I taught an advanced level one-to-one student who didn’t feel very confident about her English and had said she was ready for a focus more serious than conversation…yet she was not at all receptive to this kind of work in our lessons. She liked reading aloud (“so I can correct her pronunciation”) and politely resisted roleplaying or practicing new functional language. As a person – and as a conversation partner – I thought she was great, and I didn’t think her English was anywhere near as “bad” as she thought it was. But I realized that if we continued in the same way, she was unlikely to make the progress she said she wanted to.
She mentioned that speaking activities we did to practice, for example, phrasal verbs or prepositions were useful and helped her learn. Yet when it came time to shift the focus of the meeting from the introductory “how are you” phase to the “let’s have an English lesson” phase, she would sometimes literally get up and start re-arranging her desk (“I’m listening though!” she’d say). More than once she invited me into the office kitchen to make tea and continue our informal conversation rather than start a business reading.
The question this raises in my mind is: how much control should a teacher give the student in a one-to-one lesson?
With experience I’ve grown more and more confident “imposing” activities which I believe will meet the student’s needs and wishes, subtly if need be, but within limits, I generally respect what the student requests.
Yes, I’m the teacher, and it is my role to guide the lesson, but especially when the student is an adult (very often older and more professionally senior than me) paying for lessons, I don’t feel comfortable dragging them through a lesson they don’t want. Within limit, of course, and there are student requests which I wouldn’t heed. My training is in communicative language teaching, done in the target language, so for example, I wouldn’t bring in a list of vocabulary to translate, memorize and drill, even if the student wanted that.
Generally, students who sign up for lessons know that you are a teacher and are happy for you to provide direction. As long as others are clear about what they want – and you are clear about what you can and can’t provide (or whether you think the results of the lesson will be as they expect) – I think teaching adults means respecting their wishes.
{ 3 comments }
That’s a tough one. I haven’t taught privates in 5 years, but am considering getting back into it. If it came right down to the student is making stupid choices I would quit the class. For me this is an easy option as my job actually pays me enough to live on and I am not in a situation where I depend on the income of privates to survive.
Yes – a lot depends on the flexibility you have – in many cases in my experience, choosing not to teach the class is not a very practical option, though if I really felt in a bind I would make it clear to the school and/or student. This student was kind of a funny example more than anything else – but I’ve been fortunate to have mostly good people to work with.
“The question this raises in my mind is: how much control should a teacher give the student in a one-to-one lesson?”
Depends on several factors – the maturity and realism of the student, what the student really wants out of the private lessons (for some, it’s a social thing) and the comfort level of the teacher.
Even in private lessons, the teacher is the ultimate decider. I’ve had to stop private lessons because I couldn’t do more for the student (recommend someone else, maybe its the combination of personalities), students have terminated the lessons for various reasons too. Fine.
There is no one set rule. Students are unique. So are teachers. Follow your gut!
“I think teaching adults means respecting their wishes.”
Absolutely – as long as their wishes jive with what the teacher can accomplish.
Comments on this entry are closed.