1 on 1 teaching.

[ID19]

Hi All,
I am new to China and have been lumped with two 'international' (Korean) students here in Guangdong. I also teach Junior high - grade 2, which isn't a problem but the 'international' classes are beginning to become a struggle. I am simply exhausting my limited avenues of resources.

Can someone please provide some tips, tricks and general information for keeping these 1 on 1 classes challenging and educational. Anything that has worked well in the past would be GREATLY appreciated.

Teachers Day was bizarre - Bijou (Sp) wasn't that bad - Maybe it was a good year? Then again I do have the day off with my first case of 'The Trots'.

Oh Yeah - the violent dreams are from the MSG, aren't they???

ID19

[Lotus Eater]

No - the violent dreams are from your frustrations with teaching.

The 1-1 classes I have are firstly me and my Chinese teacher. Have you a good text book - we are working our way very soldily and quickly through a particular series. I find by the end of the class I am exhausted. So find a good text book and use that.

Then have them tell them what they have done since last time you saw them, in English. One other way for this is to get them small notebook each and create 'sticky diaries" - where if they go to a movie they stick the ticket into the diary and write 3 sentences about it, if they go for a walk, pick up a leaf or something special they find on the way and stick it in - again 3 sentences either describing the thing or the event. EVERY day they put something into the sticky diary. Then they bring it to class with you and you can help them with the written English and talk about it with them.

Have a 'song' day - teach them a song - with music that they will find at karaoke. Have 'jokes' day - English is like Chinese - lots of puns and jokes based on puns - find some simple ones and work it through until they understand the joke (language extension) plus a bit of fun.

Go on field trips - even just around the campus or place you teach - they have to ask questions in English and you need to give them answers about the object they point to or ask about. And then vice versa it.

For my other 1-1 - these are usually students (not mine but from other departments in the uni) who want extra language practice. I do fair bit of the above with them, plus once they relax and get to know me they start talking incredibly about their lives. I basically follow them and pick up grammar and pronunciation mistakes. I also have them write me a short essay each week and correct it with them. These classes are pretty informal as I am not being paid.

[Enigma]

I find what works well or not depends on the sts age and level. I used some of the below for tutoring:

Teenagers of various levels

Board games – if you didn’t bring any with, make some really simple ones like snakes and ladders, dominos, etc and put question marks on some of the squares then prepare question cards that are relevant to their level and interest – can be grammar or vocab – depending on level, you can go ballistic with these – sts love to play as thrashing the teacher’s butt is always fun.

CALL – most (not all) sts will have a computer with internet access in the house – if not, take an outing to the local internet café. Use the computer to teach your sts – again, the possibilities are endless – find out where they would like to travel, what hobbies they have, who their favorite film star / football player is, what music they like, etc – do vocab and grammar on those subjects and use the sites for conversation. You can also teach them basic computer / internet vocab. Teens love computers so this should work for a few lessons.

Card games, game-boy, general games – get your sts to explain rules in English – elicit as much info as possible – even if you know the answers, get them to speak about the game and make a few blunders in order for them to explain the reasons why to you. Then play and have fun!

Movie reviews – talk about movies that you are both familiar with and do reviews on them. If you can’t find a movie that you’ve both seen, watch a DVD during class time – do the normal movie review thing with them while you are watch.

TV talk – get the sts to watch a few hours of English TV a week and then tell you what they understood / remembered. Use this info to generate further topics of conversation.

Comics – Korean teens LOVE comics. Get them to explain their favorite comics to you – characters, story line, how they would change the comic if they were writing it, etc. You can also use the speech bubbles – ask them to translate what is said and then get them to correct the grammar.

Photographs – your and theirs. It’s a worn resource but works well with tutoring. Take in some pics of you, your travels, family, etc and ask them for some of theirs – school books, family, vacations, etc and talk about them – for their pics, you can et them to do some writing exercises on them as well.

Field trips are always great if you can get them out the house – again, endless possibilities.


Hope the above help…

[Missi]

I made a presentation about the Canadian north, pictures and info about the arctic. Then I gave my students a week to prepare a similar presentation about someplace in China. I am the tourist and want the information.

