Is a bad one to one teacher more useful than pairwork?
This is a question that is increasingly relevant now that students all over the world have the choice between a group class with a qualified and experienced teacher who is finally getting a living wage suitable for an adult or a one to one class with someone who for some reason can’t or can’t be bothered to charge so much (online with random native speakers or non-native speakers with less than perfect English, in cafes with people on student visas, in the living rooms of people with spouse visas, or even just in return for one extra hour of their time with a conversation exchange) for the same price. It is also relevant to my own situation, now that I have switched from a typical Japanese Eikaiwa (one to one or small classes with a minimally qualified teacher and less than perfect in house materials made on the cheap, zero supplementary materials, one tape recorder, flexible schedule, no extra materials to borrow) back to something more like a British or European conversation school (only group classes with qualified and experienced teachers, a selection of up to date textbooks and lots of supplementary materials mainly from the big UK publishers, good use of teaching technology, study at least twice a week at fixed times, good student library). Taking into account the differences in costs between the two countries, I would say the students pay about the same for those two experiences, or at least that they could find the other one for around the same price.
The first thing I should say is that the students in my present school do seem to progress more quickly in terms of things like being ready for the next book up, IELTS scores, listening and reading comprehension etc. Their weakness seems to be when they are asked to speak to a native speaker one to one, in which case 70% of students of all levels are thrown into a complete panic. It is partly confidence, but I think it is also that the communicative tactics of coping with pairwork, listening comprehension and communication involving the teacher and the whole class are different from those of dealing with someone who speaks like that tape recording in real face to face communication. Although a few students in my previous school never got over their nerves or were thrown by each new teacher, I would say 85% of them could cope much better in a one to one conversation with a native speaker than my present classes do, even if they were a couple of levels lower.
Of course, many of our students will never need to speak to a native speaker one to one (although students might not listen when you tell them that or could even lose their motivation to really improve if they did believe you). If that really is their main motivation (for example the students who were studying so they could communicate with the love of their life!) for all my enthusiasm, experience, qualifications and support from my school, I’m not sure I can do better for them with 16 in a class than whoever they can find for the same price per hour who will speak to them (and maybe even teach them, if they are lucky) one to one.
And you?
Totally different take on the topic, but I was inspired to finally finish this one of my 100 or so unfinished blog posts by Jason Renshaw’s blog post on teaching group classes and one to one.
Tags: One to one classes
September 4th, 2009 at 4:49 am
I’ve just figured out that you’re working at [EDITED] in Seoul.
Exposed!
~ Jason
September 4th, 2009 at 8:53 am
WHAT!! Our Alex – a [EDITED] bumpkin? Never! He ain’t pink enough for them!
September 4th, 2009 at 9:17 am
You’re right, but I prefer to keep this under my hat in case Paul Lowe and other nutters start phoning my boss (who knows about my blog, but probably doesn’t know about the crazies that attracts) on a daily, if not hourly, basis
September 4th, 2009 at 9:52 am
This explains a lot. Really, a lot! Including why you might not be getting a ‘regular’ impression of what it means to teach in South Korea (and I certainly don’t mean that in a bad way).
Your secret is safe with me, Alex. Never fear!
September 4th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Indeed. Have worked for EF, Shane, IH lookalike etc elsewhere though, so Korea is probably the place I know least about…
September 5th, 2009 at 5:03 am
Good post. I’d say, as I usually do, that the “quality” of the teacher is less important than we qualified, hard-working, top-drawer teachers would like to think….
In stretching themselves to communicate with and to understand a lousy teacher, a learner might be getting more. And it’s interesting to note the criteria you put forward for “learning” – ability to move up a level, to pass tests and so on….
… what a good teacher CAN do, I think, is to offer all his or her learners the opportunity to learn. But a good learner will find ways to learn from any teacher…
(I don’t know where you work, but I can have a guess)
September 8th, 2009 at 8:39 am
The quality of the learner has far more impact than the quality of the teacher – in my experience anyway.
Good learners can learn from bad teachers, but bad learners can’t learn from good teachers.
Good teachers can demonstrate and make learners aware of good learning practices, as opposed to a lot of what even a motivated learner will do if left unguided.
The ideal combination might be a good teacher and motivated open minded learner who will take onboard the teacher’s input. But in Asia at least we have a lot of quite poor learners.
So many students just want a quick fix to get them through IELTS or to pacify anxious parents or nagging bosses. I have also encountered students who seemed addicted to studying and would go over and over the same stuff even when it was not helping them….
I have only ever had really good results as a teacher when starting new students off from near zero or when taking over from some teacher of really dubious abilty/approach. Often both at the same time!
At other times I’ve been able to teach more or less interesting and motivating lessons, but have never really seen a lot of progress….if I’m being really honest with myself.
Students do learn – but often not in class. Students who study in the UK might learn a lot in class, but I’d say the vast majority of the progress in communication is due to having to use English day-to-day with other students, host families and people in shops etc. Few seem to make many native speaker friends.
It’s much nicer to teach good lessons than bad ones – just feels better to have students involved and motivated than bored and distracted…and at least you feel like you’ve done a good job. Though the lack of tangible student progress is at times a downer.
To my mind we need some new breakthrough that provides a really effective methodology. So far we either have the very teacher centred approaches – PPP etc, or more student centred methods that fall foul of the students lack of willingness to really get involved and take responsibilty for their own learning.
Perhaps the old adage, when the student is ready the teacher appears applies.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:42 am
D’oh – I seem to be mostly echoing and expanding on Darren’s post! Should read more carefully before writing, eh?
September 8th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I’ve had several private teachers over the years, trying to teach me Turkish, Russian, and Arabic, and I must say that a bad one is very demotivating. Much better to go to a class and learn there than endure a couple of hours a week of awful teaching at home.
As a teacher, I should be able to direct my tutor in what I feel that I need, and the good teacher will respond to this. The crappy one will ignore it.
Bad teachers should be avoided – pairwork with your flatmate is much more useful! Anyway, this entire question is artificial – a false dichotomy, if I may say so, Alex!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:32 am
I’m not sure it is a false dichotomy, if only for the budgetary reasons that I mentioned above. A good one to one teacher with half a brain should be quickly making him or herself far too expensive for most of our students
A related question is “Is two or three hours in a group class/ with a bad one to one teacher more worthwhile than one hour with a good one to one teacher?” which I kind of dealt with here:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tesol/is-a-good-teacher-really-a-good-investment/