Whether you are choosing a language tutor for a child, for an adult or for a group, there are several considerations that you may want to bear in mind when it comes to finding the right person for you. Here are some ideas for you if you are looking for someone to tutor a student under the age of 18:
1. Be timely. If your student is finding the subject hard at school then consider getting a short burst of tuition as soon as possible, to get them back on the right track. Please do not leave it until just a few weeks before the exams and expect the tutor to unpick years of misunderstandings and lack of confidence.
2. Ask for their DBS check. It is not compulsory for someone to have a DBS check in order to tutor, but it is definitely good practice to do so.
3. Consider carefully whether you would be better to have tuition at your home or at the tutor’s premises. Some students work better in unfamiliar surroundings, away from familiar distractions – others do better when they feel comfortable. Do note that most professional tutors will be unwilling to be left alone with a child in the child’s own home due to safeguarding reasons.
4. Match your tutor to your needs. If you would like your 8-year-old to have a little booster then you may be fine with a University student. However, if your child has specific additional learning needs or is studying for an exam then it may be a good idea to pay extra for someone with relevant experience!
5. The GCSE curriculum and exam methods have changed in the last two years – so University students DID NOT sit the same exam that your child will be taking. If you need to be boosting grades then ask your tutor questions about how they have kept their knowledge of the curriculum up-to-date.
6. Have reasonable expectations of what you will be paying. Remember that the minimum wage for someone aged 21 or over will be £12.71 per hour from April 2026. So, if you are expecting to pay just £10 per hour you can only legally employ those aged 20 or under! With a good tutor you are not just paying for the one hour of the class, but also for the time they spend planning and marking homework. It can take quite some time to plan a student-specific scheme of work to boost that particular student’s grades in the time available. As a rough guide, prepare for the cost of the tutor to be similar to the cost of a 1:1 session with a physiotherapist or personal trainer at the gym.
7. If your tutor is just going over the same material that was covered in school, using the same books and worksheets, then it is time for another tutor. They should be adding value by bringing different/more resources. Not that you
necessarily want lots of different explanations (that’s confusing) but a range of new exercises and challenges will really help to consolidate the information.
8. Personality. Ensuring that your child gets on well with the tutor and will work nicely for them is a key element. Sometimes two people just don’t get on well, without it being anyone’s fault – so be prepared to review the situation after two or three classes to make sure that both sides are happy.
Teri Fleetwood has been providing French and German tutoring for 20 years. Her students consistently exceed expectations at GCSE and A Level through a careful mixture of topic and grammar work as well as a keen attention to exam technique.
“My teacher gave us a list of questions and told us that we should prompt (insert choice of AI here) to give us some good answers for us to learn. Should I be doing that for German too?”
Pretty shocking, isn’t it.
This was the start of a conversation with one of my independent candidates during their lesson this week. They are studying one European language at school, and German with me.
It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that I was not in favour of this idea, either for German or for the language this student is learning at school. Is it cheating? Frankly, yes! However, that is not the only reason that I advised against this course of action. This is a talented student who will be taking GCSE German (their third or fourth language) early (ie they are not yet in Year 11). Put simply, I don’t want them to deliver pre-scripted robotic-sounding answers and DROP marks that they are capable of earning for themselves, using their own hard work. Will they make some mistakes? Quite probably. But the grade they receive will be a result of their own hard work and will be something they can be proud of.
Is it possible to train your AI well enough that it starts to sound like you (or you start to sound like it), delivers colloquial language predominantly using the GCSE vocabulary list, gives answers tailored to your exam board, and scores well? Maybe. Is it possible for a student age 13-16 to do this well? Much more tricky. Will such an attempt either end up sounding like they have cheated (which they have) or make no sense at all to a “real” speaker of the language? Well, I guess we will see in the next couple of years if this school and others continue to make such suggestions….
Naturally, the school will remain unnamed. Bearing in mind the wide geographical area I cover when teaching online, if it sounds familiar, then you may like to wonder just how widespread this is.
It is often recommended that exam students try to include some idioms in their writing, to show that they have a good knowledge of the language they are learning. While this can be useful, it is a tip that should be used with caution as idioms, by their very nature, don’t translate directly, and so it is very easy to use them incorrectly, or to misunderstand when they would be appropriate.
