Helpful Information

Tips on Selecting a Good Teacher

If you don’t already know what kind of teacher you want, these tips might be helpful. Please note that these tips were written concerning teachers of English, Spanish, Italian, and other Western languages. They may not apply to teachers of other languages.

1. First, tell the teacher what you want to study (pronunciation, conversation, test preparation, etc.). Then, ask the teacher if they will make a lesson plan and how each class will be structured. A good teacher should be able to answer these questions to your satisfaction.

2. If you are a beginning student, a good teacher won’t ask you what you want to study, they will know what you should study.

3. A good teacher will correct your mistakes and help you focus on strengthening your weak skills. They will interest you with challenging lessons rather than bore you with things you already know.

4. A good teacher will not make you feel bad about a weak skill, they will correct you and make sure you remember.

5. Many times there is more than one correct answer. In these cases, a good teacher will tell you the best answer, but won’t insist that it’s the only answer.

6. A good teacher will offer to give you homework and offer to correct it. It is your right to refuse homework if you are too busy, but a good teacher will suggest you do homework.

7. If you have a teacher from a Western country, remember that they expect you to ask them questions. This is standard in Western educational systems. A good teacher will answer your questions, but won’t be diverted from the lesson plan by them.

Guide to Contacting English Teachers

Guide to Teaching Conversational English

These are some ideas you may find helpful when teaching conversational English. Keep in mind these are just pointers, and may not be useful if the student already knows what they want.

1. Make a plan. Make a lesson schedule (syllabus) with the student and follow it. That way you can tell if you're going too fast or too slow. Many teachers naturally go too fast, simply because they forget that they’re the experts. A lesson schedule also gives both you and the student an exit strategy. For example, after 20 lessons you can part ways without someone feeling bad for canceling the class.

2. Structure each lesson around one topic and avoid going on long tangents. Examples of topics are "buying things", "introducing yourself/others", "phone calls", etc. You could also structure each lesson around a newspaper or other article. This goes hand-in-hand with the lesson plan. Unstructured lessons will quickly become boring and repetitive for both you and the student. Depending on the student’s level, 70% structured work and 30% free conversation is a good rule of thumb. Avoid doing 100% free conversation at all costs. Unless you really hit it off with the student, it will get dull fast. Besides, the student won't learn anything.

3. Expand your idea of proper English. A student may say something that sounds odd to an American, but it may sound perfectly normal to someone from the UK. Let it go; don’t get bogged down on hyper-correct grammatical issues. If it sounds really weird, tell them a better and simpler way to say it.

4. Correct them. This is why they pay you. When you correct them, insist that they repeat the corrected form. Most students will do this anyway. Some will do it for a while and then get lazy. It may feel awkward at first, but they will remember much more if you insist that they repeat after you.

5. Make notes during class. In one-on-one, a pad of paper is a good substitute for a whiteboard. Let them make a copy at the end of class (use 7-11 if you want). That way they can review something besides their own notes, and you'll have a record of what you've already covered.

6. Give them homework. See how they do without you prompting/helping them. The more un-homework-like the homework the better. You could ask them to watch your favorite English TV show/movie with the subtitles off (or covered up) and then explain it to you next class. Give them prepared questions if you’ve seen the show/movie before and they’re low level.

7. Start each class with a short review of the previous class (another reason to take notes!). This may only take five minutes, but it's very useful to the student. Even if you just ask, "Do you remember what 'blah-blah-blah' means?" you'll be helping them tremendously.

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