How Marshall Language Services Chooses its Schools

This is perhaps the most important question of all—what criteria we use in selecting our schools. At the very minimum, they have to be accredited by the most important accrediting bodies of the countries that they are in. For example, in the United Kingdom, that means the British Council and English UK, in the United States of America, that would be ACCET and or CEA. On each country page for this site, there is a more detailed description of these accrediting bodies and a summary of what they require of their schools in terms of the quality of service. However, these accreditations for us only serve as the minimum requirement in selecting our schools. Since some of the schools under an accrediting body are still better than others, there are many more factors that we look at, including some further, more exclusive accreditations. A visitor to this website will notice that many of the language schools we work with are accredited by the International Association of Language Centres (IALC). Some of the schools were even founding members of this organization. So why do we like these schools so much? It’s not for just the incredibly high standards of service they have for their students and the agents who represent them. To begin with, they are all independently run, and not part of large chain organizations. For agents, this means that we can contact them directly and speak to the directors and staff about anything. For many large chain organizations, it is necessary to contact a sales representative in an office that is in a different country or continent to the school in question, and any inquiries and feedback always have to go through that one person. It is rarely possible to get to know the director or staff of the school to which the agent wants to send a client, and for some companies, the staff of a school is not even allowed to talk to an agent who might call for information. This means that for communication, however urgent, if a school itself is still open because of the time difference to the agent’s office, but the head office in the same time zone with the only persons authorized to pass on that communication is closed, the agent still has to wait until the next day for a response. Beyond that consideration, what the staff are really like in one of the company’s schools and what really goes on in there is always something of a mystery—it might all be good, but an agent can never really be sure. The sales staff turnover in the head offices also tends to be higher than in independent schools, so often when an agent finally get to know “their” contact, they’re gone.

The question of whether a school is independently run is only one of the main factors we look at when choosing a school. At Marshall Language Services, the director Rachel Marshall selects the schools herself. For almost all of them, she has gone to visit them personally, as visiting the school and the surrounding area makes a huge impact in determining how desirable that school really is. When she visits a school, she often stays in an accommodation provided by that school, and notes what that accommodation is really like and how long it takes to get to the school from there. She uses public transport on purpose to get around and notes how convenient or not it is in that location. She notes how welcoming the staff at the school are—is it the director of the school that shows her around, or is that task given to a lower-level staff member? That particular fact says much about the accessibility of the director if it should ever be necessary to contact him or her on behalf of a student. She looks at the condition of the facilities and the condition of the surrounding neighborhood to get a feel for the school and its location. After a visit, some schools that looked impressive on the web and in brochures were crossed off her list, while others with a more modest appearance in its marketing materials might have blown her away.

Rachel also takes into consideration the initial contact that they make with her as agent. Many schools present themselves to the language learning industry through international workshops and fairs, such as those sponsored by IALC, ICEF, International House, Study World, and others. She notes the professionalism of the school staff during the fairly brief appointments and informal meetings at these events. Other times, she meets them when they visit her office (which is also important—do they just email or call to market their school to her, or do they actually get over there?). When in doubt about a school with whom she is not familiar, she has built up a network of fellow agents throughout the world who are happy to give feedback about it from their clients. And of course, the feedback from her own clients is as important, if not more so, as any other factor mentioned here—she most uses schools that her clients have not only been satisfied with but raved about, schools that her clients have made a point of contacting her about after studying there and letting her know what a wonderful experience they had had.

In short, many of the schools who satisfied or surpassed these criteria for her over the years have been IALC schools. She has developed long term professional relationships and even friendships with many of their directors and staff over the course of years of visiting these schools and attending the annual IALC workshops that the organization hold for agents. (She also became one of the first IALC partner agents in Italy for her loyal support of these schools, at a time that much of the Italian language travel industry was turning to the large chain schools). As for the IALC schools themselves, many of them have won multiple quality awards in the language travel industry, some of which are voted on by agents around the world, and some have even arrived at one award’s “superstar” status. At the everyday level, they demonstrate their passion for language learning and providing a fantastic full immersion experience for their students through the quality of their teaching and in everything other thing that they do.

While IALC is the main accrediting body that Rachel prefers beyond the minimum ones for a country, there are also others whose schools guarantee a good quality experience to a student—International House, Quality English, ALTO, EAQUALS and the TEN network are some of these. Also, if a prospective client looks carefully at the accreditations of the schools on this site, they will notice that some of them belong to more than one of these organizations.

The Quality of Marshall Language Services Schools 

Marshall Language Services works with many different schools types for its clientele—large and small, in big cities or in towns, and with different types of courses for different types of students. However, the biggest element that all of these schools have in common is the absolute attention to quality that they provide for their students. All of our schools have the following factors in common:

They are all well established as schools, with years and even decades of experience in their locations.

They are all accredited by at least the minimum national accrediting body for language schools in that country. In this sense, they automatically have at least a minimum guarantee of quality, but several of them have many more accreditations than are required. Below there is a detailed description of what these accreditations mean to the student, to the larger world of the language travel industry, and to Marshall Language Services as agents.

All of their teachers are mother tongue have at least a university degree, a language teaching qualification, and a minimum number of years of language teaching experience. Many have certifications like DELTA for English language teaching which cannot be obtained with less than four years’ experience teaching. And more than just having qualifications, the teachers demonstrate a passion for what they do.

Many owners and directors of these schools are at the forefront of the language teaching industry. They are recognized as the true experts in their fields. Many of them (as well as the teachers) have also produced textbooks.

All of the schools offer good quality accommodation options, in most cases not only homestays. Many of the schools directly choose and manage their homestay families, and many also own and manage their residential facilities, allowing the schools more control over the student’s experience in them.

The schools all use a communicative approach, meaning that much emphasis is placed on the student actually listening to and speaking the language. Grammar is not neglected by any means, but the lessons do not concentrate on the old-school memorization of grammar rules and vocabulary that students have often already had in their home countries, sometimes for years. The lessons are dynamic and fun, with the use of authentic materials, and the courses, especially more intensive ones, often include electives of a student’s interest.

All of the schools contain well-equipped facilities for self-study outside of the lessons, free Wi-Fi throughout the school and in most of the accommodation options, and some also have recreational facilities like game rooms, sports equipment, and even swimming pools.

All of the schools organize a rich schedule of activities and excursions outside of the lessons, both in the school and outside of it. Many of these activities are either included in the cost of the lessons, like film screenings or parties inside the school, and many are offered at a very reasonable cost. Sometimes students only need to pay for an entrance fee or transportation to a location.

All of the schools have a 24 hour, 7-day a week support and emergency service number. A student, agent, or their family can call the school at any time of the day or night for help.

All of the schools, through all the above factors and for the fact that are doing what they love in teaching the language of the land to foreign students, will guarantee a dynamic and memorable experience to their students. Even if a school is large, they all give the student individual attention. More than one client has contacted Marshall Language Services to say, “My experience in that school changed my life.”