Choosing a tutor for a foreign language is not a simple task. The supply almost exceeds the demand, but not all teachers can really guarantee the quality of their services. Many choose to tutor after having mastered the university’s grammar minimum, with no training or pedagogical skills. It is known that knowledge of the material does not imply effective tutoring.
Adjectives that start with a the first meeting it is very difficult to distinguish a good teacher from a person who has decided to earn his or her small knowledge. Most of the tutors are fluent in self-advertising skills, which often hide their inability to present material in a high-quality way. As a result, months of classes do not give proper results, and there is no tangible shift in the knowledge of the student.
So, at the first, trial lesson, you should pay special attention to some aspects that will help to determine the degree of professionalism and, say, the presence of charisma in the tutor. We will highlight the 5 main signs of a good tutor.Ability to interact with a pupil
A person who speaks a foreign language on a professional level, but does not know how to focus the student’s attention on his own person, will not be able to teach. First of all, the question is that the student positions the tutor as a teacher, and age does not play a role here. It is not a fact that a person with many years of experience and pedagogical education will be able to teach better than his colleague without similar merits, but with natural ability to submit material. If you doubt what a teacher says and have no respect for him or her, there is no point in wasting your time. As a rule, the first impression is rarely misleading.
Studying grammar is always boring. A language becomes interesting only when it is above average. That’s why one of the tutor’s main tasks is to alternate boring elements with entertaining ones. No one has promised you easy learning, but there are nontrivial ways of expounding the material that allow you to better master what seemed to be an overwhelming height. In addition, the tutor has to make sure that the student has really learned the previous topic. Remember the school lessons: in every next lesson, the teacher refreshes what he or she learned yesterday. As a rule, after the second or third explanation of the same topic, there are no clear points left.
If a tutor is limited to 1-2 textbooks, you should consider the extent to which he or she is aware of modern teaching methods. In this case, you should forget the school and university teachers of twenty years ago, who taught all the famous textbook N.A. Bonk or some similar book. Undoubtedly, there can be nothing wrong with the classics, but it makes no sense to limit it. By and large, the textbook is only needed as a kind of framework.
The main body of knowledge a pupil should receive from individual materials collected by a tutor. Of course, the choice of modern textbooks is extremely large, and each teacher chooses an option that is acceptable to him. But do not forget that each textbook has its advantages and disadvantages, and the task of the tutor is to choose only the most useful and interesting.A good tutor should understand that it is impossible to learn a language with only one math magician division aspect of it. In addition to grammar, the undoubted basis of all knowledge, it is necessary to replenish the vocabulary, read unadapted texts, develop conversational speech and listening comprehension. If your teacher did not mention his methods in this field in the first lesson, or did not test you in different aspects, it is unlikely that his classes will be full in the future.
Good teachers work diligently on their academic hours or two, using all the time available. And some tutors spend part of the lesson telling the story of their successes and achievements, the long test of the home lesson, long transitions from one part of the lesson to another. So you should pay attention to how quickly the tutor, conventionally speaking, reacts to what is happening. If the tutor is used to really work out his fee, rather than just stalling, it will be noticeable already in the first lesson.
Thus, the effectiveness of classes with a tutor should appear at least after 10 classes. If after two or three sessions, you feel that this is not your option, you are not satisfied with something, you should stop classes to avoid material and time costs. Of course, finding your favorite tutor can take a long time, but when you do, you will know exactly what you are paying for.