Tips and Tools for Teaching Private English lessons

I will now pass on some useful things I have learned by giving private English lessons:

- The first lesson should be a get-to-know-you session. I give them a piece of paper and tell them to think of any 7 questions to ask me about myself and write them down, and I do the same for them. It's a nice activity to break the ice and you end up learning some interesting things about your student and vice versa. Plus, you can help correct their grammar and spelling mistakes.

- I have started a system where I have a separate notebook for everyday of the week, and I divide the notebook into sections, one section for every student I have (I have a lot of students). When I plan my lessons for each student, I write down exactly what I am going to do, and afterwards I follow up with notes. This is a great system because it avoids repeating lessons and you can see the progress of each student as time passes.

- I have a lot of students who are children, and I have learned that that best way to get them to learn (especially the ADD variety) is to bribe them. Yes, that may should bad, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I have a point system where students earn points through succeeding in activities or using a certain catch phrase that I taught them. After they reach a certain amount of points, I bring them a small 'gift' from the United States- gum, stickers, chocolate, etc. The kids go WILD over the idea.

- I think success in teaching parcially lies in thinking back to when you were a student and what you thought was interesting to learn. I remember when I started learning Spanish I was very interested in slang words and cultural aspects. So for many of my students I give them a slang word of the week (examples: cool, awesome, what's up?, etc) and they have to use it in a sentence to me, unprovoked, the next time I see them. And I give them a point.

- For young children learning vocabulary, I always have success with the game of memory. I simply make sets of cards with pictures of the vocabulary words on them and use them to play memory, only they must say the vocabulary word on the card when they flip it over. If they can't think of the vocabulary word, they lose their turn. You can also use these cards to play "go fish".

- Games in general are important for successful classes with children. You must incorporate fun in the lesson because it (DUH) makes them want to learn.

- One particular lesson that was a success was a lesson i did with 3 little boys about food tastes. I made flashcards for words like "this tastes....salty, sour, sweet, bland, tasty, crunchy, creamy, bitter, etc." I also taught them how to say "yucky" and "yummy". Then I blindfolded each of them and I fed them various types of food (sour candy, yogurt, bread, crackers, etc.) and they had to describe it using the words we used. they LOVED that lesson!

- It helps to be a little crazy. No one likes a boring, monotone teacher. Being animated and enthusiastic will rub off on the students and make your time a lot easier. My lessons are filled with a lot of laughter and joking, thus associating English with fun. I attribute pretty much all my success with students on this fact.

-A very important tip: find something that each student does well and praise them for it and constantly complement their ability when they get it right. When a child hears "good job! you said that PERFECTLY!" they have a look of accomplishment on their face that makes them want to try even harder.

- If you are teaching English in Europe, be aware that the English that most people learn is British English, so your American accent might take a bit getting used to for the students. Americans tend to change "t" into "d" in pronounciation (example- pretty, beautiful, little, letter, etc). It would go a long way if you try to pronounce it with a "t" as to not confuse them (although I explain that Americans pronounce it differently just in case I slip up one day).

- you could spend entire classes on reviewing the alphabet (most Spanish students hear the English "a" and write "e", the same for "e" and "i") or numbers ("sixty" and sixteen" sound the exact same to them). In fact numbers are really important and you should spend time going over them. Numbers were something I avoided learning fluently for a long time in Spanish, but I realized that they were very important to language fluency.

- I truly believe that language learning comes down to 2 things- memorization and imitation. Try to work on these things with your students and you will be a successful teacher.


Here are some great internet resources for planning your private English classes:

MEC English- this website has lots of free flashcards, worksheets and games to print for teaching younger children

Taiwan Teacher- lots of activity and game ideas


ESL Flow - this website has a whole host of worksheets, lesson plans, games, teaching tips and much more for elementary and intermediate students. Great website!

ESL Lesson Plans to Download- this website was created by someone who worked as an English Assistant in France (the Auxiliar's French sister program). They took a lot of time to post all of their created ESL lesson plans, mp3s of pronounciation and much more. Some of the worksheets have French directions, so you'll have to change that into Spanish, but its a really great tool.


to be continued....