Language and activities in Canada

“We have discussed collaboration with our athletics and recreation department for some time now and this was the result of our brainstorming,” she continues. “We have good hockey facilities in place on campus and in summer, we have access to National Hockey League quality coaches.”

Demand for language and activity programmes is booming in Canada, according to the many schools that offer such programmes. Institutions report that the decision to introduce a language course that dovetails with instruction in a particular activity was made in an effort to be innovative and grab the attention of potential students.

The Swiss International Sports and Education Centre has been running language and sports courses in Calgary since 2004 and Fred Voser at the school says that the concept has proved so successful that they are having to expand to accommodate more students. “I used to play professional ice hockey in Switzerland and now I am coaching,” he relates, when asked how the business first started. “For the past 10 years I’ve constantly had students asking me for opportunities to go to Canada to learn the language and play particular sports. Whatever request I have, I will create a programme for. I can accommodate almost every sport.”

As well as adding value and interest to a regular language course, combining language tuition with an activity can also aid language learning, according to Nadine Zerbel from International Language Schools of Canada. The organisation runs English through yoga courses at its schools in Vancouver and Toronto and Zerbel believes the programme is beneficial to students as yoga “helps reduce stress, and learning a new language can be stressful”.

She adds, “One third of the class time is spent doing the yoga postures, with accompanying instruction given by the teacher. Once the asana has been learned, individual students take turns giving the instruction to the class. It’s about assimilating the language physically and verbally.”

Another benefit for students on language and activity courses is the increased opportunities they provide for mixing with local people. Dale Lockhart from International Gateway Kelowna in Kelowna, BC, says that they decided to introduce combined courses to encourage students to learn new skills, experience nature and “practise their conversation skills with native speakers”.

The school offers language tuition combined with equestrian camps, ice hockey, soccer skills, rafting and a teen adventure camp. There are plans to diversify in the future to include a skiing/snowboarding programme as well as curling and a cowboy camp. “I think students are looking for innovative programmes and are starting to think ‘outside the box’,” says Lockhart. “Many of our ESL plus programmes are integrated with Canadian students so international students really enjoy them.”