I’m a Swedish tutor and I always make sure to do all eight :) I can definitely work more on including the same vocabulary over the course of several lessons, but tracking and mapping the students grammar mistakes and including the same structures over and over again is one of my favorite aspects of teaching
Some of the best lessons I've had were when the tutor did practically no correction at all but showed, through facial expression, body language that he was listening to me and responding non verbally to what I was saying. As for written work, tutors need to remember that this was meant to be read and reacted to. The purpose is not to return the work with a load of red ink but to comment on the message conveyed and give constructive feedback and recommending where the student can go to work on problem areas. Nice video. Thank you.
This video is an old one but I have to say that the one important thing most people never mention when picking a tutor is your last point - finding someone who pushes you out of your comfort zone. For me, I think it's the number one dealbreaker as to whether I want to continue lessons with them or not. It is definitely hard to find such tutors... Most people compliment you when you can speak basic things and don't really push you any further.
Thanks Olly for this video. It validates my feelings that I have an awesome French tutor. She does all 8 of the things you mention during our tutoring sessions. She pushes for me to spend the first 10 - 15 minutes of our lessons talking about things I have done since our last lesson and things I plan to do. She also tells me about things happening in her life and asked me questions about whether I have experienced something similar where I live. It has helped with my listening and speaking. She always adds cultural items in her lessons so that I am not only learning French but also French culture, past and present. She has become an invaluable resource to my language learning journey.
Very good and very useful video, as usual. Kudos! Regarding this topic, I think I have to contribute a couple of considerations. The first one is simple: do not insist on having a mother-tongue teacher when you are at a beginner or intermediate level (up to CEFR B2). A teacher who natively speaks your native language and has studied your target language (at the university or somewhere else) usually can understand very well your struggles and often can help you even better than a native speaker of your target language. The second is methodological: do not arrive at your lesson "dry". Bring with you as many questions and as much material as you can. Ask the teacher to examine your material and to answer your questions. Lead the lesson for the first quarter of an hour. Use that time to solve your linguistic problems and to focus the teacher's attention on your goals.
Great video! Regarding point #2: a good teacher is also curious about your background linguistic, i.e. what other languages you know, and how you like to learn languages.
Hi, Olly, I just watched your advice feeling rather worried about whether I fitted the profile of a good tutor according to your criteria and was actually very pleasantly surprised. However, I do a lot of self-criticism and I think a good tutor should make sure the student speaks as much as possible during the lesson. I tend to voice my opinions on subjects we are discussing & realise that even though it’s interesting input, I’m taking away minutes of speaking time from my students so this is an aspect I have to improve. In my opinion a good tutor should make sure the student speaks for 70% of the lesson so as to maximise the possibility for him to practise expressing himself in the target language.
Thanks. I'm always afraid to book a lesson, because it can be really comfortable. I'm also very introverted, so sometimes I don't know how to continue the conversation. Good to know this is something the tutor is responsible for.
I like to be corrected - but just enough that I don't lose sight of the issue of accuracy, just to remind me that I should be striving to improve my accuracy, even if I don't attain it. Tutors who over correct make me feel that I'm crossing a mine field and wherever I put my foot down, it's going to explode, with the result that I just freeze.
Great sum up! The biggest problem for me now is to spot that teacher from the very beginning. I am searching for an Arabic teacher. And even after a trial lesson I don't know whether he is good. It takes some time.
I’m a heavy italki user and I think it’s really difficult to judge how good they are after only one lesson. I usually take two lessons before deciding whether I want to get a package or not. In the past I had a tutor who made a really good impression in the trial but then was pretty bad when she wasn’t trying to make a good impression
@@heathersaxton8118 Exactly! I tried 6 teachers on iTalki 😃😃 But I really enjoy private classes. And it's probably like in the real life. We can't know the person from the very first meeting. So I will just give it another try. Hopefully without wasting more money.
i had bad luck so far my tutors did just sit their in silence once i went through some basic small talk, luckily I always have questions in case they pull this.. I really want a tutor who will actually converse
I agree with most everything you said except the one about the tutor being responsible for the conversation. I think it's the student's responsibility to identify their interests, be responsive to questions asked and think about what they want to talk about. I've been a conversation tutor to people who say they just want to talk (and are not open to much correction or structure at all) but are unresponsive when asked any questions and just sit there, expecting me to read their minds or guess their interests. A motivated language learner knows that a lot of learning happens outside the sessions and depends on time spent with interesting content, so they will suggest themselves discussions of these podcasts, videos and articles in the lessons. Of course, a tutor should be interested, attentive and responsive, but ultimately, it's the learner who wants to speak and should take responsibility for that goal.
Oily, you are a unique individual and your unique methods and advice works for you but they won’t work for people who are not you. I can study math the way Einstein did but it won’t make me an Einstein. Likewise, I can study languages the way you do but it won’t make me a polyglot. So before you start telling people how to learn languages, do some research and find out who your technicks apply to.
This is the best video about tutors which I`ve found. I was looking for my work and I wondered how can I improve my lang lessons.
I’m a Swedish tutor and I always make sure to do all eight :) I can definitely work more on including the same vocabulary over the course of several lessons, but tracking and mapping the students grammar mistakes and including the same structures over and over again is one of my favorite aspects of teaching
Appreciated this video a lot as a tutor
Some of the best lessons I've had were when the tutor did practically no correction at all but showed, through facial expression, body language that he was listening to me and responding non verbally to what I was saying. As for written work, tutors need to remember that this was meant to be read and reacted to. The purpose is not to return the work with a load of red ink but to comment on the message conveyed and give constructive feedback and recommending where the student can go to work on problem areas. Nice video. Thank you.
