How to Give a Successful Private English Lesson
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Whether you think of yourself as an English teacher or not, if you're a native speaker you'll probably end up giving private English lessons at some point while living abroad. From language exchanges where your English skills are given in turn for help with writing Chinese characters, to meetings with friends-of-friends at Starbucks for some extra pocket money, or just a session helping out a Chinese friend who needs a leg up on English fluency, few expats will escape these private tutoring sessions.
But, too easily, a one-on-one language class can turn in to a torturous hour of hemming and hawing.
So, to avoid an interminable session of "What's your favorite color? What's your favorite food..." and so on, here's a few quick tips on how to have an amazing private lesson:
Be Selective and Don't Sell Yourself Short
If you are looking for private students, you probably don't need to look far. Sooner or later an acquaintance or co-worker will probably approach you about lessons or it will come up in conversation. If you can't wait to get started however, post an ad on an online forum about your city or put up a flyer in a cafe or bar you frequent. If you already have a teaching job, first check to see if this is allowed in your contract--you wouldn't want your boss to see these ads if it's not! Screen your prospective students to see how willing and dependable you think they'll be. Just because they contact you doesn't mean you have to tutor them. Decide how much, if anything, you'd like to charge. Fees for private lessons range wildly within China depending on your location and your relationship with the student. In a small town you might just expect a cup of tea and help with your Mandarin in exchange for an hour's class, while in a bigger city you might ask hundreds of yuan for just 45 minutes. Ask around and check the internet for other teachers' ads to get an idea for an appropriate price for your area, and remember that friends may expect a discount.
Have a Goal
Mo re often than not, someone approaching you about tutoring them in English will only have the vaguest, foggy idea about what they actually want to learn. "Um, oral English," I remember one woman saying. After a little more pointed questioning from me it turned out she had a new boss from Germany who spoke English very quickly during staff meetings. So, I got her started listening to free downloads from the BBC and audiobooks from the Penguin Classics line. When she and I met we would talk about her listening homework and then role-play meetings on different topics to practice her conversations with her boss. After a few months she felt better about her communication with her employer and so we found a different goal for her to work toward. It doesn't matter what the goal is, from being able to read a cookbook to getting into a graduate program abroad to understanding Lady Gaga's latest lyrics, your classes will be more useful for your student--and less stressful for you as the tutor--if you have a clear goal in mind.
Be on Time and Come Prepared
Even if it's just a casual language exchange with a friend you've known for ages, respect them by making an effort to be on time and ready to start when you get there. Treat each class as if you were getting paid, even if you aren't. Come with a clear plan of what you're going to accomplish in that hour--even if it's just a sticky note with some scribbled instructions to yourself. Tons of materials for tutoring are available for free on the web, for example the BBC's English learning portal (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/) and the paired questions at http://www.esldiscussions.com. I was recently turned down by a Chinese teacher I was hoping to do a language exchange with because she said her last two exchange partners were habitually late and unprepared. "It's been a waste of my time and I don't want to start another," she said.
Keep it Realistic
Even if your best new buddy from the bar is sure that you're going to teach! each ot her to proficiency level in no time, keep your meetings and your class goals realistic. Spending an hour or two concentrating hard on learning new vocabulary and language structures is a lot harder than spending an hour or two in casual chit chat. A friend of mine from Europe was trying to get a job in London, so we met for several hours a week before he sent out his CVs, trying to polish them and his cover letters and then practicing for job interviews in English. We were good friends, but five hours a week with anybody is enough to fray the nerves. Try to keep the information you give out in bite sized chunks--most speaking professionals accept 20 minutes as the average attention span for adults. So, for example, in a higher-level tutoring class you might introduce some vocabulary for 10 minutes, read a newspaper clipping for 20 minutes, have a discussion on current events for 20 minutes and then have a break before going further.
Don't Make it all about You
When I was a student I had a Spanish language exchange partner. I don't think the exchange improved my speaking any, but it was good practice for my Spanish listening skills because all he did was talk about himself. I learned all about his favorite sports teams, what he ate for dinner and about his family politics. After one or two meetings this got to be incredibly boring, and after trying unsuccessfully to steer the conversations--or even get a word in edgewise--I found a different partner. While using personal anecdotes is a great way to give an example, using materials from books, newspapers and the web is a better way to broaden your students' mastery of English.
Revision is Good for You
Because tutoring is by its nature flexible, with new materials studied at the demand or interest of the student, tutors often spend so much time thinking forward to the next class that they don't go back over materials that have already been studied. I find it's a good idea to keep a simple log of what I've studied with a tutoring stud! ent and use that as a base for periodic quick quizzes. Two weeks ago your student may have been able to remember all the different kinds of fruit in the market, but can they recall more than 'apple' and 'banana' this week? Unless they know a quiz is coming they may not have reviewed their vocabulary.
Have Fun
My final piece of advice is something easy to follow: Have fun! Working one-on-one with a language learner is a very personal process, whether they're a co-worker you're trying to help out, a neighbor you're tutoring as a favor or a friend's cousin's ex-girlfriend who has offered to swap you Chinese lessons. You should be able to teach them something, learn quite a bit about their culture and have a lot of fun in the meantime.
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