Im a spanish tutor
Im a spanish tutor and want to improve my skills at teaching. I teach everyone from the basic level all the way to the more advanced students. Can you give me suggestions on how to improve? i have all kinds of students from begginers that dont understand hay (que), haber, tener, ser, estar, and so on and students that are more advanced. I need help on how to explain these things to them. any help will do thx
5 Answers
How about picking one of the more advanced topics and preparing a sample lesson and then perhaps we could offer suggestions.
When I teach English (or Spanish) my aims are to make the lessons clear and easily understandable, to make sure that the information is presented in a logical order, to cover any side questions that may come up when someone does the lesson and to give practical examples. As many people are also visual learners I like to include images in my lessons.
Perhaps these suggestions will help you too, I hope so!
I need help on how to explain these things to them.
Books have always been my best friend for detailed explanations. There are books dedicated to every single part of the spanish language. If it was me and I had specific things I needed to explain, I'd pick up a few books on the topic at hand, and pick out the best pieces and use that. You could just use the general information from the book as a suppliment, or you could paraphrase sections, or you could straight up explain and read word for word from the book. Sometimes authors explain things really well, why re-invent the wheel.
Also, at least with me, I learn better by seeing things in practice. So not only explain things, but it really helps to have many examples of what you are talking about to the student, so that it makes sense to them, so they can put two and two together.
Also I think you should make them read, write and talk. They need to practice all those things over and over.
My girl was my "tutor" per se, for a while, and she would pick a topic that I was unfamiliar with or was a weak point, and would explain it to me best she could. She'd then make me read about it, whether it was a couple pages on the topic or only just a short dictionary definition. Then I'd have to write sentences over and over utilizing the topic. Then we'd discuss my sentences and make me speak them and have a conversation in spanish about the topic in some way.
I liked lots of examples and repetition. And being forced to use and speak my newly acquired knowledge I think helps in the long run, even if it is painful and boring haha
And as other people said, people learn differently so this may not help at all. I've never been a tutor, this is just my two cents.
Rey- I'm a volunteer E S L (English as a Second Language) instructor. Most of my students are very basic learners, mostly from Mexico. We normally have a class size of 15 to 20 students, a couple of those being non- hispanic (Vietnamese, Cambodian, Ukranian or Portugues). With a wide variety of students, and the necessity of doing most of he class on an immersion basis, it is essential to first obtain a profile on each student. What are their experiences with foreign languages? What is their educational background in their native language? (we have several with less than one year of formal education). What prior experience do they have in English? (In Spanish, for your case).
Once you have a good profile, you will have an idea of where to start. There is no need to bore advanced students with basic concepts. You could go right to reading drills and comprehension, perhaps a little more advanced grammar concepts.
If the students are very basic, you will need to start from zero. Try not to assume the students have grammar knowlege in their own language. You will find you probably know more about their language than the "fluent" people you are instructing.
Overall, try to be relaxed, and have confidence in yourself. Have a plan when you start, but be flexible when sticking points come up.
Hope this helps!
The trouble is that many students have many different learning styles.So lessons that may suit one student may not suit another. I think that it is often a misconception on the part of the teacher to think it is down to them to have the sole responsibility for the students improvement.I have been learning Spanish for 18 months attending a one and a half hour class a week.I have achieved my level by trying all sorts of media for learning because no matter how good a teacher you are, there is always something left out of the organised lesson but I have found that listening to podcasts,watching lessons on you tube, covering my fridge with post it notes and having a dictionary in the loo and in my lunch bag have all be different ways of learning.These combined with spending a lot of time understanding conjugations using my verb book has helped me get to where I am in a short time for a mature student, If the teacher had a simple way of conveying to students not only how, but why they need to conjugate verbs, then this would speed up learning when lessons get more advanced. So maybe you could look at finding a fun way way of explaining conjugations..
Any more tips for Rey?
