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Recently the demand for individual English lessons has increased on the ground that students have become more aware of importance and benefits of the English language. In this essay I want to discuss advantages and disadvantages of one-to-one classes which I have experienced throughout my thorny yet replete teaching career. It’s commonly known that speaking any second (third, fourth) language breaks personal boundaries and leads to a better life, therefore the demand on language teaching services has drastically increased over the past decades. Especially regarding one-to-one classes, as the group language courses cannot be specifically geared towards individuals’ needs and requests. Individual classes have a good number of advantages that make both studying and teaching process faster and more effective. First of all, the teacher is set to work with only one personality at a particular language level, that in its turn eases the approach as one-to-one classes have less formal nature and the teacher becomes a partner. Secondly, individual students are often highly motivated and it is easier to maintain their determination by approaching them in a personalized way. Setting a good rapport and modelling suitable in-class behavior are also considered to be bright sides of individual teaching, because these aspects are easier to deal with when working with only one person. Apparently, for one-to-one classes such activities as group discussions, debates, games involving more people, etc., are not to be conducted, but instead other activities aimed at students’ specific language problems and drawing up their interest will be implemented: such highly involving and interactive ones as discussing relevant topics of student’s interest, reading stories, retelling articles or extracts, making up cards, maps or videos. Working individually helps to form and produce better pronunciation, speaking manner, accent, etc. But there are also a so called dark sides of individual teaching. One of them is pose to be a loss of classroom dynamics and tiredness concerning both a teacher and a student. In order to prevent this discouraging problem a teacher has to keep a variety of activities and techniques in store. When making a lesson plan a level of involvement, energy consumption and dynamics leaps of each activity and each phase should be taken into consideration, so to balance the interplay of both sides and not to bore or exhaust one another. Another disadvantage could be a sameness and, hence, predictability of classes and their flow, as well as students getting used to teacher’s language usage pattern. To enrich student’s language receiving skills a teacher should present a variety of listening practice including authentic audio resources (if of a relevant level), video materials, etc. All in all, the greatest advantage of 1-1 teaching I find is that a teacher is able to increase lessons’ productivity hundredfold by finding an individual way and approach of teaching to a particular student with particular needs and expectations. However, whatever special groups a teacher works with it all fruits well as long as the teacher is aware of his work and is very flexible and professional in nature, and, of course, loves what he or she does.
