Could ESL student experience and success be improved if school/teacher invested more time in Pre and Post course preparation and followup?

Just read an interesting post via Seth Goddin: Upstream and Downstream. The summary: By spending more time and money on pre and post contact with our clients, work results could be improved.

We see Upstream or prework a lot these days in the health industry. Greater focus on prevention results in lower costs in the present and future. (The doc’s office (box – see the article.) work is made a lot easier if he/she is able to deal with healthier patients due to effective pre contact work. And patients will experience better results if maybe the doc is able to followup on how well their patients follow through with their prescriptions and medications.

What could this look like in ESL?

Pre-contact: Teachers and schools should spend more time preparing students BEFORE the actual course begins. Teachers could invest time in teaching potential students about habits successful English students should cultivate. (A habit could be increasing contact with English on student’s initiative: watching movies, listening to music, reading in English – purposeful interaction  on your own.)

Another pre-contact action could be to interview prospect students and discover what their previous English learning experiences were like, what was positive and negative about those experiences and why. Wouldn’t this info be helpful for informing the next classroom experience? (Paying attention to what worked for the student before, etc.)

Post Contact: Teachers/schools could come up with a ongoing contact scheme with graduates or ex students. Email newsletters with tips etc. on how to continue practice without the teacher. Ongoing encouragement to continue self directed contact with English, etc.

In ESL, both the Pre and Post contact areas are valuable, but the Post sure has a lot of importance for the student as ongoing and continuous practice with a second language is vital to keep it active and useable over the long term.

What do you think? What could Teachers or language schools do to improve the Pre/Post contact experience of their students?