One to One: Creating Comfort

It won’t be news to share, if we note how much group classes differ from one-to-one sessions. The basic differences probably are the classroom setting, course materials, structure of the class and methodologies used in these two types of teaching. We will look into each of them separately.

Classroom setting

In group classes, we use different types of classroom settings; U-shape, pairs, sitting in groups, etc. In one-to-one classes, we don’t have this luxury, however we need to make sure that the students feel comfortable. This is best done when the teacher and the student face each other, as it will be easier to establish communication in this way. Another thing that can be done, is to take the session out of the classroom. This is what many adult learners prefer when hiring a tutor. Changing the environment can create better learning context and target the student motivation at the same time.

Course Materials

It is a fact that each teacher has a plan to stick to when teaching and this is more rigid in group classes than in individual sessions. The thing is, that in group classes, students have different learning needs and backgrounds, and we’re trying to figure out a common plan that would target the majority of their needs. In one-to-one sessions, however, it is much easier to sfist the course materials, to adapt them in a more flexible way to create a custom made course.

Class structure

Globally taken, the structure of the lesson should be the same. The learning stages should be present and the outcomes should be highlighted. However, the pace of the lesson does not have to be the same as it is in group classes. The thing is, that in group classes we’re trying to manage everyone’s time, and make sure all the students do most of the tasks, are involved in all stages of the lesson and feel comfortable with using the presented material in practice. One-to-one classes give you a chance to pace the lesson according to the individual student’s performance and results. It will help to create a more relaxed environment for learning.

Methodologies

Probably the best part of group classes is that you have a chance to use a variety of methodologies, games, activities, role plays, etc. which are not the case with one-to-one sessions. They are more restricted in terms of the activities you can conduct. However, this doesn’t suggest that we shouldn’t integrate communicative learning in individual classes. There are a lot of resources that can be used to create games and other activities for individual classes as well. Some of them are Kahoot, LearningApps, Wordwall, etc. Role-plays can be done with the teacher, or an invited guest speaker if the students feels comfortable with it.

Let’s look at some ideas that are important to consider when delivering one-to-one sessions.

Make sure you are aware of the learning needs and learning goals of your student. This will help you structure the classes better, in a way that will be motivating for them and interesting to engage. This can be more effectively done after you’ve had a couple of sessions with your student as it will give you a chance to know them better.

Create an environment where the students will feel comfortable to open up. Individual students may find it difficult to engage with the teacher from the very beginning and may act reserved. This will get in the way of teaching as you’ll not know whether the student is enjoying the class or not. To avoid this, it’s best to establish a friendly environment from the very beginning, by sharing some information about yourself, acting in a friendly manner, inviting the student to ask you questions, etc. This, of course, will depend on the culture you present.

Plan easy for the first couple of classes. Make sure you choose communication materials where both you and the student will have a chance to speak, share, express their opinion about something, etc. Best activities that have always worked for me is to choose debate topics and invite the student to debate with you. Topics can be something like this: “Women are better at multitasking than men”, “People who drive sport cars are aggressive”, etc. This will give you a nice picture of the worldview of your student which is very useful in planning lesson materials later on.

Keep the distance — while being friendly with the student, you should also be careful with the limits. There still should be the student-teacher respect which will make sure that the student takes responsibility for their learning and doesn’t relax.

Show the progress — in one-to-one lessons it can be hard both for the teacher and the student to see their progress. To give your students a chance to look back at where they came from, it’s a good idea to occasionally record their speech (with their consent) and share the recordings with them from time to time. When doing so, you can also ask them to try to find and correct their mistakes or to upgrade the sentences they were using. Alternatively, you can invite them to take language placements tests to have some tangible results.

To sum up, the most important thing to do in one-to-one lesson, is to make sure that your learner trusts you, the course materials are adequate and the learner can see their results.

Share with us your experience in one-to-one lessons, what challenges you’ve had with them and how you’ve managed to overcome those.