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 teach an adult:
1. Consider carefully whether you would be better to have tuition at your home/office or at the tutor’s premises. In some cases it can be more convenient to have the lesson at your work, presuming that you have a suitable room available. You may prefer to meet the tutor in a public place for the first lesson, but this may not be the best option for longer term (background noise, additional costs, space…)
2. Match your tutor to your needs. If you are a beginner then you will have different needs from someone who would like to improve their business language. Ask your tutor about their experience with teaching the type of language you need.
3. If you would like to work towards a qualification then ask the tutor what they think is appropriate. There is no need for an adult learner to take a GCSE or A Level – indeed, I would advise against it, unless you particularly like talking about how much your brother annoys you, or why you love geography! Those qualifications are carefully aimed at teenage learners and so some of the topics are less relevant for adults. There are other certificates available which are internationally recognised, for example the certificates offered by the Goethe Institut for German or the Cambridge Certificates for English (EFL).
4. Have reasonable expectations of what you will be paying. Remember that the minimum wage for someone over 24 is around £10.50 per hour. 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 meet your requirements 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.
5. Think about how often you will take classes and how long each lesson will be. If you have little time to commit and an irregular working pattern then you may not be able to learn as quickly as if you can dedicate time to your project two or three times each week. Once a week is a good start for lessons, less than once a fortnight will give too much time to forget in between! As a general rule, the quicker you need to learn, the more time you must make available. So if you have just three months to learn then you would be wise to fit in as many teaching hours as possible.
6. Personality. Ensuring that you get on well with the tutor and can work well with 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 is the owner of Language Learners and has been providing French, German and English (EFL) lessons to adults and children for more than 17 years.
How do you measure success when learning a language? For some people success is measured in exams, certificates and qualifications, for others it is more a question of gaining confidence to be able to do things which you couldn’t do before, like ordering a coffee – or discussing your refurbishment project with the builder! Today’s success story is about Liz. Here is what she says:
“Owning a home in the Swiss Alps, I recently needed to significantly progress my working knowledge of French to cope with the redevelopment of our property there and so liaise with builders and suppliers. I enjoyed fun and diverse learning sessions where all key language skills were addressed; vocabulary and scenarios relevant to houses and building really helped me specifically.”
It wasn’t all about the building project. We also took care to help with grammar so that Liz could understand whether people were talking about things they had already done or what was to be done in the future. Liz continues: “For the first time too, grammar was understandable. Teri’s grammar sheets clearly showed how to construct particular tenses and the structure of sentences in terms of word order – something I had always struggled with at school.”
Liz continued with classes for some time after the completion of the refurbishment project. She concludes “Language Learners lessons have definitely progressed my ability in French and I feel confident to liaise in a multitude of scenarios. I still have a lot to learn, but I know I can speak, read and write at a much higher level than ever before and my understanding, gained from a range of interactive listening exercises, has also progressed.”
During the writing exam, students are asked to write a range of different types of language. You may, for example, be asked to write an article for a school newspaper, or it may be a letter (formal or informal). Make sure you know how to set out each different type of writing and remember to include a greeting and a closing if it is an e-mail!
When it comes to marking, there are a range of techniques which will help to open up the higher grades. One key point is to answer the correct number of questions! For some questions you will have a choice of which question to answer. Don’t try to answer them all as you will run out of time, and some of your answers will be ignored. Try to pick the question for which you have the most ideas that you can express in your target language, and be sure to cover each bullet point.
In order to score well you should also show a range of grammar knowledge and constructions. GCSE examiners are very keen to give out points. Higher Level candidates should try to include as many of the following list as possible:
– A range of tenses (past, present and future as a minimum, but for a higher mark then present, perfect, imperfect, future, conditional and pluperfect if possible);
– Complex grammatical structures – e.g. um…zu for German, après avoir +past participle and avant de +infinitive for French;
– A range of people doing the verbs (to show you can use correct endings);
– Opinions (3 different ways of showing what you think);
– Modal verbs (can, should, must);
– A set phrase or two using the subjunctive;
– Word order: especially for German but also with French (adjective order);
– Correct endings depending on gender (and “case” for German);
– Time phrases – not just “at 12 o’clock” or “tomorrow” but also “rarely”, “often”, “never”, “always”, etc.;
– A negative or preferably two;
– A question where possible.
Additional things for all candidates to think about:
1. Make sure that your written pieces contain work on each of the bullet points. For example, if there are four bullet points (Edexcel) then make sure that it is clear that you have answered all of them, otherwise you lose marks. Check to see that you have used the relevant tense or tenses for each point. If there are two bullet points (AQA) then be sure to expand on each and use a variety of tenses as well as giving your opinion;
2. NEVER leave an answer blank. An intelligent guess is more likely to gain marks than a blank (which is guaranteed not to score at all!);
3. Read the translation passage twice before you start to translate any of it. Get a good idea of what it all means in English, as that will keep you on the right track in your target language. Then if you have a tricky sentence, you can make sure it matches with the general idea of the passage, rather than mistranslating sections you were confident with in order to make them match with your guess for the tricky part;
4. Watch out for the little words that can change the meaning of a sentence. Words like “not”, “already”, “never” etc. provide key information for answering the question successfully, especially in the case of the translation passage. Try not to miss them out of your translation;
5. Pay careful attention to the use of tenses in the translation section. Past, present or future DOES make a difference and you should be able to recognise which one is needed.
Many keen skiers will spend the weeks and even months before the season getting their body up to speed, ready for the snow. They run, squat, stretch and lift, hoping to improve their fitness and stamina. While they may not ski into the first snow drift they meet, they can sometimes fall at the key hurdle of ordering a drink and food at the bar!
“But everyone speaks English” I hear you say. It is certainly true in the hospitality industry that many staff will speak some English. However, the level may be patchy, or you may find that it is fine until you have a specific requirement which is less common. This can be a serious issue if you have food intolerances or need to avoid particular foods for any other reason.
Once you move away from the well-beaten tourist track then you are more likely to come across those who do not speak English. The most memorable experience I have of this is from a skiing holiday in one of the less well-known resorts in Austria. On the first day of our holiday, one of our group fell awkwardly and damaged her leg. She clearly required an ambulance, which was duly summoned. Although she spoke some German, her pain levels meant that she had forgotten most of the niceties – and it turned out that neither of the ambulance crew spoke any English at all! Filling out all the forms on the way to hospital would have been a most interesting experience if we hadn’t sent another German-speaker with her and could have delayed treatment once she reached hospital.
Our suggestion would be to learn the basics of the most common language in your holiday destination. If you are in doubt about your accent then you can write a dozen or so useful phrases on a piece of paper and point to the ones you need. If you have a food allergy or intolerance or other medical issue, then consider getting a translation of the issue and any medication you may require. There are several websites where you can get medical information cards in a variety of languages.
Teri Fleetwood is an experienced language tutor with over 16 years experience of tutoring to the GCSE and A Level curriculum. For more information please look at the rest of the posts in this blog and also check our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LanguageLearnersSurrey/ If you would like to discuss 1:1 or small group tuition, whether for exam preparation or pleasure, then do get in touch! teri@language-learners.com
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