Teach English in ShaogongzhuAng Jiedao - Tianjin

Teaching one to oneThis research article seeks to explore the practice of one to one teaching. There are many advantages and disadvantages to one to one teaching. Personally, I enjoy one to one teaching as I am a language and Mathematics tutor and I find one to one lessons both effective and enjoyable. I am, however, not blind to the disadvantages or weaknesses of one to one teaching. This article will discuss both the advantages and disadvantages of one to one teaching. I would also like to explore the alternative to one to one teaching, namely teaching groups. This will then lead me to discuss why one to one teaching is better medium to teach young adults or even adults, whereas teaching groups is better for younger students and can be good for adults as well. One to one teaching refers, quite obviously, to a teacher teaching only one student at a time. The advantages of teaching on a one to one basis are multiple. Firstly there are no mixed levels, there is only one student and that student can only be at one level in his or her learning of english. This is useful in that you can focus on one level, the one that suits the student, at a time. The students are usually more motivated as they are not attending a class with other students but rather they are working on their own in their own time. The student?s needs are easily and clearly defined, as the teacher you are only focusing on one student and this makes it easier to discern quickly and early what the student struggles with and what her or she is good at. This means that you can focus on aspects that the student struggles with and spend less time on aspects the student understands or grasps easily. It?s also easier to develop a good relationship between student and teacher. The teacher only has to focus on one student and so you get to know your student better than you would if you were focusing on him or her as well as the rest of a class. In my experience there are fewer disadvantages when teaching on a one to one basis, however these disadvantages are acute. A student who is being taught alone will often get tired or bored more quickly as there are fewer activities that can be done by one person. The lack of classroom dynamic also makes lessons more informal. This can be an advantage as the student might be more relaxed but it can also be a disadvantage as the student might become too comfortable and stop responding to the teacher as though he or she is the authority. In individual lessons, the teacher is more of a partner to the student. It also becomes easier for the student to cancel lessons, if he or she skips a lesson it can just be caught up the next time. If he or she was in class, he or she would miss out on work and have to catch this up in his or her own time. The above paragraphs discuss one to one teaching and, although subtly, compare it to teaching a group. When teaching a group the advantages are: a good classroom dynamic, more activities are available to the students, the lessons are more exciting as the students get to interact with each other and it is easier for the teacher to maintain an authoritative role. The disadvantages are the mixed levels of the students, the lack of attention to the students? specific needs as well as the ability of individual students to disrupt an entire class. With the advantages and disadvantages of both one to one teaching and teaching groups clarified, I feel the next step would be to look at what suits who best. After analysing the facts available and my own experiences with individual teaching I have come to a conclusion. I am of the opinion that group teaching is better for younger students. This is because younger students have shorter attention spans and they thrive on the energy of their peers. Group teaching would be better for them because there is a greater variety of activities for them to do (individually, in pairs and in groups), the lessons are more dynamic and they need an authoritative presence. Individual lessons would be boring for them, the close relationship with the teacher might backfire and the lack motivation to learn a language would hinder the learning process. Individual lessons would be better for older students as they are usually more motivated and more focused, they are also more conscious of themselves. Individual lessons would be ideal for older students as they are geared towards more focused lessons, with fewer activities. The older students might appreciate a closer partnership with the teacher instead of an authoritative presence and older students have longer attention spans so the added dimension of other people and more activities is not necessary. This research has been based on TEFL materials as well as my own experience. I feel confident in the conclusions I have reached as they are well supported.