First, we are going to decide what a perfect lesson should be like, then we'll think about strategies to achieve those goals.

Structure

25 minutes teaching time

• Introductions—Less than 3 minutes
• Teaching—5-10 minutes (1/3 lesson time)

• Practicing—10-15 minutes (2/3 lesson time):

• Recap, cool down, assign homework, introduce direction of the next lesson—1-2 minutes:

5 minutes to finish lesson records and take a break

Goals for each section 

Let's talk about an ideal lesson. 

Introduction goals: 

Target a 50:50 student:teacher talk time. 

If it’s your first lesson with a student, offer an introduction and try to build rapport. Keep it simple, short and memorable. 

Play it by ear. Some students may want to 

• talk about life;
• just focus on work;
• or not give any personal information.

Keep in mind that a student who usually wants to go straight to the book may at other times want to chat, ask a question, or celebrate some life event. That's why it's important to ask every time. 

Introducing/teaching language goals

Target a 40:60 student:teacher talk time.

Students need correct output, so be strict. Keep teaching until they understand. The 5-10 minutes (1/3 lesson time) target is typical, not mandatory.

• Lower-level English speakers often have target words or phrases to learn.
• Higher-level English speakers, often want to learn speaking strategies and good speaking habits.\

As you teach, type as many notes as possible into the lesson record. 

Practice goals: 

Target an 80:20 student teacher talk time.

Keep the conversation flowing, relax, enjoy it. 

Your student should respond smoothly and correctly. Nip mistakes in the bud and refer back to your previous corrections. If you were strict in the teaching portion, you can relax more in the practice.

Simply understanding new language isn’t enough. Students need to be able to do it themselves. 

The main goal is production and self-sufficiency. 

Recap/ Cool Down goals 

There are four marks to quickly hit here: 

1.  Confirm comprehension of the lesson
2.  Ask if they want homework
3.  Next lessons’s topic
4.  Sign off nicely  

It might sound something like this: 

• So, we’ve worked on [topic], does this all make sense?
• Would you like any homework from today?
• Ok, so next lesson we’re going to work on [next topic, page, lesson]
• Anyway, I hope your meeting tomorrow goes well!

Between teaching time: 

Check and send your lesson record.

Check your next student's profile. 

Keep in mind, students cancel lessons. You may need to refresh your browswer.

 

Strategy 

These are optional strategies to reach the goals of each section. 

Introduction strategies: 

Here are a few tried-and-true ways to build rapport.

• Keep it simple.
  • Ease your student into English by keeping the intro simple. 
• Be yourself. 
  • Be honest when you don't understand. 
  • Talk (briefly) about yourself
• Ask interesting questions.
  • Use the answer to that question to gauge student's desire to chat.
    • If they offer info, then ask another interesting question. If they are closed, then offer course material.

If you’ve met the client before, then check what’s new. You can also review words and phrases from their last lesson. This is Jeremy's go-to line: 

So, do you have any big news, or special English questions, or should we continue with the course?

Even cold students have big news sometimes, so ask this question often.

Here are a few general principles to guide you.

Avoid negatives, especially negatives that require explanation.

Ask good questions.

Typical, boring questions: 

• Where are you from? What exactly do you do at your company? What do you like to do on weekends? 

More interesting, slightly atypical questions:

• How’s your hometown compared to where you live now? 
• What did you study in university?  Does it relate to your job now?
• Have you had any previous jobs? What were they?
• What's the best/hardest/most interesting part of being a __(insert their job here)__?

Bonus strategy:

Try to ask questions that have “yes” answers. This quickly shows that you understand the student. Be natural about this and work it into smooth conversation. You can either: 

1. Confirm information from the bio.

   - “You have a test coming up next month, right?”
   - “It looks like you want to focus on intonation.”
   - “I see you are a Barcelona fan! Messi is amazing isn’t he?”
   - “I noticed in your profile you are a foodie. Have you eaten anything interesting recently?”

2. Make intelligent guesses or generalisations. (Most of your students are probably busy, they probably enjoy their job, etc...) 

   - “You like watching American football! That’s a bit rare in Japan, isn’t it?”
   - “You’re a consultant. So must be really busy! Do you usually work late?”

In the end, be natural and enjoy it.

Introducing/teaching language strategies: 

The key is to have value-added as quickly as possible. The learning material is a framework for this, please focus on parts that you think are suitable and skip parts you feel are not. Also give your personal take on it (“I’ve never really said that instead, I’d say this”). 

At The English Farm, we follow the input hypothesis. 

The rule is i+1

i is the information the student already knows
+ 1 plus one new thing.

• First, find what the student already knows ( i )
  • "Is this new"
  • "Can you summarize this?" 
  • "Are there any new words or phrases?"
• Then assess their goals and which direction you need to add or correct language ( + )
  • "This is a new word, here's the meaning."
• Then do one thing at a time ( 1 )
  • Teach a new word, phrase, idea, or anything else. 

 

Do not rush through a textbook or course. Rather, the goal is to add useful language to your student's abilities. 

Common mistakes with i+1 are either: 

• Not finding what the student knows.
  • Some points in the textbook will be above the student's level, some will be below. It can take time to find i.
• Not teaching something that will help them towards their goals.
  • Think about what the student needs, not what you want to teach. 
• Mistaking what "one thing" is. 
  • Our brains hold information together. Think about tying your shoe—it's one action for you. But if you were to teach it, what's the first step? +1 to a new learner can be surprisingly small. 

Teach something like this: 

A: "It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm (person A)" // B: "I'm (person B), the pleasure's all mine." 

Rather than this:

Sup, yo? 

Both examples are probably new language, but the top one is probably more useful for a business student.  

Practice strategies 

Customize practice. Keep it as open-ended as possible. Make sure it’s interesting for the student, focus on things that are relevant to their day-to-day life. 

This is a great chance to learn about their industry and get detailed information about their challenges and situation, and use this in future lessons.

A lot of the external textbook lessons have case studies. You can skip these. Just ask interesting questions and customize or change as much as possible to engage your student's interest.

Remind yourself not to talk too much during this time.

• If you need to create a practice situation, don't force it. Let your student give you one.
• Do ask short but challenging follow-up questions.
• Do correct mistakes. 
• Don’t focus on your opinion unless they ask.

• Don’t focus on your experience unless they ask

Recap/ cool down strategies 

Your students want to finish on time. Their work-day is sometimes scheduled down to the minute so a small change can create a domino effect. 

Just hit the four marks as quickly and smoothly as you can. 

1. So, we’ve worked on [topic], does this all make sense?
2. Would you like any homework from today?
3. Ok, so next lesson we’re going to work on [next topic, page, lesson]
4. Great, so what are your plans for after this lesson? 

Point 4. depends on what you talked about during the lesson. Bring up something your student talked about or ask if their day is busy. Of course if you are over time then skip this, but ideally you will have a moment to relax before you hang up. 

As a side note, pain theory states that when humans experience pain, we remember the final moments of the experience much more clearly than the peak of their painful experience. So, the harder the lesson, the more important it is to sign off nicely. In particularly tough lessons, this can be a monologue, "Well, it's Thursday, it's almost the weekend. I don't have any plans but I'm hoping to go hiking on Sunday. I hope you have a really nice weekend! Don't work too hard!" 

Tough lessons should be rare, but you should always try and find a minute to ask your student about their day and wish them luck. Final impressions are lasting, so relax and end with a smile.