Tutor-Private Teaching and Learning

Learning process takes a huge part of our life, because first of all we have to learn how to live. And then in the childhood and juvenility learning is the major activity according to the psychological researches. And people who do not cope with studies being a child loses many things he or she could catch just unconsciously. That is why so many learning centers were opened by the government to help those kids who cannot get enough in schools and need some more preparation in studies. And Sylvan Learning Centers are among those.

Learning centers. The company was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1983. At the present day Sylvan Learning Centers is a chain of franchised centers. In the very beginning, when Sylvan Learning Centers were founded by a former school teacher, the company was rapidly developing. Educational programs that where suggested by the founder of the company were very successful and effective. In addition to the programs, Sylvan Learning Centers offers Laser Grade Computer Testing. For those students that have some financial difficulties, the company offers tuition financing. Today, Sylvan Learning Centers has hundreds of franchises all over the country.

Services of Sylvan Learning Centers. These educational centers offer professional instruction and assistance in learning process. The company has developed some additional tools for the students to have the immediate growth in knowledge. Besides, Sylvan Learning Centers provides special enrichment programs for those kids who are highly achieving. The company employs professional tutors who are able to teach, because some people can be very clever and educated but the cannot teach. Sylvan tutors have developed a number of programs that should help students to catch what they have missed in school. At learning centers tutors provide personalized assistance in reading, writing, math, improving of study skills and make students ready for the state exams and college entrance. Numerous programs include Beginning Reading, Academic Reading and Writing, Math Essentials, Advanced Math and so much more.

Sometimes people feel lost and lonely. In such times anybody can fall into a destructive depression. That is why many for-profit companies were created that had their main concept as helping people to improve their own individuality, to become stronger and wiser. These companies mostly provide different courses and seminars to help those who want to reach the next level in career, relationships, mental or spiritual health. During these courses certified psychologists explain how to use various tool and techniques of self-improvement. And one of the companies, which deliver such courses, is PSI Seminars.

About the company. PSI Seminars is a private company. PSI Seminars was founded in 1973 and at the present time it is based in Lake County, California. The slogan of PSI Seminars is: “Strategies for life success.” The company was created to provide self-improvement and personal development courses. This company is actually the oldest coursework created in the United States. It has a subsidiary company that is named PSI World. The company has many locations in a number of cities all over the world: in the USA, Canada, and Japan. PSI Seminars deliver five courses of self-upgrading work. Professional teachers show people different exercises of self-improvement and try to help them to reach their individual aims. According to PSI Seminars, the main thing is to teach people understand themselves, their beliefs and desires to reach success.

PSI Seminars complaints. People complain that all the perfect customer service ends when some problems appear. If a client feels that the courses are not for him and want to get his money back, it is very hard to do. The coaches of PSI seminars even do not let to bring water in the room. The employees become very rude, not helpful and do not want to understand why the client wants to leave. Some attendants of the courses state that PSI Seminars make you dependant on their help. People are brainwashed there and forget what they really wanted.

The Internet has often been described as the biggest communications revolution since not too long ago. The Internet is considered to be a prosperous community with many million of people exchanging information, ideas and opinions. For foreign language teachers it is the perfect medium. A foreign language teacher always gets an opportunity to access for quality, authentic teaching material. With the Internet all the teaching material can be quickly and readily available from the comfort of our desks.

The Internet in the process of foreign language teaching. An access to the Internet opens up a world of possibilities for both students and foreign language teachers. The Internet gives students an access to the world knowledge they often don`t have. The Internet puts them in touch with other students of the same language around the world. The students can send their homework to their teachers by E-mail. By using the Internet the students can take part in collaborative projects on a global scale. The Internet offers a variety of topics to satisfy a diverse audience. It`s very much motivating. Through the Internet learners are exposed to authentic language that is constantly updated. Besides, the Internet gives the students the opportunity to manage their own learning, to use it outside the class.

