It could perhaps be said that, as English is the international language, most people in the world today would like to be able to speak it. It might be useful to them for their work, their social life, or for when travelling abroad. However, although they would like to be able to speak it, they are often very reluctant to learn it. The same is true of learning to play a musical instrument - most people would like to be able to play one, but do not want to go through the long, boring and demanding process of learning how to play. The reason for some people's reluctance to learn English is that they find it takes too long, costs too much (if studied at a private school), and requires too much mental energy, which they cannot spare if they are studying other subjects or have to work all day. In addition to this, they often feel they have little or no natural ability for learning a foreign language.

The Callan Method Organisation, after many years of experimentation, intensive research and development, has now changed all this by producing a method that reduces studying time to a quarter of the usual time, also making it possible for virtually anyone to learn the language.

It is important for the student to understand something of the workings of the Callan Method before he begins his studies. He should therefore read the following points very carefully.

If you would like to discuss any of these points in more detail please contact us and we will be happy to give you more information. One thing is absolutely certain; you are more likely to succeed being a part of our organization than trying on your own. We have been perfecting our school in Thailand right from the beginning since September 2001. We also have experience with helping others to run successful schools. Join us, you will not regret this decision to enter a highly-profitable industry.

The most important point for the student to remember is that although he might find it difficult to understand how the Callan Method works, it will always obtain him the guaranteed result.

The student is asked to clear his mind of all preconceived ideas of how English should be taught if he wishes to enjoy the full benefit of the Callan Method. Do not puzzle over the Method. Accept everything passively and open-mindedly, and exactly as the teacher and the school ask. Then judge by results.

As the Callan Method is a new invention, the student is asked not to puzzle over how it works. If he does, he is in danger of drawing the wrong conclusions. It would take a whole book to explain exactly how the Method works. The student should therefore just sit back and relax, and let the school get him the guaranteed result.

Some students on first being introduced to the Callan Method tend to panic. They find everything strange and intimidating. They think they will never be able to master the speed at which the lesson is given. If, however, they persevere and revise for a few lessons, they soon realize that it is all quite easy and enjoyable, and that anyone can do it.

Also, when first experiencing the Callan Method, some students conclude that they prefer the old ways of learning. What they have to decide, therefore, is whether they also prefer to take four times longer to learn, and pay four times as much.

The most important point for the student to understand when learning a language is the need for constant repetition; and by repetition is also meant revision.

Learning a language, like learning to type or play the piano, is principally a question of developing a quick reflex.

A language reflex comes from the speech organs, not from the brain. The student must therefore learn to speak without thinking; there is no time to think. A pianist does not have time to think where to put his fingers when he plays. If he stopped to think, he would be lost. In the same way, if people stopped to think where to put their feet when running downstairs, they would fall.

A quick reflex can only be developed by mechanical repetition. Everything has to be repeated and revised over and over again until the reflex can be performed automatically without thinking.

As a customer at a private school, the student is king; but as a student, he must do as his teacher asks. If the teacher thinks he should go back and study the same book again in order to revise more the work taught in the course, the student should accept his decision. If he does not he will not obtain the guaranteed result.

English is generally spoken as a rate of 150-180 words a minute. With other teaching methods, the teacher speaks much more slowly than this (usually at a rate of about 100-120 words a minute), whilst with the Callan Method he speaks much faster - anywhere between 200-240 words a minute. This extra speed makes it easier for the student to understand English outside the classroom, and, of course, makes him concentrate more. It also helps reduce boredom, but, more importantly, speeds up his learning.

The student should learn a foreign language in the same way as he learnt his own when he was a child. A child first hears the language, then imitates what he hears, later he sees the words written, and finally writes them himself.

When a child learns his own language he will often repeat things he hears without understanding exactly what he is saying - the understanding comes later. So it should be with a language student. The student should try not to think too much, or analyze everything, or keep asking "why?" This, of course, is difficult for a thinking adult unaccustomed to doing things without understanding exactly what he is doing, or why he is doing it; but too much questioning will slow him down.

Learning a language is like climbing a mountain, half-way up it the hardest part. At such a point, the student may feel he is not making any progress and will never get to the top. He feels like giving up. It is then that he needs to remind himself that he has a guarantee assuring him that he will succeed. As in life generally, "the secret of success is constancy of purpose".

According to the University of Cambridge, the average student studying at the average school throughout the world takes about 350 hours (about four academic years) to reach the level of the internationally famous Cambridge Preliminary English Test. The Callan Method gets him (or her) there in about 80 hours (about one academic year), and to the more advanced Cambridge First Certificate in about 160 hours. This refers to students whose language is of Latin origin, Asian students may take up to 30-40% more time, so this figure will be about 210-220 hours, still it will be four times less than with other traditional methods taking about 840 hours to get their students to Cambridge FCE.

With the Callan Method, there is almost no homework, whereas with other forms of teaching, for every hour the student spends in the classroom, he spends another hour outside on homework, thus adding 100% to his studying time!

Because the claims of the Callan Method are difficult to believe Callan Method School of English in Bangkok give students a written guarantee that if they fail the Cambridge exams or fail to reach their desired Stage of the Callan Method in the number of hours stated on the guarantee, the schools will give them free lessons until they are successful. If a student does not wish to take any specific exam, he can be guaranteed to reach whatever level of English, or Stage of the Callan Method he desires, in a stated number of hours.

There are hundreds of schools using the Callan Method throughout the world proving that teaching English 4 times faster in not only possible but can also be guaranteed. Before signing up students are welcomed to try our free lessons to get their first contact with this method.

For the Cambridge exams, most schools using the Callan Method have a pass rate of about 95%, compared with the international average of around 70%, as shown in the statistics published by Cambridge University.

