276 Part V: What Kind of Class Will I Have?
✓ The student with a specific goal in mind. These individuals have an
exam looming or business trip coming up and want to prepare for a
specific period of time. They need to develop skills in particular areas
and require a needs analysis from you (I give information on needs
analysis in ‘Working at Teaching Business English’ later in this chapter)
as well as a syllabus.
✓ The student struggling to keep up with mainstream courses who needs
extra support in order to stay level with his classmates. In this case the
student often brings you the material that he’s struggling with, so part
of your lesson is devoted to immediate homework issues and revision of
topics covered in class that week.
Some schools set up self-access centres for their students. These take the
form of libraries and computers loaded with EFL resources. If you work in a
school with this kind of facility, you may find that teachers are asked to
man the centre and be on hand to help students with particular problems,
effectively giving short one-to-ones and tutorial support.
Listing pros and cons for the student
It’s good to think about the various advantages one-to-ones offer a student so
that you can promote yourself if you decide to pursue this line of income:
✓ The teacher addresses the individual learning needs of the student.
✓ Shy students feel able to cope with just one other person.
✓ Students can voice their preferences about activities and topics, which
they can’t do in a class setting.
✓ The lesson is never too fast or too slow. The student can go at his own
pace.
✓ The student can have much more input at every stage of the course.
✓ There’s usually a great deal more flexibility in terms of time, location,
content and so on.
✓ The teacher and student tend to develop a better rapport and
understanding of each other.
✓ It’s a good way to keep the student’s English topped up.
On the other hand, the disadvantages for the student are that:
✓ Students often hope to make friends through the language school. With
no classmates they can feel rather isolated.
✓ The student and teacher may not get on too well. Even with the best will
in the world, lessons are hard going if you just don’t hit it off.