What are the reasons to use the Internet in language teaching? There are several possible reasons for using the Internet in language teaching. The main reason is that the linguistic nature of online communication is necessary for promoting language learning. Another well-known factor is that the Internet creates optimal conditions for learning to write, because it provides an authentic audience for written communication. Foreign language teachers know that the Internet can also increase students` motivation that is important for successful learning. There are many ways of integrating the Internet activities into the class work. The teacher and his students can investigate something in collaboration with foreign partners, can create research questions, work at publications. But every teacher has to find his own way, based on the goals of the curriculum, the needs of the students and the materials and technology available.

Communication or speaking may be defined as a major learning task. Students learn better if they have positive attitude to what they are doing. Interest is a crucial factor. Teachers get excited about the lesson when they feel that their students have communicated on a level that goes beyond going through the motions, when they have engaged with the topic on a personal level. Engagement can be triggered by anything from understanding and laughing at a cartoon to what life was when you were 8 years old.

The aim of speaking tasks. Speaking tasks, presented at the lesson, are not intended principally as a grammar practice. They are connected with the certain topic, certain vocabulary and grammar. Everything is aimed at turning input into output. Such tasks are easy to set up and enjoyable to use. Most of them encourage students to talk about things that matter to them. The students can play roles, exchange invented information.

What is linguistic risk taking? Personalized, authentic tasks challenge and engage students and this encourages linguistic risk taking. When students take risks they are experimenting, testing theories about how the language works. This is an essential part of language learning. A series of challenging speaking tasks focuses on learner`s own experiences and opinions. The choice within tasks encourages students to take charge of interactions. Teachers tend to refine and improve their set pieces: jokes and stories. Students do the same. When they have the opportunity to take risk, they become more adventurous and more precise in the language they use. The first time the students do a speaking activity, they are more likely to concentrate on the content; repetition of the task means that they have more time to process the language, increase the range of vocabulary and use more syntactically complex language. While taking linguistic risk students as well as teachers achieve the main purpose of speaking tasks – they develop fluency.

Nowadays the rhythm of life is becoming faster and faster, that`s why time is considered to be the most precious treasure. Informational revolution becomes a challenge to the system of education and especially to the system of foreign language teaching. So, the foreign language teachers are in constant search of new methods which could make teaching more effective and results visible in shorter terms.

What is the intensive method of teaching foreign languages built upon? The method of intensive teaching has already shown its effectiveness. The followers of this method prove that it is built upon the principle of so-called “submersion” in the atmosphere of a foreign language. It means that students constantly stay in the flow of foreign speech: oral or written. They avoid the level of internal translation of foreign speech into native language and back. Such a submersion is made by daily involvement of students in foreign speech. In such a way students start to use the language without knowing grammar or phonetic structure. In the same way they started to use their native language. Continuous usage of role-plays in the studying is another important feature of this method. In those role-plays every student gets some role. So, he becomes another person and starts acting according to his “legend”. Students are involved in some situations during the lesson so they have no time to think over the phrases or to translate them from native language and as a result they start to use a foreign language as a means of expression.

What is a teacher`s role? The role of a teacher at such lessons is to make a dialogue or situation and to coordinate students in its flow. The professionalism of the teacher plays extremely important role in the studies as students will imitate his manner of speech and all gestures in their own expressions and he also must be able to involve all the students into the speech flow. The method of intensive teaching is based on the natural principles of mastering language by a person. This method gives teachers the opportunity not to teach about the language but the language itself.

The need to individualize becomes urgent in our society in its present stage of development. One may think that study is an individual matter and the methods which suit some individual will not suit others. It`s true. Different methods are appropriate to different subjects. The best methods of learning Maths will not necessarily be the best methods of learning Chemistry.