Callan Method School of English is Bangkok allows students to take a few free trial lessons before he/she has to decide whether on not he/she wishes to enroll. This is to make students more comfortable with the method without being afraid of losing money. Most students, however, after trying our free lessons enroll and very often they are so impressed that they bring their friends to study with them.

In most countries of the world (such as Thailand) it is against the law to issue a guarantee if its terms cannot be fulfilled. The legality of the guarantee should, therefore, prove that the claims of the Callan Method must be true. It is also against the law in most countries to make false statements in publicity.

If the Callan Method School of English did not keep to the terms of its guarantee, it could be sued by its students, and would consequently acquire a bad reputation locally, and if it had to give too many free lessons, it would go bankrupt. This too shows the validity of the guarantee and that the claims of the Callan Method must be true.

Even if the guarantee were not valid by law, it would still be a valid document, as any school not keeping to its terms would soon be found out as a cheat, and would be avoided by the public, and consequently go out of business.

Purely as a logical proposition, the claims of the Callan Method must be true. A school using the Callan Method is not like a man selling "gold" watches on the corner of the street who vanishes the next day before the customer finds out the watches are defective and not really made of gold. The school has to prove to its customers that what it says is true before they pay for the goods, and, in addition, has to provide a continuous high standard of service. If it did not, it would soon acquire a bad reputation among the local community for making absurd claims that it could not substantiate, and would quite quickly have to close.

If the student wishes to have confirmation of the figures given here, he can ask those schools in Bangkok not using the Callan Method how long they take to get their average complete beginner to the level of the Cambridge exams, most schools sadly do not even promote the Cambridge exams such FCE, and whether or not the schools give a written guarantee of success. A verbal guarantee is, of course, of no value - anyone can claim to do anything verbally.

The director of one of the oldest-established and largest schools in London has stated that, in his 38 years' experience, he has never known a student to pass the Cambridge First Certificate in less than 400 hours. Any Callan student taking this number of hours would be considered extremely slow.

Many large international and local companies use the Callan Method for teaching their employees English, and would not do so unless they were satisfied that its claims were justified. Callan Method School of English in Bangkok is providing teaching by the Callan Method to such companies and organizations as: Epson, Robert Bosh, Thai Plastic, Capital Namura, Reuters, Becton Dickinson, King Power, ASI Asiatic, Hutch, Enterprise IG, Bank of Thailand and the list is growing.

The reader might wonder how it is possible to guarantee everyone success in the learning of a language - surely it depends on the individual's natural ability? Contrary to popular belief, however, anyone can learn a foreign language, exactly as anyone can learn to type. We have all learnt one language already - our own. Consequently, we are all capable of learning another language. With the Callan Method, the student never fails to learn. If this were not so, schools using the Callan Method could not guarantee every student success in the Cambridge exams. The only difference between students is that some learn faster or more slowly than others.

When learning subjects such as maths, science or philosophy, one does perhaps require some kind of natural ability, but not when learning a foreign language in its initial stages.

Because the Callan Method is so fast and easy, it takes more students to the level of the Cambridge Certificates than other forms of teaching, and gets a higher percentage through their exams. A school using the Callan Method often enters as many as ten times more students for these exams than other schools.

Only about 1% of Callan students fail to complete each Stage of the Method in the guaranteed number of hours; only about 1% fail their university exams, and 3% their state-school exams. Of the 5% of students who fail the Cambridge exams, virtually none fail on their second attempt.

When enquiring at other schools in his city, the student should ask them how many students they enter for the Cambridge exams, or equivalent exams, and what percentage pass. He should also ask to see the schools' statistics.

With its 70 or more classrooms and 1700 to 2200 students, the Callan School is the largest English-language school in London (and almost certainly the largest in Europe). The second largest school has only 450 to 600 students, whilst the average school has only 13 classrooms, which of course makes it difficult for it to grade students with the same accuracy as that achieved at the Callan School.

Naturally, because the Callan Method reduces studying time to a quarter, it reduces a student's expenses to a quarter, and saves governments and large international companies three-quarters of the annual budgets they set aside for the teaching of English, thus also indirectly benefiting the taxpayer.

Learning a language can be compared to building a house - the words are the bricks, and the grammar the girders. In order to reach the level of the Cambridge FCE (First Certificate in English), the student has to acquire a mastery of about 4,400 words. He not only has to know the meaning of these words, but must also know the grammar that goes with them, and be able to use them quickly and correctly in any sentence. As the average Asian Callan student masters these words in about 210 hours, it means he learns at the rate of about 21 words an hour. With other forms of teaching taking 840 hours, students learn at the rate of only 5.25 words an hour. In one month, at 5 hours a week (six 50 min. lessons), the Callan student masters about 420 words whilst the non-Callan student masters only about 105 words.

The cost of lessons at a private school varies from school to school, town to town, country to country, and, of course, from year to year; but if, for example, a 50 min. lesson costs 140 Baht (by Callan Method School Bangkok 2005 rates), it is seen that a Callan student pays 35,280 Baht for his 210 hours (252 lessons of 50 min. in duration) of preparation for the Cambridge FCE examination compared with the non-Callan student's 141,120 Baht for his 840 hours. (1008 lessons of 50 min. in duration).This means that to master 4,400 words the Callan student pays 8 Baht a word compared with the non-Callan student's 32 Baht!

The student should learn to think in terms of "cost per word taught" and "cost for a complete preparation" rather than in terms of "cost per lesson". The number of words he learns per lesson does not depend so much upon himself, or on his teacher, as upon the method the teacher employs.

The reader might wonder how the Callan Method achieves its remarkable results. It would, of course, take many pages to explain exactly how the Method works, but, basically, the Callan Method student listens and speaks four times more during the lesson than he would with any other form of language teaching. Consequently, he learns in a quarter of the time taken by any other form of language teaching.

