About Us Ideology and Standards

At Hilgard Language School, we have been offering language courses with high standards since 2006. We have always used a humanistic approach to teaching, having concern for the student, and actively pursuing a mixture of the communicative method and the use of Spanish and Catalan to explain the most complex content.

The following is what we offer. It contains the guiding principles of our center.

What we do

1. - We offer face-to-face courses with TEFL or CELTA certified native English teachers. For other languages, the teacher has a university degree in humanities and teaching experience. Our groups are small (no more than eight students per class).

2. - You can choose the quarterly three hours per week (in 2 one and a half hour sessions), the intensive eight hours per week for one month (two hours a day from Monday through Thursday), or private lessons according to the schedule you want.

3. - Registration and textbooks are included in all quarterly and intensive courses (we don't provide books for private lessons).

4. - Upon registration, you can try out the course in the first two sessions and then decide if you wish to continue.

5.- The teaching method consists of oral practice, grammar exercises, vocabulary, and listening to sound recordings and films on laptops, using books from the library and composing short texts and essays.

6. - In our classes, we have a tailored plan for each student and we pace the course content according to the students' performance. We can carry out exams to see if the contents have been learned or if something needs to be reviewed.

7. - We build the grammatical bases of the language from the very first day through speaking.

8. - We prepare you for the most common official examinations in the English language, such as the First Certificate, the Advanced, the Proficiency and the TOEFL.

9. - We can help students who want to improve a language in a personalized way and explore the contents of their professional area. If this is the case, we often ask students to provide work documents. We can help them prepare for interviews, conferences, seminars, telephone customer service or sales in a specific area.

10.- There is permanent contact with teachers via e-mail and phone, and access to the secretary's office and management during working hours.

11.- Recovery of any sessions that a teacher may have missed is provided during recovery week at the end of each quarter. There is a reimbursement for classes not taught if a course cannot be completed due to unforeseen circumstances.

12.- There is a familiar and trusting atmosphere.

13.- All courses are held in our center. The school's location is very central and easily accessible. It is located near the Fontana metro station.

14.- What makes us more unique is that we guarantee the continuity of courses even if the group is reduced to one person. All Hilgard students may continue their studies with us as long as they want.

What rules must be adhered to at the school?

1.- The fee must be paid in full before classes start. It corresponds to the period registered for: monthly, quarterly, semiannually, annually, or otherwise agreed for private lessons.

2.- The teacher has the right to leave the classroom half an hour after the scheduled start of a class if the students are not present and have not notified that they would be arriving late.

3.- Classes lost due to public holidays or the December 6th or December 8th bank holiday, depending on the year, shall not be recovered.

4.- Classes that are not attended by students are not recovered. If a teacher agrees to recover them, it would be up to them and the center is not responsible.

5.- The student just needs to notify us at the end of a period that he is not continuing. The center automatically reserves a place for all students for logistical reasons (from one quarter to the next, about 10% -20% of students do not continue, so it is easier for us to organize ourselves that way).

6.- Courses cannot be cancelled beyond the trial period. It's a good idea to be cautious in planning registration.

7.- We do not condone verbal abuse or physical violence among classmates, students toward teachers or teachers toward students, or any other display that could be considered bad behavior.

8.- If we observe this type of problem, we usually bring it to the individuals' attention before taking further measures, which we prefer to avoid, such as the expulsion of troublemakers.

9.- As head of the school, the director has the power to decide in all the conflicts, as well as those matters that are not solved in the previous rules.

10.- Admission in the school implies the acceptance of all the rules.