It depends on the kind of school you teach at but there is something very particular about one to one lessons. For various timetable and student level reasons I've had the privilege to teach a lot of individual students for the last six months or so.
People sometimes ask me if it's better to teach groups or individuals and the answer is, inevitably, that it varies. The great thing about individuals is that you can develop their language skills so much more in the same number of lessons simply by dint of having them be the only other person speaking. If we take a simple 70% student talking time (the less wasted teacher talking time the better) from a 60 minute lesson then an individual student will get to speak for 42 minutes where one in a group of 6 will only get 7 minutes of private time on average. Of course, these are just averages and teachers use a lot of techniques to increase language production time for all (pair work, team games, group conversation, writing etc.). Still, it's among the individual students that you often see the most progress.
On the flip side it can be really hard as teacher because you are forced to focus on the students for such an extended time. In a group, you can start a lot of activities and then sit back and focus on the students, perhaps listening for corrections. One of the toughest parts is when you are engaging in role plays with individual students because you have to listen to what they are saying so you can formulate an appropriate response, listen for their mistakes and correct language use, and sometimes even write down the errors so you can discuss that afterwards. It's tiring and makes the one to one lessons that much more of a challenge from a focus perspective. Then again, when you have someone who you genuinely like and enjoy spending time with, it can be like meeting with friends where you get paid for it ;-)
One very special thing is how much you are exposed to when you spend time alone with people. Perhaps because I'm a relative stranger to them, my students often feel comfortable opening up to me. I've come to know things that are very personal and challenging including relationship problems, births, deaths, illness, drug problems, financial worries and work issues.
It can be hard to listen to these stories at times and I've had to do my best to comfort people without sounding trite. I'm also asked for advice in some situations and that brings the next big challenge...what kind of grounds do I have to offer advice to people on life problems that I may have never faced before? I'm not a psychologist (though I lived with one for some time) and have very little education or knowledge on the specifics of these cases so I have to be very careful what I say. Likewise when people ask me about what they should do in a work context with an annoying or difficult boss/colleague/situation. In each case I try to offer my best advice from my work experience while at all times trying not to make their decision for them. Usually I focus on what they could do and what some of the advantages and disadvantages of each choice may be. With any luck we get to work on expressing feelings, worries and using modals (should, could, might etc.)
I know that a lot of other teachers tend to stay away from topics like this because they prefer to keep their and students private lives away from the classroom. I can respect and understand that completely It's not how I teach and I hope that my individual students enjoy having someone who is willing to be part of more personal and complex issues, as well as working on their language skills.
I knew in an intellectual way that teaching would be a lot about experience but as they say, there is nothing like actually getting out there and doing it. The more time I spend in classrooms and with students the more comfortable I feel, even in tough situations.
As far as this particular challenge goes I'll just say this. To all of my students who have talked about problems or challenges with me, I hope that I have helped you feel better, or given you some good advice, or been a good listener or just not annoyed you ;-)
Take care everyone,
Pete