Language learning is not an academic subject, it is a skill subject; therefore the more one practises the faster one learns, exactly as with typing. If the student practises an hour a day, he is going to learn in a quarter of the time he would take if he only practised 15 minutes a day.

With most other forms of language teaching, the student is listening for only about 15 seconds of every minute, i.e. for about 25% of the lesson. The rest of the time his mind is wandering - he is looking at his watch, looking out of the window, or thinking about what he is going to do that evening. With the Callan Method, he has to listen for 60 seconds of every minute (i.e. four times as much), because the class is constantly being bombarded with questions from the teacher, and the student does not know when he is going to be asked a question.

With other forms of language teaching, the student hardly opens his mouth during the lesson. The teacher does most of the talking, and a great deal of the lesson is spent with the teacher writing on the blackboard, or with the students writing in their notebooks. With the Callan Method, the students are speaking the whole lesson, at least four times as much as they would be with any other form of language teaching - and often ten times as much. This is because they are obliged to answer questions the whole time.

If the individual wishes to have proof of all this, he can ask to sit in on a Callan lesson and see how much speaking and listening the Callan students do, and then sit in on lessons at other schools, and make a comparison.

With other forms of language teaching, the students are not learning to speak and understand the language: they are only learning about the language. This is like trying to learn to play the piano by studying the history of music, or by learning how the piano is made, or just by listening to the teacher play. The only way to learn to play the piano is to play it. The only way to learn to speak a language is to speak it.

It could be said that the Callan Method is not four times faster than other forms of teaching, but that other forms of teaching are four times slower than the Callan Method. The Callan Method makes maximum use of the time available, whilst other forms of teaching use only a quarter of that time, wasting the other three-quarters.

Of the four aspects of learning a language - reading, writing, speaking and listening - it is the speaking of a language that is usually found to be the most difficult. As already stated, with the Callan Method, the student is not only obliged to listen the whole time, but he is also obliged to speak, because he is constantly being asked questions. In this way, he soon overcomes any initial embarrassment he might have in speaking, thus giving him confidence in conversation outside the classroom.

As is evident from the foregoing, if the student is obliged to listen the whole lesson and is obliged to speak, it follows that he is also obliged to learn, whether he wishes to or not. It is virtually impossible with the Callan Method for the student to sit in the classroom and not learn. This aspect of the Method is very important for state schools where students are often reluctant learners. With most other methods, the students are usually able to sit in the classroom hour after hour, year after year without learning very much - the end result being that they can hardly form a simple sentence in the language - an appalling waste of human life. Because the Callan Method obliges the student to learn, he soon becomes quite enthusiastic, as he feels he is achieving something.

Another reason the student is obliged to learn, and is able to do so, is that the nature of the Callan Method makes it virtually impossible for the teacher to carry the students forward from Page One to Page Two until everyone in the class has understood and remembered almost everything on Page One. The normal procedure at a state school is to pass students from Book One at the end of their first year to Book Two in their second year, and so on, irrespective of whether or not the students have mastered Book One. When a Callan Method student, on the other hand, has completed Book One of the Method, it means he has mastered 80% to 100% of its contents.

One of the ways the Callan Method achieves maximum speaking time and maximum concentration from its students is by ensuring that, from the very first lesson, the Callan teacher speaks to his students in English at the rate of 200 to 240 words a minute. This is faster than normal conversational speed, which is only about 150 to 180 words a minute. Teachers using other methods speak at only 100 to 120 words a minute. The Callan teacher's extra speed prevents boredom, makes the student concentrate, stops him translating in his head (by not giving him time), allows him to hear more words repeated more times, makes it easier for him to understand English outside the classroom, and, of course, makes him learn faster.

The student, of course, does not speak at the same speed as the teacher; he speaks only at normal conversational speed.

The reader might think that speed is not all that important in language learning, and that accuracy and correctness are more important. Naturally, accuracy and correctness are important, especially in writing, but speed is absolutely essential in speaking and understanding, and especially in understanding. Like most mechanical reflexes, a language is performed at speed. The understanding in particular has to be done at speed. When reading, writing or speaking one can go at one's own pace, provided it is not too painfully slow, but when listening, the understanding has to come instantly; one cannot slow down the speaker, particularly if the speaker's voice is coming from the radio or from the television or cinema screen. The student must, therefore, be able to understand English at a minimum of 180 words a minute.

There is the danger when talking about the Callan Method of confusing the two meanings of the word "speed". Two things are meant by speed: 1) the speed of the lesson, that is, the speed of speaking and understanding, and 2) the speed of progressing through the Callan Method books and reaching a certain desired level. The Callan Method gets its students to the desired level in a quarter of the normal time, and, at the same time, teaches its students to speak and understand much faster than with other methods.

Some people say they do not wish to learn English quickly. They just want to learn it well. They are afraid that if they learn quickly, they will not learn well, and will forget everything just as quickly. Learning subjects such as history or geography in a rapid manner would of course be disastrous, but, unlike almost any other subject, a language is, in fact, best learnt quickly. Speed in speaking and understanding a language is essential. It prevents the student thinking in his own language, and conditions him to think in the foreign tongue, thus avoiding confusion.

If the reader doubts that it is possible to learn well at speed, he should remember that, like most schools, schools using the Callan Method prepare their students for the Cambridge First Certificate, and to pass this exam the students must have studied well, and not just fast. The end result is always the same. It is like taking a university degree in one year instead of four. It is the same degree.

Because the Callan teacher speaks to his students at about 240 words a minute (about twice as fast as teachers using other methods), and both teacher and students speak the whole time throughout the lesson at a combined speed of about 210 words a minute, the Callan student has about 12,600 words an hour going into his ears, either spoken by the teacher or by the other students. With other methods, he has only about 3,000 words. By hearing more words per hour spoken in the classroom and using more words himself, the student naturally learns much faster - four times faster, in fact.

