You must have started teaching or at least plan to start teaching the English language as a foreign language or second language for this article to be very useful to you. Teaching students with a culture different from that of the tutor is much more challenging that teaching students from the same culture as you are. Asides from the language which may serve as the first barrier, you also have a lot of other tiny details which you as an EFL tutor have to watch out for if you really want to succeed in your job.

It is quite normal for tutors anywhere around the world to study their students. Of course, you may not know the individual behaviors, tendencies and capabilities of all your students during your first lesson, you should be a very fast learner when it comes to knowing the overall energy which surrounds your class. Is your class usually on the noisy side when lessons take place? Do your students ask a lot of questions during lessons? Do you get truthful answers when you ask the question did you all understand today’s topic? All these questions should be one of the first things you try to ascertain answers for as regards your students in general and this should be done within the your first five lessons in charge of any particular class. Having the answers to the questions above would no doubt be of great help in terms of helping you to adjust to the basic needs of the general class. If your students seem to be a little shy when it comes to asking questions and participating actively in class, you need to adjust your teaching styles and techniques so as to encourage them. Knowing a little information on the students in your class is also helpful. For example, most Asian students are usually more receptive and tend to remain quiet in class unlike their European or American counterparts who may feel more posed to asking questions or raising ideas. Now as an aspiring or already started efl tutor, below are more tips just for you.

Have great communication skills

The most valuable asset to any tutor is his communication skills. Your ability to pass the message across to those listening to you cannot be underestimated. As a tutor, you should try to access yourself to know if your communication skills are great or need a little sharpening. Sharpening your communication skills is something that can be achieved with practice and since your teaching requires students to become at least near fluent within a short period, you probably want to do any sharpening you have to do quickly and make sure changes to your person do not affect classes.

One good way to be sure of your ability to pass the message across although this may not always be true but is still a good way is by asking your students questions. At least more than 70% of your students should be able to answer these questions at any given time. The questions should not be brain-teasing questions, just something easy enough for almost all of your students to remember but hard enough for them to use their brains to answer the question. A very good question to start with is to ask about the last topic that you thought them. Ask at least one or two students to define a term or concept you thought in your last class. If you get staring faces that have no clue, know that you really need to work on yourself. Though you may actually be working with less intelligent students, your purpose as a tutor is to make all students whether less intelligent or not get and understand what you teach at least this is what your employers hired you for.

Once you have determined your ability to pass the message across to your students, you are now ready for the next part of this article.

Improving your communication skills

A good way to start improving your communication skills like was mentioned earlier is knowing your students. This is most likely not achievable in your first class but before your lectures start getting serious, it is quite important you read the minds of students you have in your class. Becoming a mind reader is not what is being postulated here but as a tutor your ability to read and understand your students can be one of your greatest assets. You need to know your students. How fast are they able to assimilate what you teach them? Their assimilation speed should determine your pace with lectures and the number of revisions you give for topics taught.

In improving your communication skills, you need to learn and know the culture of your students and since this article was written with preference to tutors teaching in Taiwan and Asian we would give you working solutions to improving your communication but with Asian students only. To begin, what are the tendencies/behavioral characteristics of Asian students? It is common knowledge they are shy, they may not really be up to the task when it comes to asking questions in class and they are generally not the ‘look me in the eye’ kind of students you may have been accustomed to. The characteristics mentioned above depend largely on the average age of students you are tutoring. Of course, older mature students are more likely to be bolder in class than the younger students are so if you are taking an older or adult class, you may not encounter any of these characteristics at all.

Know if your class falls in line with the general behavioral characteristics that have been mentioned above and if they do, you may read on. A very common way to cure the shyness of your students is by your approach. A warm tutor with a smile on his face will most likely get more questions directed at him than a stern looking tutor. In taking your students, in as much as you may want to be firm in your approach, you need to be a little free, jovial and smiley with your students. From personal experiences, language tutors are usually the friendliest tutors. Being friendly makes sure your students feel comfortable around you and once they are comfortable, you can be sure that their level of shyness would reduce.