One on One teaching

[ozdtp]

Hi

Im a new teacher and have decided to supplement my income by teaching private lessons to adults.

I've only taught a few private lessons and have found that they require a lot more preparation than group classes!

Can anyone point me in the right direction regarding resources like good books to use or speaking activities that work well with single students?

Thanks
Dave

[bobs12]

Blimey, I opened this particular forum for the first time, and this is exactly the topic I wanted to ask a question on!

Before butting in with my own question, I'll have a go at answering yours.

I hate individual lessons. You're absolutely right about the extra preparation. If you look at a lesson in terms of STT and TTT (student/teacher talking time), assuming that you're interested in a communicative approach, you can make a simple mental calculation as to the amount of input you have to make as a teacher in a group of eight or ten students as opposed to one-on-one. As class size decreases, material consumption goes up almost exponentially. Think about the disastrous situation that we all face- we've prepared a great lesson for a group, and only one or two students turn up. Unless we have an emergency reserve of resources, we're left to ad-lib to fill in the time left after the lesson has disappeared into thin air, which doesn't usually make for good teaching.

A problem with 1-to-1 teaching is that you end up having to adapt wholly to suit that student's wishes, and not just his needs. Some will be happy to go through a structured lesson, others might want 'conversation' lessons. In any case, giving an individual student enough practice for him to digest and absorb new information is a real challenge without the input of other students, and the opportunity to practice with them. You have to make up for a whole class full of students.

I make extensive use of the internet at work, and a good way to make sure your materials are 'fresh' is to use daily news. This allows you to pick topics that your students will be interested in, but the downside is that you'll have to read articles thoroughly and possibly edit them to the student's level. You might also want to remove mistakes, but then you have a nice reading passage edited to your liking, which (if you remove the date ) you can again and again.

This gives you a nice basis for a balanced exercise. You can start by introducing the theme of the news article, asking questions to elicit what the student already knows on the topic, and adding your own views to encourage discussion, rather than just developing a question and answer session (good to play devil's advocate ). You can help with giving useful vocab or phrases for any ideas the student has difficulty expressing. Unless the conversation is flowing particularly smoothly, I would encourage him to note any new, useful vocab.

Suitably primed, you can then move on to reading the article. Stop at the end of each paragraph and ask the student to sum it up in his own words. You can also discuss any interesting/unusual/controversial content in the paragraph. Judge for yourself when it's time to move on to the next part. Although you're using the article as conversation stimulus, there's no reason not to explain individual words or expressions or grammar constructions if the student is interested.

Not all students are keen on this, some will feel that it is too artificial and too much like a 'real lesson' when all they want to do is talk. However, if you're like me you'll feel a lot more like you're actually teaching them something!

[ozdtp]

Thanks for the tips...some interesting ideas

Cheers

[Jaimeesl]

Bobs12,
Excellent advice for teaching private students. I totally agree with you and am starting to use more articles as well as free conversation. If the student wants free conversation I find that just asking questions, and wanting to learn from the student really helps, as well as being patient and sincerely wanting to know. . .

[joshua2004]

I currently teach private classes. We are developing an approach that taylors to the student's interests. I am writing a book on how we are doing it. I felt the same as Bobs12 until I had to learn how to do it. You can make it work. There is a lot involved in making it successful. I don´t plan anything and go with what the students find interesting. But, I do have a host of activites and themes for them to choose from. The underlining goal of our approach is communication. Set up your classes to build communication.

[kannesee]

Yeah, 1:1 teaching definately is more work and it's crazy to think of how much planning time you're investing in that one student. But, it's also really exciting to think of tayloring a lesson to exactly fit a student's goals! I think 1:1 teaching really has the same underlying goal of a teaching a class: find out what the students' goals are and go from there. I'm tutoring someone who is interested in rebuilding cars and a goal of his is to be able to read car manuals, so we're working up to that. Have fun!

[terrychangchina]

Hi, Bobs12,
I found your advice quite useful and I am sure you must be an excellent teacher. I teach English in a private school. Most of my students are adult from 20 to 50 years old. They want to improve their oral English especially in talking with their customers when they do foreign business. And also a small portion of them attends the class hoping to pass the examination, such as PETS held by the national education authority. Their English is poor indeed and of course I know there is a long way to go for them to achieve their objectives. We have classes for students of different levels and most of them start their study from the basic course, including pronunciation, daily conversation such as greetings, self introduction, making telephone calls, shopping etc. The problem is that it is hard for them to keep on with their study after they have finished one term, 72 hours, finished in around 3 months. Could you give me some suggestions on how to encourage them to go on with their studies and what teaching activities are suitable for adult students in a class of less than 10 students?