The Callan Method achieves speed of speaking and understanding by asking the students the same questions every day until they can understand and answer them at top speed. This top speed is usually attained after the students have heard the questions on four or five occasions.

The two greatest enemies of learning are boredom and poor memory. The Callan Method overcomes boredom through speed, and poor memory through revision. Revising everything four or five times, not only ensures speed of speaking and understanding, but also ensures that the student remembers what he learns (usually for the rest of his life), no matter how poor his memory.

One of the problems the Callan Method has to face is that of being associated in the public mind with such things as miracle cures for baldness, or adverts saying "Learn a language in three months". Such adverts seldom give the precise level reached after three months (usually quite a low one), or offer any guarantee of success in an exam conducted by an independent body. The word "guarantee" is even sometimes used in adverts, but no written guarantee is actually given. Some people can, of course, learn a language in three months, if they have a great natural ability, excellent memory, and totally dedicate themselves to the task; but such people are extremely rare. The Callan Method, on the other hand, defines precisely the level the student reaches and guarantees him success, whether or not he has a good memory or any natural ability.

Some teach-yourself language courses claim that the student can teach himself a language in 35 hours. At one hour a day, this would mean he is able to speak the language at the end of seven weeks (some courses claim at the end of 3? weeks). At that rate, in about six months (or three months), he would be able to speak four languages. Why is it, therefore, that everyone in the world is not multilingual ? If cures for baldness really worked, why are there still so many bald people in the world?

When learning a language, most people need the stimulus of speaking to a teacher and fellow students in a classroom. Learning by oneself can be very boring, which is why most people give up the attempt after an initial effort. Also, without a teacher, there is no-one to correct one's errors of pronunciation - one cannot learn to speak a language just by listening to it : no more than one can learn to play the piano just by listening to someone else play.

The reason schools using the Callan Method prepare most of their students for the Cambridge exams is that these exams are much better known throughout the world than other exams and have been in existence for much longer (one since 1913). They are indeed truly international.

Although most Callan students taking exams take the Cambridge exams, schools using the Callan Method prepare students for any kind of exam which is at the same level as, or a similar level to, the Cambridge exams, and guarantee them accordingly. By studying with the Callan Method, the students automatically reach the level of these other exams. They then only need a few lessons of examination technique in order to sit the exams.

The Callan student is, of course, not obliged to take the Cambridge exams, or any exams whatsoever. He might be studying for his own personal satisfaction. He can cease studying at any point, but if he does reach the level of the Cambridge exams, it would be a pity not to sit them and have a valuable certificate to show his level of English. He might not need the certificate at the present moment, but one day in the future he might wish to work abroad, or in a job at home which requires a knowledge of English, and consequently will be asked for his level in the language. To say that he has a "good" or "fair" command of the language is rather vague, but if he can say that he has one of the Cambridge Certificates, his future employer can immediately classify him, as the Cambridge Certificates will almost certainly be well known in the employer's own country.

Even if the student is studying just for pleasure, he might as well have a certificate at the end of it so that he has something to show for the effort he has put into learning the language. It could give him personal satisfaction, and something to aim at.

The student finds the Callan Method easy, interesting and pleasant. If he found it boring, he would be unable to learn in a quarter of the normal time - as a bored student is a slow learner - and a school using the Callan Method would be unable to guarantee every student success in the Cambridge exams. Not only is the Callan Method not boring, it can even be quite exhilarating, especially when taught by a dynamic expert teacher.

The Callan Method is suitable for students of any age from seven to seventy, and of any nationality, and can obtain excellent results with both young children and elderly people.

The Callan Method is also suitable for any type of student, of any cultural background, from waiter to university professor. Learning a language in its initial stages is not an academic activity. It is more akin to learning to type - anyone can do it.

The Method is suitable for any purpose of study - university exams, Cambridge Certificates, business, commerce, science, technology, tourism, or any other field of activity requiring a knowledge of English. Up to the level of the Cambridge First Certificate, the English language remains the same no matter for what purpose the student is studying. After that, the student can be said to be specializing, perhaps for the purposes of literature, commerce, business, or science, and at that point may need to adopt a different approach to the language.

The Callan Method consists of six books. Books One and three take the student to the level of the Cambridge Preliminary, whilst the remaining books take him to the Cambridge First Certificate. The student needs no other books (except for Past Examination Papers). There is an additional book, which prepares the student for the Cambridge Advanced Certificate CAE, book 7, but for this certificate there is no guarantee, as at that level most of the work has to be done by the student at home. The fact that no other books are required also reduces the student's expenses.

Another feature of the Method is that all the students in a class enjoy an equal amount of speaking time. With most other methods the most talkative of the students do nearly all the speaking whilst the others usually sit in silence.

A further feature of the Method is that it overcomes the student's shyness. Many students when learning a foreign language are afraid to speak it. With the Callan Method being based largely on oral question-answer work, the student is forced to speak, and consequently soon overcomes his fear.

Unlike most other methods, the Callan Method is so structured that the student can start, stop, and re-start his studies at any time without damaging his progress. This means that most schools using the Method can allow the student to start his studies at any time of the year.

Various articles about the Callan Method and its remarkable results have appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout the world. Such articles are not written without a careful investigation of the Method.

The following is a brief summary of all the arguments contained in this book proving that the Callan Method teaches English in a quarter of the normal time. Almost any one of the arguments is sufficient proof, but when taken together the evidence becomes overwhelming.

