Choosing a foreign language tutor: 5 signs of a professional

by Heather Clark

If you're having trouble with a foreign language, it's time to get to work. It is unlikely that you have enough willpower to sit down and learn articles and pronunciation on your own. So it is wise to find a language tutor - an experienced teacher who will make a loser a successful student with great prospects. However, perhaps first you need to figure out what you need to learn a foreign language for, actually. And only then start looking for one.

In this article, we will consider this issue on the example of where and how to find and choose a good tutor in English.

Problem #1: High Demand

Good professionals always have a lot of students. And if you are lucky enough to find one, it is not the fact that there is even one free minute in his schedule.

Where can I find an English tutor? As an alternative, you can look in a nearby city. But here you will need to think about the situation with a number of other unpleasant issues:

By answering all these questions, you can understand whether it makes sense to look for a specialist in your city or it is better to look around the area.

Problem #2: the level of knowledge and teaching

Professionally speaking a foreign language teacher must be able to attract and keep the attention of the student. If he does not have this skill, then do not expect good results.

This is a more difficult problem. How can you know how good a tutor is if you have never seen him or her?

It is not worth it to trust the reviews on the Internet, because they might turn out to be fake. Recommendations of friends are also not always suitable, because you and they have different levels of foreign language. And what is suitable in their case, maybe totally contraindicated to you. In addition, many students believe that a good tutor is someone who provides paper help, but we still advise you to do your homework yourself, and only work with a tutor missing points.

Today, find a job tutor in English trying everyone who has at least some knowledge of the language:

It is important to consider everything: the knowledge and the ability to present this knowledge to the student.

So how to find the very guru of a foreign language, which will awaken the power inside, and make you talk like a native speaker?

Why do you have to search?

If you're unlucky, you'll find one of the following misguided professionals:

As a result of working with any of them, you are waiting for months of lost time, money, and lack of knowledge.

Having some information, you can already determine the degree of the tutor's professionalism at the first meeting with him. Here are 5 things you should pay attention to and which will facilitate your choice of English tutor. They will tell you much more about the person than reviews and recommendations!

What to pay attention to when choosing a tutor

Willingness to interact

The main thing to pay attention to when you meet him in person: do you position the potential tutor as a teacher? Do you respect him or her, despite his or her young age?

Age doesn't play any role in teaching. The main thing is a natural gift and charisma. Age does not play any role in teaching. The main thing - a natural gift and charisma.

If you do not feel confidence in the words of the teacher and have doubts about the presented knowledge, leave this venture. You should look for another person. After a conversation with a teacher, you should feel a connection, an inner trust, or readiness to trust everything he or she tries to bring to your attention.

Teaching techniques being used

It's no secret that grammar is boring. Learning a foreign language can often be interesting only when it is mastered to an above-average level.

One of the main tasks of a tutor is to alternate boring knowledge and interesting.

Learning will be difficult in any case. But if the tutor from time to time will attract attention with some "highlights", it is possible to achieve a better mastering of the material.

It is important to familiarize yourself with the tutor's position on homework. Say goodbye to those who do not check it right away: homework is almost the only way to make sure that the student quickly mastered the previous topic.

Teaching materials to be used

Ask the candidate for tutoring what (and how many) textbooks he/she plans to use when working with you. A limit of 1-2 textbooks will indicate a meager awareness of modern teaching methods.

"What's wrong with the classics if they've worked before?" - you might ask. Nothing is wrong, only a classic textbook is good as a foundation to which a lot of additional literature needs to be attached.

In addition, a good teacher will select materials according to the individual characteristics of the student's perception. And such information cannot be universal for everyone.

Conclusion: there are no perfect textbooks. Each literature has its advantages and disadvantages. And the task of the teacher is to choose from different sources only the most effective and interesting.

In order to successfully master a foreign language, it is necessary to spend equal time on all aspects of speech:

Note: a good tutor will test all aspects of the language (or at least a few of them) at the first meeting with you or tell you about his/her methodology related to them. If not, run as fast as you can!

Smart time management

For the first few classes, it's worth paying attention to what the tutor devotes time to. A reasonable teacher would prefer to spend every minute teaching and explaining the material.

"Lazy" will engage in demagoguery: spend half the lesson talking about his achievements, adventures in other countries, stories about the success of students.

Prolonged checking of homework is also not a good sign. With an experienced professional, it takes five minutes to check. If the student did not understand the previous topic, here comes a second, more thoughtful explanation of the material with a thorough elaboration. If everything goes well with homework, quickly move on to the new topic.

It is not necessary to have tutored for years to understand whether the successful learning of a foreign language. It is enough to do 7-10 lessons to see a positive trend.

We hope that our tips were useful to you and you can find the right tutor who will find the right approach for you

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