Language learning tutors have the potential to be a great benefit to help you learn a language, or a drain on your money without helping you get very far. What should you be doing to make use of a language tutor? Do you even need to get one? These are the questions this article will help you answer.

You’ve started your language learning journey, and want to improve your speaking abilities, so you get a tutor. Great work! But what now? What is the best way to use your time with your language tutor (either online or in-person) to make sure you are getting the best out of them to improve your language?

There are different types of tutors available, such as those who are simply language exchange partners you’re also trying to learn your language, as well as tutors who you pay for their time and who are skilled in both languages. The type of tutor that you have will also influence what you’ll be up to get out of them and so some of these options may be more or less viable in your particular situation.

Depending on what you’re wanting to get out of your language tutor, perhaps you are okay with just having a conversation with them each week without having anything preplanned or anything specific to discuss. This could work perfectly fine, particularly if you are an outgoing person and you are both able to talk about a range of topics. For those of us who may wish for some preparation, or want to talk about specific things with our tutor there are several ways to go about this.

Have Questions Prepared To Keep The Conversation Flowing

The best way to practice a new language is to have as many conversations as possible. The more natural you can make these conversations the better, simply because this will be more similar to real-life conversations. You can speak about anything and everything, and in some ways, this is even easier with a language tutor, because you’ll probably not know anything about them. This means asking questions about their hobbies, family life, and what life is like in the city, will be quite natural because you won’t know the answers.

In order to prepare for a conversation with a language tutor, try getting a list of questions so that if you run out of things to talk about with a particular topic, you can move on to the next subject. A great website for this is listed here, which provides a list of questions you can ask in a language classroom, which will also work well in a one-on-one environment.

The benefit of this is there any new vocabulary you learn will be able to be used in everyday life because they aren’t words related to a specific topic. This also means that your pronunciation and grammar skills will both be relevant to conversations you could have if you were to travel to the country.

Start Writing And Have It Checked By Your Tutor

Another good way of getting the best out of your language tutor is by doing some sort of home writing exercises so that your language learning also has a writing aspect as well as a speaking one.

If your tutor allows, you can write during the week and have it checked by them and discuss this when you have your next session. This could be writing about your day or writing a story or something about your own country.

The benefit of writing is that you are practising the language and will need to look up words but you also get a chance to discuss what you’ve written for grammatical mistakes and idioms that could be used to make your writing more natural.

Pick Specific Things To Discuss In The Next Session

The easiest way to keep the conversation going with a language tutor across several lessons is to agree on something that both of you will read, listen or watch so that you are both able to talk about it in the next session. Ideally, this should be something that both of you have an interest in, which will also help the conversation.

The benefit of doing this is that you now have part of your time each week dedicated to a specific conversation. This also enables you to discuss particular grammar points, specific words, and cultural differences between the two countries. This also means that you have something to do during the week, which will take time but can also help your lessons feel as though they have a purpose rather than simply a time to talk to somebody in another language.

Don’t Be Shy About Finding Another Tutor

Keep in mind that there is no obligation for you to pick a single language tutor and to stay with them forever. Maybe your first few tutors didn’t quite have what you were looking for, or you didn’t click with them. That is totally fine and that is the reason that most tutors offer a trial session at a reduced price.

It may take a little bit of time to find somebody that works for you, or it simply might take some time for you to realize what you want out of the tutor. Because there are so many options, make sure you don’t let the number of choices paralyze you into making no choices. Your very first session will probably be a little bit awkward, but things do get easier as time goes on.

You are the person who is spending time (and possibly money) on the language tutor, so if they aren’t fulfilling your needs, you don’t need to have any worries about not scheduling any more sessions with them. On the flip side, you may decide that you actually want more than one tutor, and have one tutor to discuss more grammatical aspects of the language, to check your writing skills, and another tutor to simply have a conversation with.

The world is your oyster in this regard, so there is no wrong way to go about this for you.