Posts by Emily S.

Students may wonder, when they begin private tutoring, how much time they need to "improve their skills". In the case of English, either writing, or improving their foreign language skills, I have found that 15-20 hours is a good initial target for both students and tutors. This is enough time to become familiar with the tutor's methods and style, to relax and get into a learning mode again, to compare a "before" and "after", to make a self-evaluation. For tutors, this should be enough time to move a perceptible degree in the field, not a whole "level", but enough to show the student that he can improve, and you can help him. It also shows the student how intense this work can be, and helps him decide if he wants to continue the process.

After about 20 hours, the student and tutor can discuss the progress to date, and any potential future work together. This is the time to review the original goals, any new or modified goals, a new or revised timetable or schedule, additional or new teaching resources (perhaps it's time to finally use a formal text), and methods of evaluation. I would suggest setting up 15-20 hour blocks of time, and evaluating progress after each block. In this way, the tutoring doesn't just "go on forever", with no clear idea of when it's "finished". Both students and tutors need to know when it's time to "end", when it's "enough", in order to make sure that the goals are met within that agreed time frame. Such blocks make the tutoring feel more structured, like a curriculum, and also allow the tutor to plan when to accept future students.

I find that nearly all private tutoring is quite intensive for both me and my students. The concentration, focus, attention, demands are often more than the students are prepared for when they seek tutoring. It's hard for someone who's never received private instruction to know how difficult it can be. Maybe for this reason, many students don't last beyond 10-20 hours of instruction.

Especially in my area of ESL, lower-level students who claim they want to improve their skills quickly find that the work is too intense to sustain for long periods. Is there any way for a tutor to help moderate that intensity? In fact, there are a few ways, but nothing will fully alleviate the pressure of sitting one on one with a tutor. Taking a short pause is sometimes helpful, lightening up the mood, digressing to some personal asides, making a small joke, reflecting the focus back onto the tutor, are small actions that can relieve the focus. Yet learning any language, including English, from a lower or beginning level is extremely hard. Despite all my experience, I find few students are prepared for the reality of the length of study required, or what it will take of their outside time to study and practice beyond the tutoring session.

Just as it's very focused work for the tutor, it's equally or more intense for the student. I always remember that when I see the student flag, or become disheartened. I feel one of my main tasks is to show students the reality of their choice to receive one-on-one tutoring, and to help them make the most of it, however intense it feels.

In working with higher-level (usually adult) students in my field of ESL, sometimes I have noticed that they seem to actually need little help, yet they request services for what they feel are their deficiencies. Even after I listen to them carefully and assess their oral skills as quite good to excellent, with few or no obvious errors except for an accent, they insist they face difficulties which need remediation. While my pay is beneficial to me, I sometimes would like to tell potential students that they don't really have much of a problem that I can address. Yet they insist. This is when I remember that they may simply need a dose of self-confidence and a positive assessment from a perceived expert such as me.

The need for positive reinforcement and confidence building is probably necessary in other disciplines too. I think sometimes students have seldom heard others praise their abilities or coping strategies, whether family, teachers, colleagues or superiors. In my field of ESL, I know that many native speakers disparage a foreigner's efforts when in fact to us ESL teachers, the non-native speaker would be evaluated at a very high functioning level. Therefore, students feel they can't speak, can't communicate. So sometimes I think my job is to simply acknowledge them, listen to them, help them with some minor issues, and give them enough confidence to approach their oral English more positively. It may not feel like much help, but to them it's a priceless boost.

Thus, I would say to tutors that sometimes your work may seem easy, unnecessary even, but the simple fact of you, the expert, showing a student he has only minor problems is what might make all the difference. Consider that the next time a potential student, especially an adult, asks for your help even though you feel he/she doesn't really need much of your subject expertise.

I sometimes teach advanced ESL to business professionals in Silicon Valley, where we have a large foreign population. These adult students come to me seeking help with their oral or written language when they face some crisis or deficit at work that they feel must be overcome to advance in their job, profession or field. They are often desperate to improve their skills immediately, even after having lived in the country 5-20 years or more. Silicon Valley is highly competitive, and they have scrambled hard and long to make it up the ladder, to compete with native-speaking peers, to pass job reviews and interviews. Suddenly they must return to a study mode with a private tutor, often after years out of school. Unfortunately, their learned business habits, their ingrained competitiveness, sometimes gets in the way of establishing a successful relation with a tutor.

A tutor may be independently employed, "in business" so to speak, but I am not the VP of Human Resources or Engineering that they often face, nor do I speak that language or think in that cut-throat mode. I am a teacher, hopefully someone who engages in a kinder, gentler form of human interaction, without the bravado, double-speak, hidden agenda, secrecy, and other features of business people who must thrive in a highly energetic environment. If you are a business professional seeking help, consider this when you approach a tutor. I am also a professional, with as much experience or more than you have. You don't need to "shop around" for these services, compare products as if you were buying a service contract. You don't need to approach me as if I might be cheating you, or am out to get you. You do need to respect my career and field, and if you are honest about your situation, I can probably help you with your ESL needs.

Tutoring adult professionals can be quite challenging for teachers, but I suggest maintaining a professional and confident approach, and being a true equal to sometimes demanding and critical students. Don't let their manner become intimidating. Show them how you are qualified to help them. It can work, but both sides must approach the relationship with respect, confidence, honesty, and openness.

As a tutor who works with adults, I find that students have various, and sometimes hidden, motives for seeking to hire a tutor. Sometimes these motives seem to have little to do with learning English, for example, and instead are related to such outside factors as a job promotion, a negative job review, an outside income such as blogging, or even as a way to gather inside information about how the business of tutoring works, in order to promote a similar business themselves. It's sometimes impossible for me to determine, even when I ask a straight-forward question, why a potential student is seeking to hire a tutor at this particular time. This can be difficult for a tutor who tries to plan a particular curriculum, only to find the process cut off just as it begins; it can also be difficult for a student who doesn't explain the real reasons and goals for the tutoring he/she seeks.

Let me give an example. A woman with advanced English skills came to me who had recently received an unfavorable job review during her probation period for a new position. I gave an assessment, developed a learning plan, and recommended textbooks. However, I only met her three times, when she suddenly told me she couldn't afford to pay for tutoring and hoped that if she kept her job after the next review, she could convince her new boss to pay for her lessons. Apparently she merely wanted to impress her boss that she had made an effort to learn, although in fact her three sessions were a waste of her time and money as she barely had time to begin any real study.

Tutors can hardly plan for and anticipate such "hidden motives" in an adult student. Despite careful questioning, I doubt there is a way to completely prevent such problems. On the other hand, I would strongly encourage adult learners to be open with a potential tutor, and tell them if you have limited time and resources, or if you have specific motives to seek tutoring, especially over a very short time span. If you are honest, a tutor may be better able to tailor work to meet your needs even over a few sessions, rather than think you want tutoring for some extended hours when you don't. Otherwise, your gesture may end up being a true waste of your time and money, something no one wants to see.