Blimey, I opened this particular forum for the first time, and this is exactly the topic I wanted to ask a question on!

Before butting in with my own question, I'll have a go at answering yours.

I hate individual lessons. You're absolutely right about the extra preparation. If you look at a lesson in terms of STT and TTT (student/teacher talking time), assuming that you're interested in a communicative approach, you can make a simple mental calculation as to the amount of input you have to make as a teacher in a group of eight or ten students as opposed to one-on-one. As class size decreases, material consumption goes up almost exponentially. Think about the disastrous situation that we all face- we've prepared a great lesson for a group, and only one or two students turn up. Unless we have an emergency reserve of resources, we're left to ad-lib to fill in the time left after the lesson has disappeared into thin air, which doesn't usually make for good teaching.

A problem with 1-to-1 teaching is that you end up having to adapt wholly to suit that student's wishes, and not just his needs. Some will be happy to go through a structured lesson, others might want 'conversation' lessons. In any case, giving an individual student enough practice for him to digest and absorb new information is a real challenge without the input of other students, and the opportunity to practice with them. You have to make up for a whole class full of students.

I make extensive use of the internet at work, and a good way to make sure your materials are 'fresh' is to use daily news. This allows you to pick topics that your students will be interested in, but the downside is that you'll have to read articles thoroughly and possibly edit them to the student's level. You might also want to remove mistakes, but then you have a nice reading passage edited to your liking, which (if you remove the date ) you can again and again.

This gives you a nice basis for a balanced exercise. You can start by introducing the theme of the news article, asking questions to elicit what the student already knows on the topic, and adding your own views to encourage discussion, rather than just developing a question and answer session (good to play devil's advocate ). You can help with giving useful vocab or phrases for any ideas the student has difficulty expressing. Unless the conversation is flowing particularly smoothly, I would encourage him to note any new, useful vocab.

Suitably primed, you can then move on to reading the article. Stop at the end of each paragraph and ask the student to sum it up in his own words. You can also discuss any interesting/unusual/controversial content in the paragraph. Judge for yourself when it's time to move on to the next part. Although you're using the article as conversation stimulus, there's no reason not to explain individual words or expressions or grammar constructions if the student is interested.

Not all students are keen on this, some will feel that it is too artificial and too much like a 'real lesson' when all they want to do is talk. However, if you're like me you'll feel a lot more like you're actually teaching them something!

[lapietra]

I'm probably being picky and I know that English is a difficult language to spell but...

The verb is "tailor", not "taylor", as in "to tailor a piece of clothing".

It's also "definite", not "definate".

If we, as teachers, can't spell correctly, how can we expect our students to do it?

[woodcutter]

Why do you feel that private classes require heavy preparation? I have always found the opposite - such a class can be mainly based on personal interaction between the student and the teacher, and if you build up a good relationship it all becomes as easy as pie. All the material you need for a conversation class is a list of suitable vocabulary, a knowledge of your language, and an imagination.

When only one student turns up to a normal class - now that can be tricky!

[iclaudius]

Just a suggestion, but try to make the class a way for you to find out as much as you can about the student. One on One teaching is different from group teaching because it requires INTIMACY. Learn to exploit that intimacy for the benefit of the student, and your classes will be interesting for both of you. I have been teaching one on one for more than 15 years and one thing I've learned is that if I know who my student is, research his likes and dislikes, his desires and goals, the classes will be interesting for both of us, as well as providing quite a bit of material. I remember watching a whole season of "Smallville" (and loving it) just because I wanted to be able to get through to a teenager who, up until that moment, really didn't seem like he wanted to be there. He always mentioned the show in passing, and I figured that might be my ticket. It worked out great.

Also, get the students laughing. Laughter lubricates learning. If they're enjoying themselves, that's half the battle.

Hope that helps.

Hi

Im a new teacher and have decided to supplement my income by teaching private lessons to adults.

I've only taught a few private lessons and have found that they require a lot more preparation than group classes!

Can anyone point me in the right direction regarding resources like good books to use or speaking activities that work well with single students?

Thanks
Dave

[celinehoran]

Hi there,

I hope your 1:1 lessons, since November's post are going very well.

I teach 1:1 too and have found a fantastic site that supplies top notch, quality, ready to go teaching materials that can be used in the class room or for 1:1 teaching that requires little or no preparation at all.

My students love these exercises and come back for more!

Email me if you would like to "test" out this site.

Happy (1:1) Teaching!

Regards
Celine