Discussion — Whether class size matters in language teaching

A language is not a body of facts to be memorised but a skill to be performed, which is why class size is so often debated. Some hold that languages must be taught in small groups, while others insist that numbers are irrelevant. I believe class size matters considerably, though chiefly for speaking and far less for the receptive skills.

The argument for small classes is simple arithmetic. In a sixty-minute lesson with forty students, each learner could speak for barely a minute and a half even if the teacher stayed silent. With ten students, the figure rises to six minutes. A teacher who hears every student can also pick up on individual errors, such as a Vietnamese learner dropping final consonants, and correct them before they become ingrained. Shy students, who can hide all term in a crowded room, are drawn into conversation. It is no coincidence that dedicated speaking courses often cap their groups at a handful of learners.

Those who think numbers do not matter argue that results depend on method and effort rather than headcount. A skilled teacher can put forty students into pairs so that half the room is talking at any moment, and vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening can be taught to a large audience or studied alone through apps and films. Many people have reached a high level of proficiency this way. However, this view overlooks what happens in unmonitored pair work: students practise, but nobody corrects them, and classmates who share a first language tend to reinforce one another's mistakes. Large classes can therefore build knowledge of a language, yet they struggle to produce accurate speech.

In conclusion, class size is not decisive for every aspect of language learning, but it is for the one learners care about most: speaking confidently and accurately. Schools on tight budgets should teach grammar and reading to large groups and reserve small classes for oral practice.