Following on from the sausage-related German idioms found in our October blog, here are some French ones, all related to food.
1. Ça ne mange pas de pain. Direct translation: That does not eat any bread. Meaning: It doesn’t cost anything.
2. Garder une poire pour la soif. Direct translation: To keep a pear for the thirst. Meaning: To keep something back for a rainy day.
3. Je m’occupe de ma pomme. Direct translation: I take care of my apple. Meaning: I’m looking after number one (i.e. myself).
4. On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l’argent du beurre. Direct translation: You cannot have the butter and the money for the butter. (Presumably to do with farmer’s wives making butter for the family to eat, or to sell for extra money). Meaning: You can’t have your cake and eat it.
5. N’en fait pas tout un fromage. Direct translation: Do not make a whole cheese out of it. Meaning: Don’t make such a fuss.
I hope you can have some fun with these. Which English idioms do you think would be the hardest to explain for the non-native speaker?
As an experienced speaker of a second (or third) language it is important to keep your language skills up to date rather than allowing them to benignly stagnate in a smug cloud of “I’ve got this – I have a certificate/A Level/degree”. This isn’t simply a question of keeping your grammar knowledge sharp and remembering a few spelling rules, but more about following the progress of the language as it evolves.
A story which highlights this need comes from the German exchange arranged by my school when I was a teenager. As with all exchanges of the time, a group of students from our school stayed in the host town, living with students and their families. We visited museums and places of interest, had a day in the host school and generally did our best to get by in a language that we had been learning for about two years. While I have vague memories of a lovely host family and a rather strange host teenager (probably more to do with cultural differences than our personalities), the thing that stood out for me most was one of the English teachers from the host school. I can’t even describe his physical appearance particularly well, except that he had a beard and wore jeans when all of our teachers were in suits. What struck me was his use of English. Quite grammatically accurate, but all of his more colloquial language was stuck about 20 years in the past. He sounded quite like my parents when they were being deliberately silly and using “old” phrases from the 1960s and 1970s!
Now that I am probably of a similar age to that man, (give or take a decade or so!), it is something that I am acutely aware of in my own teaching and use of language. Keeping my own language skills relevant to the modern day is an ongoing challenge. What tips can I give for anyone in a similar position who would like to maintain their language skills?
Use modern technology, streaming services and the like to watch films/TV in the source language. Choose your material wisely – if you use your language for work or need more formal language then watch appropriate material and don’t restrict yourself to daytime gossip TV or the kind of show where “his girlfriend ran away with the hairdresser’s neighbour’s cat”. For colloquialisms, a little bit of reality TV goes a long way, but bear in mind that slang is generational, so try not to “get down with the kids” too much!
Read the news from the country, in the source language. Do so regularly. It can be really useful to note how a story is reported differently in different countries. It helps boost cultural awareness as well as giving a broader depth of perspectives on a topic. You could also choose a variety of news sources, so you read the same story in both a broadsheet and a more popular format.
Visit the country when you can. During that visit do not withdraw into your personal bubble of headphones and an English film on your tablet, but use public transport and be fully aware of what is around you. That may be as simple as noticing that shop adverts and announcements now use the informal “you” rather than the formal one that you were taught is correct in such situations. Or it may be that you casually overhear a rapid conversation between friends and then spend 10 minutes afterwards trying to work out what they were talking about.
Speak with native speakers whenever possible. Especially while you are in the relevant country, or with speakers who still live there. Those who have lived abroad for an extended period may also find that their language skills become dated.
Above all, have fun with your language! Real-life use is much more likely to stick than pure book work.
Teri is an experienced language tutor with a particular interest in both French and German. Her most recent short holiday included many opportunities to practise her skills, including protracted negotiations at the railway station around using the ticket app and its failings, making purchases at the Christmas market and translating a 10-minute demonstration about medieval instruments of torture!
If you are wondering, the photo is of a historical reenactment group in Geneva, preparing for a demonstration of épée techniques in use in 1602 at the time of the “Escalade” attack on the city by the Duke of Savoie. Don’t let your language get this outdated!
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