This video is an old one but I have to say that the one important thing most people never mention when picking a tutor is your last point - finding someone who pushes you out of your comfort zone. For me, I think it's the number one dealbreaker as to whether I want to continue lessons with them or not. It is definitely hard to find such tutors... Most people compliment you when you can speak basic things and don't really push you any further.
Thanks Olly for this video. It validates my feelings that I have an awesome French tutor. She does all 8 of the things you mention during our tutoring sessions. She pushes for me to spend the first 10 - 15 minutes of our lessons talking about things I have done since our last lesson and things I plan to do. She also tells me about things happening in her life and asked me questions about whether I have experienced something similar where I live. It has helped with my listening and speaking. She always adds cultural items in her lessons so that I am not only learning French but also French culture, past and present. She has become an invaluable resource to my language learning journey.
Great pointers! Greetings from an American expatriate language teacher-both in-person and online-in Taipei, Taiwan.
Very good and very useful video, as usual. Kudos! Regarding this topic, I think I have to contribute a couple of considerations. The first one is simple: do not insist on having a mother-tongue teacher when you are at a beginner or intermediate level (up to CEFR B2). A teacher who natively speaks your native language and has studied your target language (at the university or somewhere else) usually can understand very well your struggles and often can help you even better than a native speaker of your target language. The second is methodological: do not arrive at your lesson "dry". Bring with you as many questions and as much material as you can. Ask the teacher to examine your material and to answer your questions. Lead the lesson for the first quarter of an hour. Use that time to solve your linguistic problems and to focus the teacher's attention on your goals.
Great video! Regarding point #2: a good teacher is also curious about your background linguistic, i.e. what other languages you know, and how you like to learn languages.
This video confirms all the reasons why i think my Spanish tutor is incredible ☺️ thank you for always creating fantastic content !
Hi, Olly, I just watched your advice feeling rather worried about whether I fitted the profile of a good tutor according to your criteria and was actually very pleasantly surprised. However, I do a lot of self-criticism and I think a good tutor should make sure the student speaks as much as possible during the lesson. I tend to voice my opinions on subjects we are discussing & realise that even though it’s interesting input, I’m taking away minutes of speaking time from my students so this is an aspect I have to improve. In my opinion a good tutor should make sure the student speaks for 70% of the lesson so as to maximise the possibility for him to practise expressing himself in the target language.
Disagree. Being able to listen in conversation is equally important as producing output.
Thanks. I'm always afraid to book a lesson, because it can be really comfortable. I'm also very introverted, so sometimes I don't know how to continue the conversation. Good to know this is something the tutor is responsible for.
Such great tips! ❤Thanks so much!
0:15 Whether already includes both cases. "Or not" is superfluous. _Where no man has gone before._
This is great advice, not just for language tutors but tutors of any subject!
I like to be corrected - but just enough that I don't lose sight of the issue of accuracy, just to remind me that I should be striving to improve my accuracy, even if I don't attain it. Tutors who over correct make me feel that I'm crossing a mine field and wherever I put my foot down, it's going to explode, with the result that I just freeze.
Very useful video 👍 I try to take more Italki lessons because I need to practice my speaking.
Great sum up! The biggest problem for me now is to spot that teacher from the very beginning. I am searching for an Arabic teacher. And even after a trial lesson I don't know whether he is good. It takes some time.
I’m a heavy italki user and I think it’s really difficult to judge how good they are after only one lesson. I usually take two lessons before deciding whether I want to get a package or not. In the past I had a tutor who made a really good impression in the trial but then was pretty bad when she wasn’t trying to make a good impression
@@heathersaxton8118 Exactly! I tried 6 teachers on iTalki 😃😃 But I really enjoy private classes. And it's probably like in the real life. We can't know the person from the very first meeting. So I will just give it another try. Hopefully without wasting more money.
My tutor has every one of these 😍 I'm very lucky it seems.
You've struck gold!
I can usually do all 8 of these things at the same time. But not always. It's bit challenging as a teacher.
Hong Kong scaffolding is made of bamboo...great video, great focus on what really matters. Grazzie!!
i had bad luck so far my tutors did just sit their in silence once i went through some basic small talk, luckily I always have questions in case they pull this.. I really want a tutor who will actually converse
Thank you
I agree with most everything you said except the one about the tutor being responsible for the conversation. I think it's the student's responsibility to identify their interests, be responsive to questions asked and think about what they want to talk about. I've been a conversation tutor to people who say they just want to talk (and are not open to much correction or structure at all) but are unresponsive when asked any questions and just sit there, expecting me to read their minds or guess their interests. A motivated language learner knows that a lot of learning happens outside the sessions and depends on time spent with interesting content, so they will suggest themselves discussions of these podcasts, videos and articles in the lessons. Of course, a tutor should be interested, attentive and responsive, but ultimately, it's the learner who wants to speak and should take responsibility for that goal.
I usually have a list of topics written down in case the conversation with a tutor seems to be going "dry".
Alternative title: How to be a great language tutor.
By the way, I think that everything that you say is also very relevant to language exchanges.
Totally
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Correction has been shown to be a waste of time. The person will eventually correct themselves.
Haha I hope I can be a good Mandarin teacher😜
I'm my humble opinion I'm the perfect tutor 😆
What do your students say?
Do you recomend any good Japanese tutors?
Oily, you are a unique individual and your unique methods and advice works for you but they won’t work for people who are not you. I can study math the way Einstein did but it won’t make me an Einstein. Likewise, I can study languages the way you do but it won’t make me a polyglot. So before you start telling people how to learn languages, do some research and find out who your technicks apply to.
By that logic, kids shouldn't bother going to school.
I'm a native English speaker and trying to understand this guy is a chore