How to Improve Your Private English Classes

If you’re not learning as much as you think you should from your private English classes, maybe it’s not all the teacher’s fault.

Most students take a completely passive role when taking English classes. They rely on the teachers for just about everything.

If the student isn’t happy with how they’re classes are going, instead of discussing it with the teacher, they just stop taking classes with them. They blame the teacher. But…

Learning is YOUR Responsibility, Not Just the Teachers

If you want to be a good learner, you can’t rely on other people. Sure, it’s great to have an English teacher to help you, but YOU need to know how to direct the class just as much as they do.

You know best about what you want to learn about.

You should also know best about your strengths and weaknesses. A teacher can and should help you point out your blind spots [weaknesses that you are unaware of], but if you want to be a good learner, not just with English, but with everything, YOU need to develop the awareness to see your weaknesses.

You need to teach the teacher how you want to be taught. Some people are visual learners, some learn best by audio, and some by text. For more information, check out the article, How to Learn English: Finding the Right Way for YOU

Communicating with your teacher about how you learn best will greatly improve your classes.

Learn to Direct Class

If you’re simply in love with your English classes and your teacher does an amazing job, then you obviously don’t need to do anything else. But, some of these tips will still be useful to make your experience better.

Otherwise, you need to be thinking about what you and the teacher can do to make the classes better and COMMUNICATE that with them.

If you want to learn about the present perfect then TELL your teacher that. If you want to practice talking about politics or sports or vegetarianism, then TELL your teacher this.

Say, “Hey, I talk about this all the time in my native tongue [native language]. But I’m not very good at expressing myself about this in English. Can we have a conversational class so I can practice talking about this?”

Now you’re English class is something that’s interesting and relevant and directly applicable to your life.

One of the best ways of getting the most out of your English classes is just having the courage to voice your concerns, doubts, and asking a lot of questions.

If you don’t like something, then SAY IT. If you don’t want to do something then tell the teacher that. Just make sure you say it in a nice way.

You’re not just sitting in a college or high school classroom. The best part about private lessons is that they’re private! So you can take an active role in what you’re learning about. So take advantage of that.

So here’s how you do that…

Ask five minutes to write down the answer to these questions:

• What are my weaknesses in English?
• How can my teacher help me improve these weaknesses? What questions can I ask him or her?
• What do I normally talk about in my everyday life that I would struggle with talking in English?

Then ask your teacher:

• What are my weaknesses in English?
• What can I do to improve these?

By learning to develop more awareness about your English and communicating it with your teacher, not only will your classes become more fun and engaging, but you’re English learning will be much more efficient.

Another excellent way to complement your English learning experience is to join thousands of English learners from all around the world in the Real Life English International Community! Hope to see you there.

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