Hey all,
Like I said in my last post, I've been studying English intensively over the last few months. I can see my improvement. Honestly, it was a tremendous improvement. One of the things that helped me a lot to achieved it was to keep in touch with native speakers. I used to take private classes through an online platform. Now, my contract with this company expired. I have to say I miss my classes a lot. I can wait to resume my classes or at least to do something similar to it.
In the meanwhile, I've been taking this time to rethink the classes. I've been thinking about the approach that I used to use. The classes were like free talks between friends. They were wonderful, and again, as I said, the lessons did help me a lot, especially when it comes to feeling comfortable with the language. But still: Was I getting the most out of those classes? I really don't know, and that's why I'm writing this post.
How do you guys deal with it? Do you usually prepare some topics before the class? Do you use these kinds of opportunities to talk only about questions?
I love talking with different people, exchange cultural and personal experiences and thoughts. I want to keep it, but maybe I should balance it with something more prepared or specific. What are your thoughts about it? I'd be delighted to hear from you.
I generally follow a plan with my tutors. The first part of the conversation is a general one about my week and then we move to a specific topic. Depending on the tutor sometimes they send me a topic (usually a news article) or I decide on a topic (usually current affairs). We then discuss that topic. For me it is very important that the tutor corrects my errors as we go (usually uses chat to document the correct phrase or word). It is better when I have a short text prepared in advance to review with the tutor but honestly I do not always have the time to prepare something.
Hi @Bradinwinnipeg. Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts. I also like to get feedback from my tutors. It's essential for me. I'd rather get feedback at the end of the class than while I'm speaking. Out of curiosity, do you usually read a text about the topic that your tutor suggests and then answer questions? Or do you both talk about it in a 'relaxed' way?
I generally have a free-flowing conversation with my tutors and have them jot down the mistakes I make along the way and send them to me after the session is over. Everyone is different. I tend not to learn as much in a structured session. For me, struggling to make sentences and taking time to pause is part of the language learning experience. It gets those synapses sparking and helps to build neural connections.
Then, when the session is over, I review the mistakes and corrections on the list provided to me.
On my free time, I think reading is critically important. I tend to use LingQ for that. Happy learning!
Wow, your English is practically spot on here! I hope my corrections made sense. They were all minute details, so feel proud of yourself!
@Ana I'm a bit late to the party on this one... I see you already got some great feedback though :) As @WearyTraveller427 said, this is (another) great piece of writing from you in English! As for your question about online lessons/conversations, I find myself doing different things with different tutors. Sometimes we discuss an article, sometimes I have specific topics I want to talk about, and sometimes we just talk. Very occasionally there's some specific grammatical or pronunciation issue I want help with. That may sound a bit haphazard, but I enjoy this relaxed approach and the variety it provides. I think ultimately it depends on what you want to get from the lessons - for me, it's almost exclusively about practicing talking. The tutor is just someone I like that I can have an interesting conversation with. I prefer to do most of my "real learning" by myself, through lots of reading and listening.
Hey @Sean! It's always a pleasure to see you here :) Yeah, as I wrote in the post, I do enjoy having relaxed conversations with natives. It's a fantastic way to improve my speaking skill and also to build relationships. Aside from that, I like getting feedback from them as well. This way, I can focus my studies on these mistakes in the week after. However, I see that a lot of natives, including tutors, are afraid of correcting errors. It probably happens because there a lot of learners who could not positively receive these corrections.
Hi @WearyTraveller427! Thanks a lot for your comments :) I do appreciate your help!!