Teach English in BaolongshAn Zhen - Tongliao Shi

A teaching method that is becoming more popular is a one on one approach. Instead of having a classroom of students to focus on a teacher has one; though a teacher can have multiple students, they will only have one student at a time. With this method a student can get a tailored lesson plan that meets their motivations, wants and needs. The teacher will also be able to determine what their student needs to focus on more often, as well as figure out how to go about teaching the lesson to the student specifically. The end result stays the same as though teaching a classroom of students and that is providing the knowledge of the English language via writing, reading and speaking. Lessons are less formal, the teacher looking more like a one-on-one tutor. The type of the work that the student would be doing is individual work. This will cause the student to be in the spotlight from the beginning, having them be responsible for the work and getting through the problems. The student unable to hide behind other, maybe more confident students, the teacher will need to keep an eye on the student to make sure that the work doesn’t cause unnecessary stress at having to only rely on themselves to come up with answers. The teacher will need to become the “backboard” for the students to not only practice their English, but to bounce off ideas for problems and situations in the course work. With one student garnering the attention, the teacher will need to be aware of the student’s confidence and help nourish it into reading, writing and speaking English easily as they would surrounded by other students failing and learning. Showing patience and understanding will provide the teacher with the tools to work through any frustrations or slips in behavior from the student as they will have the teacher’s full attention and will less likely to have an outburst out of meanness but out of lack of understanding and comprehension. Speaking slowly and clearly will help prevent misunderstandings and give the student a chance to listen and comprehend on their own. Exchanging phone numbers will also allow for more communication between student and teacher when it comes to questions as well as any scheduling conflicts that may occur. The type of lessons and home work will have to fit the need of the student and the one on one learning method, since there won’t be a need for planning for multiples of students. After finding out what the student needs are through giving a needs analysis, the teacher can plan for the student personally. The lessons can come a lot from course books but lessons should still be just as varied as it would be in a classroom. The activities that would work well with the 1-1 lessons are activities that use authentic materials, since the student may end up seeing some of these materials outside of the classroom; some of the authentic materials for these lessons can include postcards, horoscopes, newspapers, music, videos, taboo words, etc. Though created materials are good tools in the classroom, the varied lessons will hopefully keep the student interested and less likely to not study or drop the class altogether. One on one teaching will make it easier for teacher and student to have English conversation that can focus on current vocabulary and grammar since the teacher will not have to spread out the conversations with multiple students as well as not stay on a general subject or English level. But as it is easier to strike up conversation with one person instead of a full class, the student may want to forego the grammar and the lessons to just focus on the speaking part of the language. To combat the student’s sole desire to just have conversations, what the teacher can do is continue speaking only in English during the class period and steer the conversations from topics that the student may want to conversations that contain the vocabulary and subject matter from the current lesson. Though a good way to learn a language is be immersed by it, for the student, learning the construction of the language will be better for the student in the long run. A one on one teaching experience can be a good way for new teachers to warm up to teaching without feeling overwhelmed by multiple students to look after. New teachers can work their way up to more students as they get used to lesson planning and managing students. Teaching one on one can also be good for non-experienced as well as experienced teachers as they’re new to teaching in a foreign country and would need to grow accustom to teaching to non-English speaking students in a different culture that may contain a different education culture than back home. Though the choice will come down to the teacher to decide what would be good to start off their teaching experience with. One on one teaching is one of the ways a teacher of English as a foreign language can go about teaching the language, it is still have a lot of the characteristics of the classroom experience. It is up to the teacher to balance everything to fit the one student. It will also carry out the same goal that is set in the classroom setting, providing people that want to better their knowledge and ability, with your teaching of the English language.