Random Quote
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
As soon as I buy the moose head, I have to go pick up some KY jelly.
---- Mary Roninette Kowal
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
One to One Lesson: Nightmare or Dream?
I’ve come to be quite a fan of the one to one lesson. I like that when you teach a “group” of one, it’s easier to adapt the overall content of the class to the student’s needs and interests. There’s just more flexibility when you don’t have to balance the needs of a dozen learners.
I think EFL Geek himself hit the nail on the head about a possible downside of one to one’s when he commented on my blog that one to one students often expect to set the agenda even though they know nothing about language acquisition. If a student wants to pay for a class with me and do nothing but chat, and politely resists my efforts to hover around some useful language or structure by going off topic all the time, I can live with that. But it’s no good when they resist my direction and then feel disappointed at a lack of progress. Fortunately, I think my ability to trick people into learning – and to politely but authoritatively direct the lesson - is increasing with practice.
I have to admit though that the main reason I like one to ones is that they make it possible to interact with people who I would just never cross paths with in my regular life.
In the different Eastern European countries I’ve worked in, I’ve spent time speaking with, for example, a couple of bank CEO’s who were young enough to be ‘modern’ but old enough to remember how things were ‘behind the iron curtain’. And they would sometimes speak about that. In another country, I worked with a law student around my age who had been a refugee, and in fact came to consider her one of my better friends there. These were people who already had a high level of English and specifically wanted to focus on speaking, but even when the content is more typical “English class”, I’ve still made interesting connections with people.
I really think that interacting with these people has influenced my views and even (warning: eye-rolling material) the way I see the world, sometimes in less obvious ways. I suppose how much this can happen depends on many things, including the setup in the country you work in, but for me it usually outweighs the potential problems. As far as learning goes…I think it depends on the student, but if they stick with the lessons long enough to make progress, very often they do, even if it is not exactly what they’d imagined.
To EFL Geek: thanks for this opportunity to do a guest post! And to EFL Geek and his readers: I’d be curious to hear your opinion from a more personal standpoint (Do you teach/like teaching one to one’s in general?) and also from a teaching viewpoint (How do you think one to one’s compare to groups as far as language acquisition is concerned?).
Katie inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Aug 6, 2007 at 07:26 AM
Teaching | teaching_application | Guest Author |
Alex Case wrote 68 words on Tuesday Aug 7, 2007 at 10:22 PM
I always advise my students to take one 1 to 1 class and 1 group class a week to really get the language they need and to learn to cope in more complex interactions. Not because that will just mean they pay twice as much, honest!
1 to 1 classes with kids are great too. 1 to 1 classes with shy teenagers are a nightmare!
TEFLtastic blog- http://www.tefl.net/alexcase
Katie wrote 26 words on Thursday Aug 9, 2007 at 05:39 PM
Good point about mixing one to ones with classes. Actually because one to one lessons are a lot more expensive, you may be saving them money!
Uncle Che wrote 102 words on Sunday Aug 12, 2007 at 09:39 AM
1 to 1 classes are some of the toughest for me because it’s difficult to keep the focus on the student and keep the student talking. Most 1 to 1 classes that I have taught have been conversation classes. In a class of even 3 or 4 students, you can get the students talking to each other and develop activities around that premise. In a 1 to 1 class, that’s out the window. In my experience, a 1 to 1 class is less effective than a small group and I always steer students away from 1 to 1 classes for that reason.
Sean. wrote 29 words on Sunday Aug 12, 2007 at 09:39 PM
My experience matches Uncle Cha. Additionally research that I have read shows that Student Student interaction with students of comparable ability is more effective than student native speaker interaction.
Katie wrote 166 words on Monday Aug 13, 2007 at 03:54 AM
Thanks for the additional comments. I’d be willing to believe that - that student student interaction is in fact better - but I bet it is the opposite of what a lot of students think.
I suppose my perspective is also shaped by the fact that I have never really been in a position to advise someone to take a class over a one-to-one...I just get them once the decision is made. I’d like to think in that position, I would not only be thinking of my own enjoyment of the lesson
I think some people just want them, especially if the company is paying…
It’s funny - what Uncle Che mentions - because I actually have a hard time with small groups of 3 or 4 (bigger groups are ok). Hard to always adjust for one person not showing up and not have pairs and so on...but I do agree that pair work is great, and it is quite different when you can’t use it.
Alex Case wrote 76 words on Monday Aug 13, 2007 at 09:17 AM
I agree with Katie on 2 to 4 students being the most difficult number to teach- I feel such as waste of space when there are only 2 students and they are quite happily doing pairwork without me! In contrast, I’ve always found it quite easy to adapt a pairwork activity so that the teacher takes one part but still gives the student a chance to win if it is a game. Also works with kids.