institutions is due not so much to the differential quality of their pedagogical contribution as to the extra quantity of instruction that they afford.