Sie sind auf Seite 1von 4

7/4/2017 One-on-one Language Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice | ELT Journal | Oxford Academic

One-on-one Language Teaching and Learning: Theory


and Practice
One-on-one Language Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice T.Bleistein M.Lewis
Palgrave Macmillan2015, 192 pp., 61.00 (hardback) isbn 978 1 137 41332 1
Alex Case

ELT J (2017) 71 (3): 388-389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx023


Published: 27 May 2017

The title of this book made me jump at the chance to read it, as there is certainly a
need for something on both the theory and practice of one-to-one teaching. Previous
titles on teaching one to one that I had read had all got right down to tips on needs
analysis, course design, classroom activities, etc. giving little to those searching for
something to include in their DELTA essay, MA dissertation, or research paper on the
teaching of private classes. However, when I received this book and saw that it was a
fairly small volume of 184 pages I instantly had doubts whether both theory and
practice could possibly have been covered adequately. The authors have set
themselves still more of a challenge by deciding to cover every kind of one-to-one
class from informal conversation exchanges to courses in language schools where the
textbook and methodology are set in stone, including some mention of teaching
languages other than English. They also go right back to the fundamentals of general
EFL theory and practice (focusing on the most important parts for one-to-one
classes), include non-EFL sources, and cover every conceivable aspect of one-to-one
instruction
Skip (with chapters on Learning and tutoring options, The tutor-learner
to Main Content
relationship, Individual di erences in one-on-one teaching, Learning styles and
approaches to teaching one-on-one, Preparation for sessions, Choosing materials

https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/doi/10.1093/elt/ccx023/3855779/One-on-one-Language-Teaching-and-Learning-Theory 1/45
7/4/2017 One-on-one Language Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice | ELT Journal | Oxford Academic

and structuring sessions, Teaching one-on-one sessions, Technology and one-


on-one teaching, and Focus on skills).

The wide range of the book is both its chief strength and its biggest weakness. The
sheer number of sources and ideas means that anyone reading it is bound to come
across something that they have never thought of using in their one-to-one classes
before. For example, I had never considered using a graded and ungraded version of
the same text (p. 106), using multiple bags over an object (like an EFL version of Pass
the Parcel, p. 114), or using ve-minute pronunciation activities as breaks during
the class (p. 118). In general, the passages I underlined as being worth trying or
thinking about were at least twice as common as the bits I found doubtful or di cult
to understand. In particular, I found that the vignettes where teachers and learners
give a little story based on their own experiences made me consider whether I could
take the plus points of more informal contexts and bring them into my own more
formal one-to-one Business English and ESP classes. There were also some teaching
ideas and research results that got me thinking about changes to my own teaching.
However, because of how quickly the book mentioned those things and then moved
on, I was left to ponder if and how to actually bring them into my classes on my own,
and had to be careful not to move on to the next topic or list of bullet points too
quickly before I put that thought in. Unfortunately, I found that Your turn boxes like
Can you think of any other metaphors [for the tutor-learner relationship]? What
might they add to your understanding of the relationship? (p. 38) did not often
match the topics that I wanted to put more thought into, nor helped with that
process.

I therefore gained a reasonable amount of things to ponder about from the few hours
it took me to read through this slim volume. However, as I was reading it, the main
impression I got was that it needed much stricter editing. That feeling started from
the rst chapter with its seemingly random combination of some topics skimmed
quickly over and others looked at in more detail, and increased with some
Article Navigation
surprisingly rambling passages for such a short book. There were also basic errors
like the confusing of present perfect continuous and past perfect continuous in One
confused tutor asked What on earths the past perfect continuous? Ive been
speaking English all my life but I havent a clue what that means. Without knowing
Skip to Main Content
the label, she used that very tense to explain her dilemma (p. 39). I also found some
parts where it seemed to me that the source quoted proved something other than the
authors point, like Shorter sessions led to higher student e cacy beliefs, which
https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/doi/10.1093/elt/ccx023/3855779/One-on-one-Language-Teaching-and-Learning-Theory 2/45
7/4/2017 One-on-one Language Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice | ELT Journal | Oxford Academic

Matthews hypothesizes were a re ection of greater organization and control by the


tutor. So, working to build autonomy into sessions and giving power to the learner
can also help with motivation and a sense of e cacy (p. 61), where greater
control by the tutor and autonomy and giving power to the learner seem to be
exact opposites.