1.	The Cambridge figure. According to Cambridge University, it takes the average student 350 hours to reach the level of the Preliminary exam. The Callan Method gets him there in 80 hours.
2.	The guarantee and free lessons. A school using the Callan Method gives all its students a written guarantee that if they fail the Cambridge exams in the predicted number of hours, it will give them free lessons until they are successful.
3.	95% pass rate. Many schools using the Callan Method have a 95% pass rate for the Cambridge exams compared with the international average of about 70%.
4.	Legal proof. It is against the law in most countries to make false statements in publicity or to give guarantees the terms of which cannot be fulfilled.
5.	A bad reputation means bankruptcy. If a school using the Callan Method did not keep to the terms of its guarantee, it would soon acquire a bad local reputation, and if it had to give too many free lessons, it would soon go bankrupt.
6.	A greater number of candidates. Because the Callan Method is so fast and easy, a school using the Method usually enters far more students for the Cambridge exams than other schools.
7.	The logical argument. A school using the Callan Method is not selling gold watches on the corner of the street. It has to give its customers proof of its claims before they part with their money, and also has to provide a continuous service.
8.	How the Method obtains its results. As Callan students listen and speak four times more in the lesson than students studying with other methods, they learn four times faster.
9.	Ask the other schools. If the student does not believe the Callan Method's figures, he can ask the schools not using the Callan Method in his city how many hours they take to get their average complete beginner to the level of the Cambridge exams, and what guarantee they give.

Some teachers in the English-teaching profession are reluctant to use the Callan Method because they think it takes away their independence in the classroom and lowers their social status. With the Callan Method being carefully structured and programmed, the teacher has to keep to a set format. The justification for using the Method, however, is that it gets the student the result he wants in a quarter of the normal time.

Some teachers might protest that the Callan Method goes against all the principles of modern, liberal education. They forget that most people in the world today do not study English for educational or cultural reasons, or because they have a passion for learning languages, but because English is the language of international communication. Consequently people want to learn it as quickly, as easily, as painlessly, and as cheaply as possible. Unlike other subjects, it is not important how one learns a language, it is only the result that counts. When studying subjects such as history or literature, the student is also learning a way of thinking, but when learning a language up to the level of the Cambridge First Certificate, the student is only learning to perform a skill. After that level, he can be said to be learning a way of thinking. By then, however, he is no longer learning the language - he is reading the literature of the language and increasing his vocabulary. In other words, first the student learns the mechanical skill of playing the piano, through the five-finger exercises etc., and then he learns to play a Beethoven sonata. They are two different, though connected, activities.

Learning a modern language is a means to an end, it is not usually thought of as an end in itself. Once the student has reached the level of the Cambridge First Certificate, he can, if he wishes, begin to think about the culture of the language.

Some students and teachers who have never tried the Callan Method or have only given it a very brief trial, feel they would not like it, because they prefer the old ways of teaching, i.e. with dictionaries, translations, free conversation etc. Unfortunately, the old ways of teaching take at least four times longer and cost four times as much. Some people like old cars, but do not use them to go to work in, because such cars are too slow. Even if the students and teachers disliked the Callan Method, it would still be worth using, because of the enormous time, money and energy it saves. It is, however, found that virtually every student and teacher using the Method finds it very enjoyable by the time he has tried it to the level of Stages Three or Four, and never returns to the old ways. If the student or the teacher does not find the Callan Method enjoyable, it usually means the teacher is not using it correctly.

It should also be pointed out that there is no connection between the Callan Method school of English and Cambridge University. The Cambridge exams are set and marked by a body which is quite separate and independent of the English-teaching profession. If this were not so, its certificates would not be of much value.

The only criterion to be applied to a method of teaching English is how quickly it obtains the desired results. 90% of students studying English in the world today are not doing so because they have a passion for learning languages. They study it because they need it, as it is the language of international communication. Consequently, they want to learn it as quickly, cheaply and easily as possible, especially quick!

Two obvious ways in which the Callan Method differs from other methods are : 1) The questions are scripted word for word for the teacher, in order to make his job easier and to ensure that, without qualifications or experience, he can obtain an excellent and fast result for his students, and 2) It gets the students to answer in the long form in order to make them speak as much as possible.

It is remarkable that over the many centuries that languages have been taught, such techniques have not been used before (except by an 8th century English monk who employed them to teach Latin). One of the reasons for this is that, never before in history has there been such a lingua franca as English that encompasses the entire world and is studied and spoken by the educated and uneducated alike for purposes of communication in the modern global village.

In the past, languages were usually taught by professional linguists and studied by a select few, mainly for cultural purposes, and time was of no importance. Today, a language like English is learned to be used for practical purposes. The old ways of learning are therefore no longer suitable. Time is money in the modern world, and even if only professional linguists were allowed to teach English, there would not be enough of them to supply the demand for teachers.

Necessity being the mother of invention, the Callan Method Organisation approached the teaching of English with fresh eyes. It looked at the learning process from the point of view of the student rather than that of the teacher. Most language books are written by linguists for linguists. It is very difficult for linguists to understand the difficulties non-linguists have in learning a language. They cannot understand that what was easy for them to learn is extremely difficult for others.

The Callan Method is aimed at the student who finds language learning extremely difficult, on the grounds that, if such a student can learn quickly with it, the natural linguist will learn even quicker.

The fact that the Method is scripted and delivered at speed upsets certain teachers who like to be free to teach in their own way, i.e. the old-fashioned, confused, boring and leisurely way, even though such a way takes four years to produce the same results as the Callan Method produces in one.

Unlike Latin, which used to be a lingua franca, English, with its basic grammatical simplicity, is tailor-made for the Direct Method and is perfectly suited to the question-answer technique of teaching.

A look at most books used for the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) shows them full of pictures, and spiced with up-to-date vocabulary. Whilst pictures bring a book to life, they are not much of an aid to learning a language, and whilst modern vocabulary adds colour to the learning process, it gets in the way of the study of the basic vocabulary and slows down the learning process, so boring the student, who wants to learn the language as quickly as possible. The Callan Method avoids all this. Those books that try to copy the Callan Method usually introduce colourful, premature or unnecessary vocabulary in an attempt to enliven the study of the language. Unfortunately, they only succeed in achieving the exact opposite effect.

One such copy, for example, introduced about 500 modern, unnecessary or premature words into its course of 2200 words for the Cambridge Preliminary - words such as pop star, word-processor, dice, jigsaw and monastery - the last three of which were not even First Certificate words. When its students had finished their course and were tested against the Callan Method, they were found to be only at the level of Stage One to Two of the Method and were nowhere near ready for the Preliminary exam - much to their dismay.

Cambridge University publish a Lexicon of the 2200 basic words of the English language that the student is required to know in order to pass the Preliminary, and a further 2200 (4400 in all) required for the First Certificate. Such words have to be taught in a set order, according to how frequently they are used in normal, everyday writing or conversation. A word such as "table", for example, is used much more frequently than a word such as "tractor" and consequently should be taught well before "tractor", whilst such words in frequent modern use as "credit card, microwave, cashpoint, barbecue, blockbuster" and "software" seldom need teaching at all, as most of them are among the several thousand words that have been absorbed into the various languages of the world in their English form..

Selection of vocabulary is extremely important. Although every word the student learns inside or outside the classroom is important and useful, some words are more important and useful than others. A person can be in a country for quite some time without needing to use the word "tractor", whereas he could hardly go for a week without using the word "table". To overload the student, therefore, with words such as "tractor" whilst he is still struggling with words such as "table" is very bad teaching.

If the student is faced with the choice of having to study four years with a course containing colourful, modern and advanced vocabulary or one year with the Callan course (that just teaches basic vocabulary) to obtain exactly the same end result, he is always going to choose the one-year course. In any case, modern words, such as "T-shirt, calculator, stopover" etc., the student acquires outside the classroom; whilst if, for example, he travels on a plane, he will easily understand instructions such as "Fasten your seat belts" if he has been taught the basic words "fasten, seat" and "belt" (as he would have been with the Callan Method). Such words are best not taught in conjunction with one another, as is not the case with so many methods. Whilst books with modern vocabulary and photos of currently famous people give the impression of a modern up-to-date system, most of the 4400 basic words of the language have remained the same for centuries. Only after the student has acquired these, should he start learning more advanced vocabulary. He cannot learn advanced vocabulary at the same time as learning the basic vocabulary without slowing down the learning of the basic vocabulary - unless, of course, he is that very rare student, a natural linguist.

Given the importance of vocabulary, each school should have a copy of the Cambridge Lexicon for the student to consult, so that he can check that he is not being taught advanced vocabulary at the expense of the essential basic vocabulary. To show how prevalent is the problem, the following sample list of words was taken from five different course books that prepare the students for the Cambridge Preliminary. Not only are the words not Preliminary words, they are not even First Certificate words. Most of them are Proficiency words that should certainly have no place in a Preliminary course book : - stubborn, species, bust, alibi, bully, bossy, glossy, swap, dub, collide, blizzard, grab, cope, barn, code, flop, speedometer, mask, helmet, gory, legend, sulk, parachute, dove and guy.

In any case, the student does not need colourful vocabulary to stimulate him to study English. It is sufficient stimulation for him that English is the international language which he sees everywhere around him outside the classroom, and which he knows he needs if he wishes to communicate with people of other countries.

At a superficial glance the Callan Method might look similar to other methods, in the same way as a car of today looks similar to a car of the 19th century : it has four wheels, an engine, a brake, an accelerator etc. The difference is, however, that a car of today can travel comfortably at 80 miles an hour, whilst a car of the 19th century could hardly exceed a walking pace.

The Callan Method has not invented the Direct Method (this has been in existence since languages began). What it has done is simply to speed up the learning process by eliminating waste, and simplifying the subject for easy digestion, thus reducing studying time to a quarter.

Most teachers at private schools of English throughout the world have little experience in the teaching of English, although they are often obliged by their schools to pretend to their students that they have. They usually come from all walks of life and do the job for a year or two and then return home to England or elsewhere to resume their original careers. They might have a degree in some subject or other or no teaching qualifications at all; but even if they have a degree in English (or in a foreign language), it will not help them all that much in teaching English to foreign students.

The teaching of English as a foreign language, therefore, is something of a profession carried out by non-professionals. All that a teacher usually requires is a pass in three subjects taken at school at the age of eighteen, and a month's training (at some kind of institute) in the various ways of teaching English. After that, he receives the social status of "teacher", which is the equivalent of calling someone a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer after a mere few weeks' instruction. Obviously, such training does not ensure the teacher's competence.

A Callan Method teacher, on the other hand, can become competent in a matter of a few days. This is because the Callan Method is carefully scripted and programmed. Callan students do not, therefore, have to suffer whilst their inexperienced teacher learns his trade. Also, as is not always the case with other forms of teaching, the Callan Method teacher at a private school is continually supervised, and goes through refresher training, even after years of teaching.

The governments of some countries try to regulate the English-teaching profession by insisting that all English-language teachers be qualified and experienced. This is a policy that is virtually impossible to operate, as most teachers drift around the world from country to country, often staying only one year in each country - most private schools of English, for example, give their teachers a contract for only 9 months, i.e. one academic year. It is extremely difficult to keep track of such teachers, especially as it is very easy for itinerant teachers to acquire forged qualifications, which are seldom checked. As regards experience, this can only be acquired by actually teaching. It is difficult, therefore, to see how a teacher can become experienced if inexperienced teachers are not allowed to teach.