I have also used (I think it was Koko who brought up this lesson, if it was somebody else sorry!) the world is ending lessons, and I added their names. They had to argue about who should live and why.

I try to stay away from one on one tutoring, I try to have at least two on one as then the students are more willing to try new ideas as they have the comfort person there. And then they can practice together in their free time.

[ID19]

Thank you for all the info - thats all great and I'm sure each piece will be utilised sometime within the coming year.
Thanks again -

ID19

[Ruth]

I currently have 6 students I'm teaching 1:1. Four are in junior middle and two are in grade 5. I do whatever the student wants. One fifth grader - bless her - is interested in science and brings a science book written in English with her. We plod our way through the really difficult language, looking up new words as we go. This is not a book I would have chosen because the language is so hard, but she likes it. We play games for the last 15 or 20 minutes of class.

I brought several Zoobooks (magazines about animals) with me and I'm using those with two of the kids. They choose an animal and we read through the magazine for class. They write any new words in their notebooks and we look up the meaning. Homework is writing sentences using all the new words.

One student likes to review from her school textbook for about 10 minutes and then we read a chapter from a novel.

The remaining two are chatter boxes and we never seem to have any difficulty talking our way through the hour they each spend with me each week. I try to have current magazines on hand in case they run out of things to talk about. With one girl, we're reading a novel, but she often chooses just to talk rather than read.

I have many games I've made over the past couple of years that I think are really good. Choose a theme, find pictures and make pairs of cards. With the pairs you can play Memory or Go Fish. You can also lay out several cards and have the student make up a story using all the words. Some of my more creative kids get really silly while doing this. Fantastic some of the stories they come up with. UNO is popular too. I try to play 10 or 15 minutes of games at the end of each hour. This age group likes to do that. It's all good, as long as they are speaking English.

Two years ago I had a girl in grade 6 (and her mother!) who came for 7 hours each week. The poor kid. We worked through all the books her mother chose, but also took time to play games. She's one of the kids who comes for an hour each week this year.

[Dragonsaver]

Ok, Now I need your help and advice.

I just accepted a private tutoring job. Businessman. He is immigrating to Canada so wanted a Canadian. Actually already a landed immigrant and his wife and child live in Vancouver now.

His English is quite good, at least from my meeting with him.

He wants as many hours/session and as many sessions as possible per week.

He wants to learn about Canadian culture and business English and just to improve his English.

I promised Fri nite, Sat and Sunday mornings. I said the evenings the rest of the week would depend on my Chinese classes. I said definite NO to Thursday nite. I was dead on my feet last Thurs nite.

Pay isn't super, but 100/hr. He paid his last teacher 150 for 1.5 hrs. I have agreed to the same rate.

What the HECK do I teach him??? I haven't tutored before.

HELP!!! Please

[Lotus Eater]

Does he have a job lined up? If not - teach him how to write a resume Canadian style, interview techniques. After that teach him about normal Canadian etiquette - drinking (how/when to pay for rounds, toast people etc), eating - which forks/knives etc to use when, when to offer to pay, all that sort of stuff. Teach him a bit about the major sports and their teams so he can start watching and joining in conversations there. Download some local newspaper articles and start working through the politics, local issues of where he plans to live, and how to read a Canadian newspaper.

Talk about the things you found tricky to adapt to here - he will suffer the reverse 'trickiness".


What are the things you want to know about here - he will want to know the same things about there.

[Dragonsaver]

As far as I know he is / or will be running his own business. Right now he is working in China but landed in Canada. He goes there from time to time. I will know more about him tomorrow. I know he drives a car I could only dream of owning. Top, top, top end Nissan. Like wow.

I will work on the newspaper stuff and the food stuff and ask him what stuff he wants to learn tomorrow.

I am concerned about setting up the tutoring. How to judge the time to spend, how to keep him interested without him thinking I'm a dolt.

[Lotus Eater]

Time on each activity or time as a whole? Time as a whole - use a timer and set a time - don't let it get away from you or you will both get tired. Finish while you are both still a bit keen. For each activity - 20 minutes, a bit of a relax, a follow-up chat about what you read, then change to something a bit different.

