Teach English in ZejiA Zhen - Xiangxi Tujiazu Miaozu Zizhizho

Teaching one to one One-to-one methodology: Advantages and disadvantages for Students The following list of advantages and disadvantages from the student’s perspective is helpful when preparing the lessons. Advantages • Having the constant attention of the teacher, the students can listen and speak more English than they might in a group situation • There are fewer time constraints, therefore the students can go at their own pace and not feeling pressured by “better students” • Students can contribute to classes more and can feel part of the learning process by bringing material like books, articles from newspapers and so on • Having only one student, the teacher can taylor the lesson according to the student’s English level. In this way the amount and type of input can be maximised by the theacher to benefit the students • Strenghts and weakenesses of the student can be taken into full consideration by the teacher Disadvantages • One of the biggest disadvantages is the possible lack of individual study time that can go against the acquisition of language. This is particularly true if the teacher does not give enough restrictive practise of new language, and students don’t absorb the language effectively. • If the studenti is an adult, he/she probably attends the lesson after work or during lunch break. It is relevant to understand that the student might be tired or might have work related preoccupations. All this has a visible consequence on the student’s ability to concentrate and memorize rules or words. • Spending one or sometimes two hours with just a teacher could be boring and exhausting if the teacher doesn’t experimentwith change of pace and type of activities (dictation, songs, drilling, etc.) • It could be difficult to measure progress without the other students to compare with One-to-one methodology: Advantages and disadvantages for Teachers Advantages • Students can bring their own material in class following their interests • Teaching is only one level • There aren’t strict time constraints, so the teacher can handle weaknesses and strenghts of the student and explore areas of personal interest • Teachers can learn something too Disadvantages • No pair or group works • The teacher is always on • Teachers might feel bad about doing reading and writing because they worry students think it is a waste of time • The material to work on with the students is not easily available • Teachers might find themselves playing the role of councellor and this can be stressful • Student/teacher personality differences can make things difficult to manage in an open discussion How to minimize disadvantages • As a teacher you have to be prepared to take on different roles, for example the role od councellor • Set long- and short – term objectives. Include activities such as reading, role-plays and watching videos, and also language points. Get regular feedbacks to check if these objectives have been met. Also get feedbacks on types of activities the student has enjoyed • Do a needs analysis • What you do in groups can be also done with one student: games, standing up for a dialogue, drilling, moving around, etc. • Take a break once in a while, have a coffee, your student needs that time out too, given the extensive, unnatural periods of concentration and interaction for both parties • Take notes and do it openly. You will explain that it is for correction purposes or for things to address in the future or, even more importantly, correct things the sudent has said you want to reinforce. Praise too and often. Each student deserves that • As a teacher you have to be student B in pair work activities. This is a great opportunity for both listening exercise and speaking activity • Discuss with the student some of his/her concerns. Sometimes students come out with their best English when talking about real life Tips for effective lessons • Logistics A round table is ideal for one-to-one. Try sitting next to the student as a variation on sitting opposite each other. This will enable you to work together on visual materials and language tasks. • Visual materials Visual materials work very well in most of one-to-one classes. Materials such as photographs, graphs, maps, pictures, etc. provide a vast source of vocabulary and conversation and can be used by the teacher to focus on a particular structure • Use the student The majority of one-to-one lesson involve adult professionals. Most of them study English to increase their job performance. Find out what the student’s company does and do some research about it. You can work with the student utilizing authentic material (web site or other documentation) • Feedback Write down any significant or persistent errors. This will enable you to spend ten minutes or so at the end of the lesson focusing on these errors and, where possible, getting the student to self-correct • Authentic material If the student has access to English material they need to work with ask him/her to bring it to class. It could be a report, or other company material • Use the internet The internet is a wide resource of English material for one-to-one lessons, providing material related to the student’s area of expertise. This material can then be used as a basis for homework and for other classroom activities such as summarizing, making a presentation, working on vocabulary and grammar. Writing emails is also a task that most professionals need to use. • Presentations Very often the student will have to make a presentation. The one-to-one classi is ideal for the student to practise giving the presentation in a relaxed environment with the teacher correcting and giving feedback. • Audio and video Both tools are very useful. Besides improving the listening comprehension, they also give a chance for the student to hear different voices and accents. • Homework Regular homework should be given. Checking homework in class gives the teacher the opportunity to deal with any problems and the student can ask questions to clarify areas of doubt. • The scrap pack Collect a pile of scrap paper and cut them up into small cards. Whenever a new phrase comes up or the learner makes an interesting error write a note on one of the scraps. Few minutes before the end of class, give the pile of scraps to the student and encourage him/her to go through them, remembering meanings, corrections, pronunciation, how they are used, etc. • Real role-play If the student has in mind a specific activity that the he/she wants to be able to do better in English (maybe something at work). Try to recreate a particular situation together in the classroom and then role-play this real situation. Afterwards, focus on any language that would help and – maybe – do it all again. • Open up too Sometimes a student can feel that the teacher asks too many questions about themselves. Make sure the student gets frequent chances to ask you questions. Be honest and let them find out something about yourself too. • Record it From time to time make short recordings of the student doing role-plays, making monologues, having a conversation with you, etc. Replay these pieces and use them as the basis for future work – studying language, taking dictation, noticing pronunciation, etc. • You've got mail! Divide a pile of scrap paper between you and the student. Set a time limit during which you will only communicate by writing messages to each other. This activity provides a change of pace and mood • Long-distance calls Write out some telephone tasks, e.g. 'Book a hotel in San Francisco.' Sit far apart from each other and out of eye-contact, then have a 'phone' conversation. • Guess the news story Collect some newspapers (in any language) and cut out pictures of news stories from each one. Then take a card, cut a small square out of the middle of this card. Place a picture from the news under the card so that only some of the picture is visible. The student must 1) speculate about what the picture is about, and 2) tell you as much as they know about the news story. Post-it Look around the room and write a word of something that is in the room on a Post-it note. Give it to the student and ask him or her to stick the Post-it note on the correct object. • Sight translation activities One typical area that people at work need English for is sight translation. Someone comes into the office waving a piece of paper and asking if anyone can tell them what it means. • Get out of the class Ask your student to take you on a guided tour in English of their home or workplace. • Questionnaires Prepare a series of question prompts on a topic. First interview the student using the prompts. Then ask the student to do the same for you. When you have finished, review any special vocabulary or grammar that came up. • Index cards Use the index cards to keep track of new vocabulary. The cards can then be used from time to time to review this. You can also use index cards as cue cards for a presentation. • Think of someone who ... The classic Find Someone Who activity can be changed to a Think of Someone Who and used with only one student. Using a Find Someone Who worksheet, ask the student to write the names of people that he or she knows who match each category.