Thanks to current technological advancements, planning and delivering one-to-one ESL lessons has become easier than ever.
A simple laptop with an Internet connection opens up a plethora of material and activities that engage the student and create memorable lessons.
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Web Searches – One-to-One ESL Lessons
Creating a web-search is an excellent way to guide your one-to-one student through an interactive and non-conservative reading comprehension exercise. In a ‘web-search’, the student is directed to different websites in order to find the answers to different comprehension questions.
Just like when comprehension questions are created for regular reading exercises, the question type needs to be taken into consideration so that there is a variety of questions to test the student’s reading skills.
Web-searches can be easily tailored to the student’s level and a student can be asked to write the answers on paper, or type them on a word-processing program.
Audio and Video – One-to-One ESL Lessons
Using video recording equipment or programs like Skype will allow you to help your student focus on what he/she needs to work on the most.
Most students do not like getting recorded or video recorded; however, a one-to-one lesson is a much better opportunity for this to take place than in a full class with 20+ students.
Audio and/or video recording is great for self-improvement and to help students become aware of their speaking and pronunciation difficulties.
If the student is interested in improving his/her speaking skills, and potentially presentation skills as well, this is an effective way to do so.
Integrated Skills – One-to-One ESL Lessons
Thanks to the different media outlets available online, students can easily be asked to listen to a piece of current news, watch a video on it, and read a news article or editorial on it.
Authentic material is better suited for high intermediate to advanced learners but could be tailored for intermediate and even lower intermediate students by using some ESL based reading or simplified news articles.
The benefit of presenting information in different mediums encourages the one-to-one student to develop all his/her skills and facilitates critical thinking if the task or assignment the student is given draws on the differences and similarities of the information presented.
Furthermore, several standardized tests for ESL students nowadays expect students to be able to do this at an advanced level, so training students from an early stage will give them a clear advantage.
The next article will show you more activities for teaching writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills to one-to-one students!
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Related Articles:
6 Things to Consider When Teaching English One-to-One
How to Structure a One-to-One Lesson
One-to-One Activities: Teaching Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Reading