Some countries even require English teachers to have degrees of some description. Unfortunately, a degree in a subject such as chemistry is not going to be of much use in the teaching of English as a foreign language. All that a degree ensures is that the teacher is reasonably well educated and intelligent, but does not ensure that he will be a good teacher, especially a good Callan Method teacher.

Given that there are hundreds of thousands of English teachers required in the world today, it would be quite impossible for the universities of the English-speaking countries to provide sufficient graduates to fill all the posts available. A university such as Cambridge, for example, produces only a few hundred graduates each year in English or in foreign languages, and only very few of these go abroad to teach English. Private schools of English throughout the world, therefore, usually have to take whatever type of teacher they can get - qualified and experienced or unqualified and inexperienced - no matter what they may say to the contrary in their brochures. If the student does not believe this, he should ask his school to show him documentary evidence of its teachers' qualifications and experience.

One of the main reasons the Callan Method Organisation created the Callan Method was precisely to overcome the problem presented by unqualified, inexperienced teachers drifting around the world teaching here and there for a year or two and then leaving the profession to return to their home country. Because the Callan Method is scripted and anyone can be trained to use it in five days, a Callan Method teacher can be selected on his ability to actually teach, rather than on any qualifications he might have. He is selected as one selects an actor. An actor is chosen to play Hamlet purely on his ability to act, not on whether he has a degree in English or has studied Shakespeare.

A Callan Method teacher is chosen for his lively, dynamic personality; good, strong, pleasing voice, standard pronunciation; and, above all, like an actor, the ability to hold the attention of his audience and not bore it. No degree can give him these qualifications. As in acting, it is often found that someone who left school at sixteen with few qualifications makes a better Callan Method teacher, achieving better results, than one with a degree. The unqualified teacher is also much more likely to take English-language teaching more seriously and make a career out of it than a graduate who is only doing the job for a year or two before settling into some other career, looking upon English teaching as a way of seeing the world which is better work than washing dishes. He might even look down upon the teaching of English with a slight air of disdain as being beneath his qualifications.

Since the 1950s, the teaching of English has been an ever-growing industry throughout the world, and it is generally accepted that the best way to learn the language is from a mother-tongue speaker. The type of person who goes abroad to teach English is not the type who is married and has children and a mortgage. By the very nature of the job, therefore, he is usually young and foot-loose. He is also not going to spend time at university to obtain a degree in the teaching of English as a foreign language if he is going to do the job for only a year or two, and then return home to do something else.

There are courses for the teaching of English at a few universities, but they are not of great practical use to the teacher when he eventually finds himself in the classroom of a private school. The best way to learn to teach English is to teach it.

For this reason, it has to be accepted that a month's training course in general principles of teaching is all that can be given to help a young English-speaking teacher to find his way in the world of the English-teaching business. He might be a university graduate; a student taking time off from his studies; someone with passes in three subjects in a school exam taken at the age of eighteen; or someone with no qualifications whatsoever.

Another problem English teaching has to face is that, over the last 30 years, English grammar has hardly been taught in English schools, with the consequence that children have been leaving school with virtually no knowledge of how the language works - they barely know the difference between a verb and a noun, and certainly not what a past subjunctive is. It has been thought better to learn to write and speak correctly by example rather than by learning rules of grammar. Whilst it is possible to learn to use language correctly without learning rules (especially a language such as English which has a relatively simple grammar), it is quicker and easier if the pupil understands how the language is put together. Grammar is now at last, however, being re-introduced into English schools.

With the Callan Method, the teacher does not need to know any grammar, as it is all explained to him in his book as he in turn explains it to his students.

Before buying anything, we often ask people for their opinions on the product. But, as can be seen from the foregoing, a person's opinion on the Callan Method can be coloured by a vested interest in blocking its use. It can also be that the person does not agree with the techniques the Method employs, or that he has never tried the Method or put it to the test. Even when a teacher or a student has actually used the Callan Method, he is in no position to judge its claims unless he has something to compare it with, and has carried out laboratory-type tests on it. Failing this, he is just expressing an opinion.

The only valid proof a school can have of the Method's claims is to try it out on one of its courses, whilst the only valid proof the student can have is the guarantee the school gives him. Anything else is just opinion.

If a company wishes to test the Callan Method against the method it is currently using to teach its employees English, it can give its employees the following dictation, which Callan Method students are able to do after only 40 hours of study, i.e. 48 fifty-minute lessons (three lessons a week for four months, or 4? months if 25% is added for such things as lateness and absenteeism), having started as complete beginners. It is quite certain that after only 40 hours of English, non-Callan Method students would be quite unable to do such a dictation. The sentences in the dictation are disconnected, in order to pack in as much varied vocabulary as possible, and to avoid lucky guessing by the students understanding the gist of a whole passage. There are 100 words in the dictation, and the Callan student would make only 5 to 10 small mistakes.

A dictation is one of the quickest and best ways of testing a student's knowledge of English. It shows that he understands what he hears and can reproduce it correctly. The Callan student would also be able to translate the dictation and use its vocabulary comfortably in any normal conversation. There are no words in the dictation that cannot be found in Book One of any method, or, at least, should be found there, as they are taken from the 1,000 most-commonly-used words in the language. The dictation should first be read to the students, then dictated (with each segment repeated twice), and then read through again.

Dictation: My favourite drink/ when I'm ill/ is milk./ He's willing to agree/ that he's made a mistake./ Bought, hung, thought,/ shook, said, met./ When they reach her age, they'll earn as much as she does. We can't sit/ at the corner of a round table./ How often/ do they walk along this way?/ Seldom./ They weren't here yesterday./ This wine doesn't taste/ nearly as pleasant as the other./ I can't lift this stone ball,/ it's either too heavy/ or I'm too weak./ This suit is cheaper than that./ That one is the most expensive./ I like silver less than gold.

