Online Short-Term Programs

Frequently Asked Questions

• Video Introduction

• How do these Online English Classes work?

  How do these Online English Classes work?

  • Each class meets live twice a week on Zoom for 10 weeks for a total of 40 hours of live instruction. 
  • Each week focuses on one topic. 
  • Zoom links will be provided by the class instructor via email before each class. 
  • Each topic has one reading, one vocabulary flashcard deck, one listening, two PowerPoints, and two quizzes. 
  • Materials (listed above) will be provided by the class instructor via email each week before each new topic (quizzes will be sent after each class). 
  • In class, you talk with classmates from all over the world, share your opinion, make decisions, act out scenarios all in English. 
• How do I get a certificate?

  How do I get a certificate?

  • You will receive a pdf certificate of completion via email (with quiz grades, hours attended, and CEFR level) only if you…
    • Attend a minimum of 30 of 40 hours of live instruction
    • Achieve a minimum of 75% on average for quizzes
    • Send final 50 minute EFSET score

  NOTE: If you are a student at a partner university and would like a pdf of your certificate sent directly to your university’s international office, please contact us at eslp@vbj4.com.

• How much time will I spend studying outside of the live classes?

  How much time will I spend studying outside of the live classes?

  • Previewing the material: You can expect to spend about 1-2 hours each week preparing the reading, vocabulary, and listening. 
  • Taking the quizzes: You can expect to spend about 20 minutes to 1 hour each week completing the quizzes.  
    • How do we know? We sent a survey sent to students of Summer 2020 online courses, 36 students responded.
      • 22 of 36 students said that they spent 1-2 hours outside of class previewing the reading, listening, and flashcards each week. 
      • 26 of 36 students said that they spent 20 minutes to an hour outside of class taking quizzes each week.
• Will my English improve?

  Will my English improve?

  • With language learning “time on task” is very important. The more time and effort you put in, the better the outcome will be for you. 
  • We see this as a partnership, with our job being to make this process as efficient as possible for you (we’ll provide the material to learn new things, the opportunity to put your English to use, and give you feedback.)
  • To help you get a basic idea of what type of improvement you can expect in your Reading and Listening ability, students in Summer term, 2020, improved on average (mean) by about 3 points on the 50-minute EFSET test. We’ve provided more information below:
    • The EFSET has a minimum and maximum total points of 0-100.
    • 1-30 is A1 Beginner
    • 31-40 is A2 Elementary
    • 41-50 is B1 Intermediate
    • 51-60 is B2 Upper intermediate
    • 61-70 is C1 Advanced
    • 71-100 is C2 Proficient
    • We require students to take a 50-minute EFSET test at the beginning of the 10 week class and at the end of it. Below we’ve provided the descriptive statistics and the results of a paired sample t-Test from the beginning of the term (EFSET1) to the end of the term (EFSET2) from 28 students in Summer, 2020. We acknowledge that this is not a perfect measurement and there are many reasons why someone’s test score could have improved over the 10 weeks (in fact, simply retaking the test probably led to some increase in score.) We excluded students with missing scores or who only provided a pre or post test score.
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    • Three points may seem like a small increase. But, remember learning a language is a mammoth undertaking. For second language learners the rule of thumb is that it takes 200 hours of serious study to advance one CEFR level (See Cambridge's info on this here). CEFR B1, B2, and C1 on the EFSET are 10 points. So, in order to increase 10 points on the EFSET, a student would need to study for about 200 hours. A three point gain would then require about 60 hours of study - which happens to be about how much the average student spends studying English while taking one of our 10-week online English courses (see the answer to Question 3 above).