Tips for Tutors

·          Use the Internet when planning lessons.  When you find an interesting site, explore any links it offers.  About.com has good lessons: go to about.com, look at the list on the left side.  Click ‘education’, then click ‘English as a Second Language’ on the next list and then start exploring. 

·          Google ‘How to use the Internet in ESL’ (without quotation marks) and explore those sites.

·          When you teach the same thing every way you can think of, and the learner still doesn’t get it, STOP.  Teach them something else for a while.

·          Go back to the I Speak English textbook and handouts once in a while.  Browse!  There’s good stuff in there and you couldn’t possibly learn it all the first (or second) time.

·          Laugh!

·          Never assume that your learner already knows something.  Offer it up and call it a review if they know more about it than you do.  Most likely they don’t know it as well as they think they do.  For instance, if you start a lesson on colors and the learner already knows the primary and secondary ones, go to tints, tones and fashion colors.  Then add bright and dull, matte, shiny, etc.

·          When you have a good idea, milk it!  Learners need and appreciate repetition.  

·          When teaching pronunciation try different tones of voice.  Whisper, shout, and sing because it works.  Especially whispering.  Moaning and groaning are demonstrative, too.