Why one-to-one classes are different

Unfortunately, on many courses such as the CELTA and DELTA (M2), candidates are taught/encouraged to deal with teaching issues related to group classes only, which may prove ineffective in one-to-one contexts. I tried to use many of the theories I was taught on those courses in my practice with one-to-one classes and it turned out to be difficult and artificial, making the student confused or demotivated. In this series, I share with you some of the differences which are worth noting when teaching individual lessons.

You may find yourself encouraged to maximize students' talking time (STT) and minimize teacher talking time (TTT). Some schools and trainers may even give you a formula for that (70% for the student's contribution and 30% for the teacher's). This may be useful in group lessons to create a so-called "student-centered environment". But is this feasible in the one-to-one context?

Forget about teaching for a second and imagine you've been seated with someone in a room. You've been told to keep this person talking for a longer time than you. You're given 60 minutes in which you should get that person talking. How demanding would it be for you? And for that poor person who has to speak non-stop for about 40 minutes at least? The intensity of one-to-one classes may make both the learner and the teacher uncomfortable and feel the need to speak or get someone to speak for a long time, not to mention the rarity of such interaction in real life.

One remedy for this may be taking an equal role to the learner where your contribution may be the same as the student's or even higher. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but some learners are not talkative by temperament, neither in their L1 nor in English. Identifying with the learner's stance and temperament may be the key to creating a natural interaction and flow of the conversation. Even if you see yourself as a fun, cool and energetic teacher, some learners simply despise this and will end up reluctant to your desperate tries to get them to talk or laugh at your jokes. Similarly, taking up a role such as conversational partner is essential as your learner literally has nobody to speak with but you. So it's not enough to listen and encourage your learner to speak: you should also talk, share opinions and even interrupt because your learner needs this authentic experience that he most likely won't get from merely speaking.

Different types of exercises may lift some of this pressure: activities that make use of what's called ‘student silent space’ need to be integrated into everyday lessons to offload some of the intensity of the course. Teachers should not rush and fill the time, but instead make time for writing, silent reading, or dictation and adjusting the lesson at the learner’s pace without worrying about covering a given syllabus or a lesson plan in a given time.

To sum up, the nature of one-to-one lessons is demanding because of the false need to interact 100% of the time. There are some ways to get the best out of this experience for the teacher and learner. The teacher may benefit from adopting equal hierarchical roles and planning tasks that get the learner to work independently from the teacher.