If he is setting up business - then business writing, apllications to the local country club, how to respond to invitations, making business speeches.

Why would he think you are a dolt - you're an expert on what he needs to know!!

[Dragonsaver]

Thanks LE. I know that I know, I just have a titch of an inferiority complex that rears its ugly head from time to time.

The first time doing anything is scary. Once I have bitten the bullet I should be ok.

I even was picked up and driven home by the Dean of the University last week. He wanted to tell me that one of the students (from the special classes I am teaching for him) phoned him to say " they really like me and really like how I am teaching".

[Wolf]

This might be a bit specific, and it requires access to technology; but here goes.

Take a scene from a movie (DVD). Preferably a dialogue scene. Yes, just one scene. In a one on one class, a scene between two characcters might be ideal, but not necessary. One of my favorites is the dinner scene in The Incredibles. It is a nice look into a North American cultural setting (only North Americans aren't CGI and don't normally have superpowers, but I digress. ;D)

1. Que up the scene, and pause at the beginning. Have the student preview by asking questions like "Do you know this movie?" "What do you think will happen?" "Who do you think these characters are?" etc.

2. Play the scene without subtitles. Have the student answer a few simple conversation questions (prepared in advance); and discuss what the student didn't understand.

3. Here comes the part where it doesn't look like you're doing anything. Play the scene again, this time with the subtitles on. Give the remote to the student and pause line by line. Let the student make a list of any unfamiliar vocabulary items, and ask questions about phrases they don't understand. At the end, have them review these new words/phrases.

4. Now play the scene again, with subtitles. Discuss what is going on, what the characters are trying to communicate, etc.

5. Using a prepared written copy of the dialouge (which you'll have to prepare or swipe from the web), block and act out the scene together as best you can.

6. Watch it one last time, without subtitles.

7. Have the students do a bit of follow up. Answering some fill in the blank/cloze activity questions, writing a summary of the scene, etc.


I've used this before in one on one/small group lessons; and it can work well with students who like movies and/or are interested in being able to understand "Foreign" (read:Hollywood) movies. Although in China I'd cheat and use Japanese movies with English soundtracks ... . ;D

I don't know if this would be useful or not; but if your studen(s) like it, then you can intersperse such lessons through the year, and get a good month's worth of lesson material out if it. This isn't meant to be comprehensive; just a radom thought.

[Dragonsaver]

Thanks Wolf.

I had my first session. Basically, he wants to sit and talk and listen for the hour and a half. Easy money as I love to talk anyhow.

He wants to improve his listening ability so he can take a course in Vancouver. He wants to be able to get his English to a point where he can move to Canada and live with his wife. His English isn't bad but..

I told him to watch TV, buy English CD's and listen to the songs and watch English DVD's. I loaned him a BBC documentary on the Origins of Life on Earth. They speak relatively slowly, use some big words and the captions are perfect so he can listen and read. He was happy. He said that was how he learned to speak Japanese so he agreed I was right.

[con's fly is open]

Sounds good, DS. The beswt thing about mature students is that they can tell you exactly what they want. Just remind yourself to steer the topic of conversation in his direction, and get him talking more than listening. Talking's harder, and the listening portion will happen anyway. As time goes on, slowly speed up your speaking, getting him up to naitve Canuckese.

And next time, kiddo, charge a little more. 100 an hour is a little low for a pricey city like Dalian.

[Dragonsaver]

Unfortunately, that is what his last teacher charged. I asked for more but the price was fixed as far as he was concerned. Oh well, it is cash in my pocket. He comes to my place and has driven me to the store in his car a couple of times.

[Mr Nobody]

I got offered a job teaching 1 on 1 for 100 per hour, told them I charge that for 40 mins. This is a cheap city. Always say, oh, that's what the last teacher charged you? Why so little? I charge . . . .

Price itself is a prestige.

[Lotus Eater]

Yep, you're new, it's a sellers market, he cna go elsewhere if he doesn't want to pay.

[Dragonsaver]

I am starting 2 - 11 year olds tonight (girls). Too late to ask for help but for the first day we will fly blind anyhow. I will need suggestions.

This time I am charging 150/hour.

I asked that they bring their school books so I can see what they should know. I will go from there.