English tuition had initially a small space in the schedule and was almost focused on the understanding of daily situations and on functional routines to support students in their social interactions and general communications.
It became immediately clear that their experience abroad had a much deeper impact than the original purpose of learning some more English or having fun during the summer holiday.
For our young pupils the journey to England had actually the quality of “exploring” a new world and I dare liken it to Ulysses journey.
Enthusiasm and determination to improve English sparkled spontaneously from learners as a delightful “side-effects” of our initial pilot project!
With their positive response the young learners showed the direction that AEL needed to develop, that I synthesised in the threefold motto:
learning by doing,
learning with joy,
learning from real life.
