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All English language learners learn differently. The kind of environment they study in greatly affects their learning experience. Teaching one to one and teaching in groups both have their advantages and disadvantages. English language teachers may come across both situations in their teaching career and what the student gains from each situation is unique as well. One to one English teaching requires a detailed plan and consistency on the teacher’s part. It is important for the teacher to focus on the needs of the individual student and build upon the student’s knowledge. In that way, the teacher should be able to remember the students wants, interests, goals, etc. By doing so, the teacher is able to build a rapport with the student. A one to one lesson can be intimidating for the student, so being able to make lessons based on the students’ interests, needs, and wants will create a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere for the student. One to one English learning provides students with direct and immediate attention from the teacher. Their needs and wants are able to be addressed directly. Typical classroom activities like pair or group work don’t work in one to one English teaching. Instead, the lessons can focus on using more tailored authentic and non-authentic materials. For example, short stories, horoscopes, quizzes, pronunciation, and personal history. One to one lessons can greatly benefit the student because the lessons are taught at their pace and problems can be located and addressed more efficiently. Because of this speediness, teachers should be prepared with extra materials as one to one teaching can move at a quicker pace. Teaching groups require different plans and solutions compared to one to one teaching. There are more students, so naturally, the planning needs to be tailored to better benefit the group as a whole. Each student’s individual needs may not be immediately attended to, but with good lesson planning and an attentive teacher, the individual needs can be met. There are different things to consider when it comes to groups. The size and level of the group play a big role in how the teacher may approach teaching. A large classroom size may be a problem, so the use of worksheets and pair/group work can benefit the students. Designating group leaders and learning about the class dynamic can make large classroom learning successful. With group learning, there will most likely be differences in English language level. To combat that, teachers can use different materials for the different levels of students. Teachers can also give different students different tasks based on their level. Another approach is to pair stronger students with weaker students, being carefully not to have the stronger student dominate the pair activity. Using more pair and group work allows the teacher to reduce teacher talking time and take note of students understanding. Unfortunately, because group learning can’t focus on each and every students’ needs and concerns, it is important that the teacher stay vigilant of common mistakes, then make time to address them. In order to better understand and address the students’ needs in a group setting, tests and surveys can be incorporated so that teacher can hear from the students individually. Group teaching can also be affected by multilingual and monolingual classrooms. In multilingual classrooms, having students from different backgrounds can be helpful in promoting more English communication and discussions among students. On the other hand, common language mistakes and pronunciations can be addressed easier in monolingual classrooms. Overall, group teaching comes with many more factors to consider. This may require more work for teachers inside the classroom as well as outside. In both one to one and group teaching, the teacher’s actions are extremely important. Being prepared and attentive are ways teachers can build rapport with students and encourage participation. A student’s ability to learn English is largely due to their own motivation and goals, but the teacher plays an immense role to shaping the students’ motivation and learning experience.