The main problem with the book and its editing comes back to the range of things
covered, as the authors do not seem to have any clear idea of who the audience for
the book is, at one point even suggesting that students might read the book to decide
how to best study one to one. Given that it is a fairly slim but expensive hardback
book published by an academic publisher, it seems likely that most people who do
actually read the book will be getting it from university libraries and teacher training
centres when studying for teaching quali cations such as an MA in TESOL. Perhaps
the second most likely group of readers are people who already have training in
teaching groups of students who then actually nd themselves teaching one to one.
Most of the readers are therefore likely to be getting the basic information that is
given here on the fundamentals of how people should teach and learn from
elsewhere. The idea mentioned on the back of the book, that there are certain parts of
English teaching generally that take on more importance when teaching one to one,
is a nice way of looking at the topic and made me rethink how I teach my one-to-one
classes (and maybe how I will write and speak about the topic with teachers in
future). Unfortunately, this was rarely mentioned in the body of the book and so I
often just found myself skimming through things I had been told many times before
in basic teacher training and general TEFL books. Given how much is covered in such
a small space here, teachers (and non-teachers) who do not have those fundamentals
are probably better o going to a basic book on EFL teaching more generally, or even
better, an actual teacher training course.

For people who are coming to this book for research purposes, the main problem
might be its format. I often nd a review of previous research and explanation of
methodology a slog at the beginning of books and papers. However, with this book, I
really hankered after a review of what we do and do not know about how one-to-one
learners learn best and more details on how the authors obtained their quotes from
teachers and learners, so that I could better assess the suggestions that came later.
Skip to Main Content
Instead, I found myself having to ip repeatedly to the back of the book to try to
judge from the title and publisher of each source how seriously I should take its
claims (in general and for my own one-to-one students). However, that icking back
https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/doi/10.1093/elt/ccx023/3855779/One-on-one-Language-Teaching-and-Learning-Theory 3/45
7/4/2017 One-on-one Language Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice | ELT Journal | Oxford Academic

and forth did reveal a plethora of interesting-looking sources, most of which I had
not come across before, and for some people it will be worth getting hold of this book
just for those eight pages of references. The individual chapters also provide the germ
of many ideas that researchers and postgraduate students could easily use to make a
whole essay, paper, or even career out of.

To summarize, the wide range of topics, teaching situations, and sources of ideas in
the book means that everyone is likely to get something from it, but it is not really
especially well-suited to any of the possible readerships. Of all the people who could
read it, it is probably most useful for the kind of researchers and postgraduate
students who are likely to be attracted by a book from an academic publisher with
Theory and Practice in its title. Even for such people, it is probably a book to dip into
and scan for suitable sources of more information rather than something to read
right through. For people who need more of a general review on teaching Business
English/ESP, EFL games, and the fundamentals of teaching and learning languages,
other more general books (or preferably actual teacher training courses) might be
more suitable.

Issue Section: Review

Author notes

Alex Case has taught in schools, universities, and companies in Turkey, Thailand, Spain,
Italy, South Korea, the UK, and now Japan, and has published hundreds of articles, reviews,
and classroom materials on topics from teaching very young learners to ESP. Recent
interests include teaching business skills such as emailing and telephoning, and his book
Really Learn the Most Useful Telephoning Phrases was published in 2016. There is a full list of
publications at https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/publications/. Email:
alexcase@hotmail.com

The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Skip to Main Content

https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/doi/10.1093/elt/ccx023/3855779/One-on-one-Language-Teaching-and-Learning-Theory 4/45

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen