What Makes a Language Tutor Great, Not Just Good

E-learning
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Most people will mention patience, knowledge, or a pleasant disposition when asked what qualities make a great tutor. While those are not incorrect, decades of research on education do not support them as the differentiator. Compared to personality, the evidence is more specific and easier to learn.

The One Variable That Keeps Winning

In his ongoing Visible Learning project, New Zealand education researcher John Hattie has spent more than 20 years synthesizing meta-analyses involving hundreds of millions of students. He ranks teaching strategies according to effect size, or how much they actually affect student achievement. One factor consistently ranks near the top of that vast body of research: feedback. Specifically, feedback that is timely, specific, and connected to what the student is actually attempting to do next, as opposed to general praise or a final grade. Not coincidentally, a competent tutor is in a better position to accomplish this than nearly everyone else in a student’s educational journey. A piece of writing may only be seen by a classroom teacher a few days after it was written. When a tutor observes a student speaking in real time, they can address a particular error as soon as it occurs, while the error is still fresh enough for the correction to take effect.

Withitness

One of the most significant studies on classroom management of the century was published in 1970 by psychologist Jacob Kounin. It was based on a thorough analysis and videotaping of 49 elementary classrooms. His most well-known discovery had nothing to do with discipline methods; rather, it had to do with whether or not teachers appeared to see issues before they became problems. This trait, which Kounin referred to as “withitness,” is the constant sense that the instructor is keeping an eye on everything going on in the classroom through subtle cues. Additionally, he noted “overlapping,” which is the capacity to manage multiple tasks concurrently without losing the thread of either, and “momentum,” which is the ability to keep a lesson flowing without sudden, startling changes that allow a student’s focus to stray. These ideas are nearly ideal for one-on-one tutoring even though they were designed for a classroom of thirty children. A tutor with withitness observes the brief pause before responding, the slight frown at a word that wasn’t truly understood, the moment energy begins to wane, and makes adjustments before any of it becomes a real issue.

What This Actually Looks Like in a Lesson

When taken as a whole, the research indicates that a great tutor isn’t just more knowledgeable or patient than a good one. They are more perceptive and take quicker action. Instead of waiting until the end of the sentence to catch the mistake, they do so right away. They can sense when a student’s focus is beginning to wander and change the pace before it fully occurs. Instead of just saying “good job” or “not quite,” they provide feedback that specifies exactly what needs to be done differently the next time. A resume doesn’t mention any of this. It is fully evident in the lesson itself. This is the distinction that tutors on IOPARLA are trained to strive for: genuinely and actively paying attention to the one student in front of them throughout the entire lesson, in addition to having a solid command of the language.