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Our Philosophy

Why make Poligo?

Poligo was created by both students and teachers of language for three reasons:

  1. to help students to use English, as well as study and practice it;
  2. to give our students high-quality English support between classes; and
  3. to give us a place to share our ideas about learning a language (and fight the lies that English learners are often told by schools and teachers).

As teachers, we noticed that our students often lacked basic skills in written English and reading comprehension. Also, our students would learn well in lessons, but forget in the days between classes. To make things worse, students did not know how to learn and had unrealistic ideas about how long learning English should take and how to reach their goals.

This lack of skill, slow progress and bad information can be largely overcome when people have the chance to expose themselves to their target language or immerse themselves in it. More importantly, when they use the language in a meaningful and personal way, English learners can enjoy English. Their motivation to learn is increased and they develop a deeper connection with English.

Therefore learning a language becomes much easier and more interesting when it stops being a thing you study and becomes something you use. When foreign languages become a way to do the things you love — to learn about things that interest you and help you enjoy life — they are a joy and a pleasure. We thought that there was a way to increase the exposure to a second language easily and conveniently, give people the support they need to make real progress, and at the same time make English a greater part of people's lives.

However, as students of languages we noticed that access to that kind of support and exposure is hard to come by. If you are lucky enough to live in a country where your target language is spoken it is easy. Unfortunately, many of us are studying a language far from the countries where it is spoken. We go to school or we struggle on by ourselves. With no-one to help us, our questions go unanswered and our mistakes become bad habits.

Poligo solves problems

Poligo is the support learners need to ensure they are on the right track. With Poligo, students can work regularly at English and improve daily.

 

Challenge

 

Poligo Solution
1. Students don't have enough contact time with teachers and native speakers. → Poligo students more regularly have more contact time, with teachers and native speakers, anywhere, anytime.
2. Unanswered questions build up and lead to frustration and demotivation. → Poligo answers questions right away, in real time. There is no need for unanswered questions to build up. Poligo learners get answers to all their questions.
3. Uncorrected errors become bad habits that can ultimately be nearly impossible to break. → Poligo Editors correct your errors, every time, as soon as they arise. Errors never go uncorrected and become bad habits.
4. Interaction reinforces learning: feedback and answers are important. → Poligo learners and Editors exchange ideas about anything and everything. Learning becomes an active experience.
5. Some classroom activities can be done effectively online (some can't). → Poligo saves your classroom time for speaking. Develop your writing on Poligo. Practice grammar patterns and new ways of saying things on Poligo. Deal with smaller questions immediately on Poligo. Class is for face-to-face practice and more involved points of language.
6. Learning English in English will free a student from the habit of translation sooner. → Poligo trains learners to think in English, and to think carefully about what they say, increasing fluency and response time in conversation.
7. Advanced learners still require support beyond the classroom. → Poligo gives you the support you need beyond the English class, when you need it.
8. Writing is effective for improving most language skills. → Poligo makes it easy to get writing checked, to identify errors, to work on new language, and to improve language skills and understanding.
9. Regular work is more important than anything else to develop language skills. → Poligo is available anytime. You don't have to go anywhere. Learners can use Poligo in the spare moments in their day: five minutes here, ten minutes there. The convenience of Poligo makes regular work possible and easy.
10. Students should be encouraged to wonder about language. → Poligo answers questions — wondering is that much more satisfying when answers are close at hand. Curiosity and interest develops and learning abounds!
11. Learning is more effective when a student  produces their own learning materials. → Poligo is active learning. Using Poligo is much more effective than other forms of self-study.
12. Learning from materials about ourselves is easierand more effective. → Poligo allows learners to build their own personal textbook of perfect English based on their life and experiences, customising their learning materials to their own identity, life and interests, rather than studying from traditional textbooks.
13. A student is limited by their geographical location, available time, or budget. → Poligo means that learners and teachers alike are no longer bound by their particular circumstances. Students and teachers are freed from the restraint of having to be in the same place (or even at the same time!) as each other to have a lesson.
14. English schools or study abroad are expensive, so students are often faced with the difficult choice of quitting school or paying a lot of money to learn English. → Poligo is more affordable than English school, or study abroad. That means that when students can't afford school, they can still afford to learn. Poligo uses the cost advantages of modern technology to deliver high-quality support and English tuition cheaply.
15. Grammar is under-valued and under-taught in 'conversation' schools. → Poligo provides accurate, clear, easy-to-understand grammatical resources about English in real use. This allows adult students to make powerful use of grammatical rules. Many adult learners have been taught (in secondary school) through a grammar-based method. Learning should build on this.
16. Many students don't know how to learn a language. → Poligo provides plentiful advice about how to study. Poligo Editors are experienced learners of other languages and have a wealth of experience that they can share.
17. Language is constanly changing, so textbooks are often out-dated. → Poligo is always changing. Poligo is always developing, improving, growing and living.