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On the ESL forums, you often see teachers asking for ideas to make their one-to-one lessons more fun. Many teachers are brilliant in the classroom but are unimaginative when it comes to teaching children English one-to-one, and that’s a shame because one-to-one tuition can be very rewarding and often a good source of extra income.

By far the best approach for children to have a successful and enjoyable one-to-one lesson is to use games and songs. One of the tricks is to have an extensive collection of games suitable for one-on-one lessons. Another essential point is to have fun and be ready to participate in the games.

When you teach with games, kids will love your private lessons and their parents will love you for the results you get. A by-product of this already very successful combination is that by teaching children through play, you create an important connection between joy and learning that can enrich the rest of the child’s life.

Here are some ideas for using games successfully in one-on-one lessons. Most games require more than one player, which means sometimes you have to join in and play the game as well. You could say, “Well, then I’d just win all the time,” and that can be true. So if you are playing a game that is not just pure luck and where you would normally win all the time, here’s what you can do:

– Give your student a head start of 10 to 30 seconds.

– Make your task more difficult.

– Double the task you need to complete in the same time your student completes it once.

– Give your student three points about yours.

– Give your student 10 bonus points at the beginning of the game.

– Lose on purpose by being slow (but pretend to hurry) or drop your pen “accidentally”.

Another way to add a fun element to a one-on-one class is to use a stopwatch or timer to add excitement. This way your students can compete against themselves instead of always competing or playing against you.

Measure your student in each round of a game and see if he can beat his previous time. You can also use the stopwatch to time an activity, aiming to allow just enough time for your student to be more stimulated than if he or she were just working methodically through the exercise.

Oven timers that tick and have a bell that sounds when the allotted time is up are also good. Your student must complete the task before the bell rings. A substitute for an overtimer could be an alarm clock, wind-up music box, or egg timer.

Bells that you find at hotel receptions are also fun. Students run to tap the bell when they have their answer. This is more effective when you have two or more students, but it’s still an added fun element for the younger kids, even in one-to-one classes.

Last but not least, always be sensitive: be careful that someone doesn’t always lose, and only use competition when you see it cheer up rather than create unnecessary tension or morale loss. With children between the ages of 3 and 6, any form of competition is best avoided. You can play the game as normal or use the timer but make sure you play to the end so everyone wins – not just the person who finishes first and with the timer idea it’s important that that child finishes ahead of time – even if you have to extend that time indefinitely. If a small child doesn’t finish in the allotted time, they’ll get really upset and probably cry – and that’s not the aim of the game. Rather, you want the child to ALWAYS succeed so that they feel comfortable learning English.

Watch the fun demo video on the Home English Teacher website for ideas on how to teach your kids English.

One-on-one classes are immensely rewarding as progress can be rapid. Besides games, playing short pieces with your student in front of their parents or friends is also a profitable activity. Children love to be the center of attention and to show off what they have learned. One can write simple repetitive scripts using basic English but with a fun twist in it and this will bring a lot of joy to the child who will be happy to rehearse and perform and to the parents who will be so impressed with yours that they are their child continue to be sent to class.

If possible, rent or recommend films to watch for homework such as Spiderman, Batman, King Kong or Cinderella and Walt Disney films – all in English with no subtitles. Your students will willingly watch these many times and unconsciously pick up a lot of speech, even if they cannot understand the dialogues at first.

If you’re thinking about the cost of buying videos, take heart. You can find very cheap used videos and DVDs on the Internet.

You could also build a library of comics to read for homework. You wouldn’t expect your student to understand that much at first, but the subconscious will absorb the language all the time.

Collect a deposit for the replacement cost of the video or comic (including postage) to encourage the return of the video or comic.

The combination of fun lessons with games, getting results and offering additional services such as a video or comic library will set you apart from your peers and you will surely get many recommendations from parents for private lessons.

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