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There is a growing demand in the EFL world for private, or one-to-one, tutoring. This is typical among older learners who are looking to advance their English skills for business purposes, but it is also an increasing practice in countries with growing middle classes: parents who have the disposable income and want their children to excel as quickly as possible in their foreign language studies are more and more willing to push their kids into private tutoring, with the hopes that they will get more out of it than they would in a traditional classroom environment. And these hopes are not unfounded. There are many advantages to one-to-one tutoring: there’s an avoidance of mixing students of different abilities, the student’s needs can be more clearly defined, and the lessons tailored specifically to their individual level. But whereas older learners who seek private study are often self-motivated, students who are studying at the behest of their parents might not feel the same. So how is a teacher to maintain a younger student’s interest? The loss of the full classroom dynamic can potentially be devastating to teachers who are unprepared. Students in a full class often forge relationships with one another, and this makes them more comfortable and more willing to engage in their lessons. As such, it’s important for a teacher to develop a rapport with their one-to-one pupil, just as they would with any other student. However, the teacher will rely more heavily upon this dynamic throughout the course of study, and so it’s crucial to make it as strong as possible. Though there’s a possible advantage to this: private teaching can often be less formal than a normal classroom environment, as there’s less of a control dynamic that a teacher needs to maintain. If at all possible, the private teacher of a younger student should avoid being an overt authority figure. Children in general respond well to structure and guidelines, but if they are truly fearful then a teacher runs the risk of making them feel even more singled-out or intimidated than they already might be, and thus less able to focus on their actual studying. A good method of dealing with this is to keep a lesson flowing with activities that are tailored to a child’s individual interests. We learn best when we are personally invested in what we’re studying, so if a student is able to practice their English through texts, characters, or hobbies with which they’re already familiar and that they enjoy, the need to exert authority will be greatly diminished. Connecting with a child’s parents is also a great way to circumvent these issues, by gleaning more about what works and what doesn’t for their kid. Another difficulty that teachers face with a young learner in a one-to-one setting is a potential reduction in possible activities upon which they usually rely. A well-rounded EFL class will often feature partner or group activities in which students can work in a more relaxed setting with their peers, English speakers of similar ability, and aid one another with varied inputs that are different from that of a singular entity, the teacher. For this reason, it’s important to find activities that are more balanced and participatory, and through which a teacher can be on the same level as his or her student. Drilling through textbook pages or doing worksheets might make a single child feel a bit watched over, but more full-conversation-based activities like speaking games or board games, in which a teacher can participate equally, will stimulate a student’s desire to work towards a lesson’s goal. Children by nature learn languages with much more fluid acquisition than adults, and a private tutoring environment is potentially one of the greatest assets in their English education. With the right set of tools and a relaxed, inviting demeanor, teachers should be able to easily avoid any of the above issues and to create a classroom environment to which their student is eager to return time after time, and in which they can flourish in their individual ability.
