CELTA Online Unit 29b Task 4: Teaching One-to-One (2)

1. It is necessary to spend time understanding the student’s particular need for English before the
course starts. TRUE
2. It is often possible to base lessons around student’s own documents (e.g. business reports,
academic essays). TRUE
3. It is necessary to negotiate the meaning of technical lexis in documents, which the teacher may
not know. TRUE
4. It is possible to base a lesson around a conversation with the teacher scaffolding what the
student wants to say. TRUE
5. It can be better to use a sheet of A4 paper or a flip chart in place of the board. TRUE
6. It is necessary for the teacher to make up the pair in pairwork. TRUE
7. It is more tiring for the student because they are constantly working, especially at lower levels.
TRUE

Commentary

All of the statements are true in a one-to-one class.

1. Before or at the start of the course it is very important to evaluate the student’s needs carefully. If the
student needs to participate in meetings, what nationality are the people they need to speak to? If they
need to write reports, who do they need to write them for, and what format are they usually in?

2. One way of targeting the student’s needs, particularly in terms of lexis and reading skills, is to base
activities around the student’s own documents in English. The teacher will need to read these and
prepare lessons around them in advance of the lessons.

3. Technical documents will often include esoteric lexis. If the teacher does not know this, questioning
the student about them, and asking for examples and explanations will help the teacher understand
more about the students’ area of expertise. It is the teacher’s job to develop the students’ English. That,
after all, is the teachers’ area of expertise.

4. Scaffolding can be very effective in one-to-one classes.

5. Using the board can be very distancing in a one-to-one class. Sitting next to the student and using A4
paper or a flip chart to, for example, draw time lines, or record the form of some language can be more
effective. The student can then take it away with them at the end of the lesson.

6. When the teacher makes up the pair it is important that they ‘take off their teaching hat’, and
concentrate on acting as a partner. In one-to-one classes it is important that students get fluency
development as well as accuracy work. Therefore, the teacher also needs to consider when and how to
correct.
7. The teacher needs to provide a variety of activities, focus and pace, as well as adequate breaks to help
maintain the student’s concentration. It can also be very intensive for the teacher, and the student can
become very teacher dependent. Not having peers in the classroom can also make it hard for the
student to measure their progress and feel a sense of achievement, as they are always comparing
themselves to the proficient model of English the teacher provides. It is therefore very useful to
regularly record the student so they can listen to themselves and measure their progress against earlier
models.