A further test of the Callan Method would be for the company to give its employees, who had studied 40 hours with the company's current method, the exam at the end of Book One of the Callan Method.

The most conclusive test of all, however, would be to take a selection of employees who had never studied English before, and, dividing them into two groups, teach one group with the Callan Method and the other with the method the company is currently using. At the end of 40 hours (which usually coincides with the end of Book One of the Callan Method), each group would take its own exam and that of the other group. The results would be so astonishing that the matter would be beyond dispute. The students of the Callan group would find the exam of the non-Callan group extremely easy, whilst the non-Callan students would find the Callan exam almost impossible to do.

When the difference between one method and another is so great, an accurate laboratory-type test is not required. If, in a horse race, one horse comes in just ahead of the others, it could be argued that it is not necessarily the fastest horse - in a re-run it might come in second or third. But when a horse finishes the race whilst the others are only a quarter of the way round the track, there is no need to examine a photo to see which horse came in first and which was the fastest - the matter is beyond dispute.

One of the problems that arises when an organisation investigates the Callan Method is that it tends to have the Method tested by its "experts"; that is, people who are already involved in the teaching of English. Unfortunately, with a new invention, the only expert is the inventor himself. The "experts" often find it difficult to look objectively at the Method. They tend to judge it, not on its results, but on whether they like it or not, or on whether or not it fits in with their own ideas or preconceived theories of teaching. Such an attitude can sometimes lead them actively to attempt to block its use. Any organisation (private or government), therefore, should supervise its own tests and judge entirely on results. If some of its teachers refuse to use the Method, it is very easy to train replacements in a matter of a few days. Any local school using the Callan Method could arrange this for the organisation.

For further details on how to carry out the tests, the organisation should consult the Student's Handbook that accompanies the Callan Method.

The Callan Method books might cost more than the average English-language book. The student is not just buying a book, he is buying a means of saving himself an enormous amount of time and money. To pay a few extra baht for all this is surely quite reasonable. The extra money he pays for a Callan Method book represents a patent fee. In any case, most specialist books these days cost far more than the average book, and do not save the buyer anywhere near as much as the Callan Method saves him.

In addition to this, the non-Callan student often has to buy two or three books for his course, such as books of exercises, grammar, reading texts, writing skills, dictations, comprehension etc., which means that he could finish by paying twice as much for his many books as the Callan student pays for his one, all-inclusive, book. Although the Callan student is advised to buy a dictionary (a good pocket dictionary) it is not essential to do so with the Callan Method, as it is with other methods. Also the total number of books that a Callan Method student will buy for the entire course is 7 including the advanced course, with most other methods it is more if you wish to complete their programmes. It may be anywhere between 10-15 Books.

When one buys such things as a television set, a car or a computer, included in the price is the patent fee paid to the inventors of the various parts that go to make up the end product. In the same way, the student, his teacher and his school, although not paying a separate patent for the use of the Callan Method, have it included in the price of the books they buy.

The success of the Callan Method does not, however, lie in its books, but in its teaching techniques. The books are purely incidental, they are just the physical form the invention takes. This is made clear by the fact that the books are used only by the student for about ten minutes of a fifty-minute lesson. The rest of the lesson is spent using the techniques of the Method, and, as already stated, it is for this that the student pays. He pays a combination of an author's royalty and an inventor's patent fee. As he is the one who benefits from the Method to such an extraordinary degree, he is naturally the one who pays the fee.

The difference between a royalty and a patent fee is that a royalty is paid to an author for giving pleasure, in the form of a novel etc., or instruction, in the form of a text book, whilst a patent fee is paid to an inventor, usually for saving the user of his invention time and money and making life easier. An invention usually takes far longer to develop than a book takes to be written. In the case of the Callan Method, it took 15 years to develop. As can be seen, the Method comes under both the above categories.

Accepting all this, the student might still argue that his school ought to pay the royalty or patent fee instead of himself. The Callan Method Organisation did in fact try a system of franchise whereby the schools using the Method paid a fee, but it was far too difficult to operate and control world-wide, so it included the royalty and patent fee in the price of its books, which enabled it to reduce its fees, as it was able to eliminate the administrative costs of collecting such fees.

The student should not be worried by this, for, whichever system is operated, the amount he pays for the goods he buys always includes everything that goes towards producing and delivering those goods, i.e. the manufacture, packaging, advertising and distribution etc. In the case of the books, if CMO charged a fee to the school instead of to the student, the school, like any other business, would automatically pass the extra cost on to its student/customer in the form of an increased fee. It would probably add the aforementioned 4p to each ?5 lesson.

In order to avoid the students' complaints about the cost of books, some Callan Method schools give the student his book for nothing (or at half price), which of course pleases the student. But, as one seldom receives anything for nothing in this world, the school adds the price of the book (or half the price) to the student's fees or inscription, without the student realising it or feeling it.

Some students might wonder how much difference there is between English-English and American-English. There are, of course, differences in pronunciation and accent. Each part of England and America has its own accent, but standard English-English and standard American-English do not differ very much.

As for vocabulary, out of the 4,400 words the student learns to the level of the Cambridge First Certificate, only about 40, i.e. less than 1%, differ in use or meaning between the two types of English. The English, for example, will say "petrol", "pavement" and "autumn" whilst the Americans will say "gas", "sidewalk" and "fall". Many of the differences, however, are understood on both sides of the Atlantic.

As for spelling, only seven of the 4,400 words are spelt differently by the Americans, i.e. colour-color, centre-center, favourite-favorite, theatre-theater, humour-humor, cheque-check and labour-labor.