It is easy to assume that a first class with just one student is the easiest thing in the world, as 40 minutes or longer can easily pass with just finding out about their family, hobbies and job. However, these kinds of teacher-led pure free conversation classes miss out on doing some vital work for the first class with a student, and they could even give a bad impression and/ or get the class into bad habits from day one.
As with any class, the main aims of a first one-to-one lesson should be to:
- get to know each other, including doing some needs analysis
- establish routines that you will continue and that will give the student a good impression of the rest of the course
Both of these aspects are at least a little different with one student to how they are in larger classes.
Things you might want to establish in a first private class and then continue through the course include:
- the main focus will be on learning, with chatting also a part of that (through learning small talk phrases and techniques, error correction, suggested extra vocabulary, etc)
- although the student will do most of the speaking, there will also be some attempt at normal communication through questions to the teacher, for example as revision of the difficult questions they just answered, or as a way of using the language they have just learnt
- there will be a balance between the syllabus (of the textbook/ of the school/ that was agreed with their employer) and more specific needs that come up, and between work with and without prepared language learning materials
Needs analysis/ GTKY can help with establishing the policies above by:
- the first and/ or most questions being about language needs, language use, language learning, etc (which is natural for such a situation and needn’t restrict the amount of language which is used while you ask about such things in the past, present and future)
- using their needs analysis/ GTKY answers as a source of language input (correcting errors, presenting a language point such as different future forms that came up a lot in the answers, giving them more language they could use to describe their work, etc)
- moving from talking about their needs and previous experience with English to giving advice on self-study, communication tactics, related media, etc
- moving from talking about their needs to giving them language that they will need to do those things (by brainstorming a typical work email, roleplaying a conversation they will have in the UK, etc)
- getting them to ask similar questions back to you (after brainstorming the normal small talk questions that you asked them, giving input on the basic answer + additional information + related but not identical question back to the other person format of much good small talk, etc)
- moving from that conversation to roleplaying a more real-life getting to know you situation (meeting a new customer, meeting a host family, chatting with other hotel guests, etc)
A lesson plan that meets the criteria above could be:
- questions from the teacher about the student’s work, use of English at work, studies of English, etc, plus something on their travels, hobbies, etc (as natural small talk topics but also to find out what might interest them in future lessons), with the teacher taking notes (to help plan the course, and also to show there is a purpose to the chat)
- linking from that chat to input on the language they will need in their future English communication outside class, advice on how to work on their weak points, a language point that came up a lot in their speaking, etc
- linking from stage 1 or 2 to something in the textbook/ on the syllabus, or something that you prepared before class from knowledge of their needs