Learners’ preferences regarding types of language school: An exploratory market research

The use of multimedia technologies in language teaching and learning has become very popular in the last few years. In the case of countries like Spain, multimedia language schools have experienced a great boom and a dramatic fall in the last 10 years. This study applies marketing research techniques to the study of Catalan learners’ preferences regarding different types of language schools, with a particular focus on schools that use multimedia technologies, as opposed to other methods used by language learners. The study uses a k-means cluster analysis to identify four different groups of potential learners, and it later applies a factor analysis in order to determine the main constraints in learners’ choices regarding their preferred language schools. This analysis reveals that learners’ answers are organized around the following three factors: ‘Accessibility’, ‘Teaching Quality’, and ‘Pragmatism’. Finally, it is concluded that multimedia language schools are perceived in a rather positive way, but are also regarded as in need of more ‘Teaching Quality’ and ‘Pragmatism’.