What does success in study depend on? Study still remains an art. Although methods of learning different subjects can differ, there must be certain general principles of learning appropriate to different subjects. Both students and teachers shouldn`t forget about these principles, because they enable a person to work out his own personal methods of study more effectively with less trial and error. Every teacher knows that success in study depends not only on ability and hard work but also on effective methods of study. Some students can do more work in a given time than others and do it more easily. No doubt that this is a matter of ability. Important study skills such as note-taking, revising, making plans and time-tables have to be learned and practiced by students but as a rule very few students get systematic instruction in these matters. Most students rely on the traditional study techniques they learned at school. If a student works out his own methods of study and practice new study skills he will be able to enjoy his learning and to succeed in it. A teacher`s task is to explain his student that he can become efficient in learning through proper organization and method.

What is the most effective method of learning from textbooks? Nowadays students spend a great deal of time preparing their individual tasks. They read a lot and learn a lot from their textbooks. There is no wonder that the question of the most effective method of learning from textbooks concern all students all over the world. The method of reading and then making brief outline notes proves to be the most effective. In this situation some training in note-taking is absolutely necessary, because without practice this method may be inferior to the traditional method of reading and rereading. Whatever method a student may use he must first of all understand what he is studying. To understand doesn`t mean to remember easily, because the important thing is not what you know, but what you can do with what you know. To understand thoroughly is to be able to apply your knowledge in new situations.

It`s hard to give the exact definition of humor. Let`s try. According to the psychologists, humor denotes a mental disposition towards pleasantry, often realized in the enjoyment of anecdotes, jokes, puns repartee riddles, wisecracks and witticisms.

The role of humor in breaking the class routine. Humor can do miracles. Humor is one of the effective means of enhancing students` motivation to study English. It promotes students` interaction, eases the constant tension in the class and encourages students to take part in various activities. If a teacher can encourage students to be humorous, they usually produce answers that are more interesting and productive. As a teaching strategy humor can provide substantial benefits of understanding, increased attention and interest. Humor creates a positive classroom environment, reduces anxiety, manages undesirable behavior and builds self-confidence. It`s important that humor can allow the shy or timid students to relax and to take part in group discussions. Humor can also reduce the authoritarian position of the teacher, allowing him to be a facilitator of learning process. Humor is an effective way to help students remember key concepts and structures.

The danger of over-using. The teacher is to remember that his class is made of individuals with different tastes, that`s why the teacher shouldn`t be discouraged if his jokes don`t meet the expectations. It`s good to let humor arise naturally but not force it. Like any teaching strategy, the use of humor can become meaningless if over-used. A careful balance is necessary. The overuse of humor in teaching can lead to some unintended consequences. A teacher should be extremely careful about telling jokes. Not every teacher is a good joke-teller, so it is important for a teacher to be prepared for such an activity. The most amusing and entertaining jokes lose their significance if they are told at an inconvenient time and place. Humor can be one of the hardest aspects of a foreign language for students to understand but at the same time it is also one of the most rewarding.

Both parents and teachers want children to behave. Do children really know what is safe and what is dangerous, what is socially appropriate and what is not.

Ways of disciplining children.
Both parents and teachers can take privileges away, remove their attention, tell the children off, scold and even smack them. Such ways of disciplining children don`t require much effort and usually have an immediate effect. A negative one. Children start solving their problems by punching and hitting others. Raising a voice only works, if a child is doing something really dangerous. But if a teacher shouts all the time, a child takes little notice. ”Telling off” is only successful if a child takes seriously what teachers or parents say and if they have a child`s full attention. In this situation both a teacher and a parent should be clear, firm and confident. One of the most effective means of disciplining children is removing attention of the adults. It really hurts a child. It`s cruel to use this method too long. As for the punishment, the situation seems to be contradictory. Are the parents and teachers always waiting for a child`s misbehavior to happen?

Rewards.
Another question arises: why not catch a child being good? The adults are much better at recognizing bad behavior than at noticing the good things. Certainly, it`s more enjoyable to be rewarded than punished. The most effective of all rewards is parents` and teachers` attention. Even a few seconds of it make a child really happy. The adults are quick to criticize and slow to praise. Both parents and teachers shouldn`t be afraid to over praise a child. The whole world will tell him what is wrong with him. It will be done loudly and frequently. The people, who surround a child should tell a child what is right about him.