Given that English reading, writing and comprehension are essential for anyone in New Zealand, from students to employees and ministers, it is no surprise that English tutors are in such high demand.
For school children getting ready for their NCEA English exams can be very stressful. University undergraduates may look for assistance with essay writing. The right support from an English language tutor can help any student boost their grade and feel more confident.
Tutoring is a learning format for all ages and abilities to boost their English. It works equally well for preschool children, working adults and everyone else!
However, given that the choice of training programmes is truly large, it may be difficult to make a decision.
A good way to save time and avoid trawling through infinite lists of educators is by planning your search.
Before you even go on your first tutoring website, think about what you want your future tutor to be like. Try to imagine the qualities you'd like the to have (for instance, someone who will give you their lessons in your home, is confident and has a lot of experience). That will help you use your time effectively since you'll rule out any tutors who don't meet your criteria.
As the private tuition market gets bigger and bigger, it has now become even easier to take one to one tuition classes wherever you are! A great solution for that is online tutoring, where the tutor and the learner work together via a webcam.
Online classes mean that you can meet and study with your ideal tutor no matter your geographical location.
So, you can get the best tutoring services right on your PC!
If you are more into traditional tutoring formats, there are plenty of great possibilities to find a qualified language tutor to deepen your knowledge near you without too much stress.
So, you can either stay local or search worldwide, it's all up to you. The purpose of this guide is to make your search for the ideal tutor as easy as possible.
The first thing you can do is to have a look at this checklist of criteria for tutors and start enhancing your English today!
About the importance of English skills
English is one of the core subjects in schools comparable to maths and science, but why is it so important?
The school subject called ‘English’ includes everything from learning to write to be able to structure an essay, and the abilities we develop as we study English are often useful in many more situations than schoolchildren can imagine.
For a native English speaker, a good command of English grammar, writing and speaking confidently are abilities that are simply essential in any area and which shouldn't be taken for granted.
The fact is that English classes teach you valuable and versatile skills which you will use daily but they are not that easy.
So, you may certainly ask: what makes English tuition more helpful than school English?
The way private tuition is offered means that the student gets much more attention from their tutor, and there are much fewer distractions and much less stress.
As a consequence, the tutor can dedicate their full time to helping one particular student overcome their learning problems in a way that's right for them.
So, unlike school teaching, in private lessons, the learner is not going to get bored with repetitive course content and there is no risk of falling behind, as the tutor will tailor their methods to the child’s style as well as their individual knowledge and pace.
Hiring a one to one English tutor can well be the right solution for those having difficulties in school. They will have someone who'll provide them with individualised support for English, rather that adopting an approach fully relying on the New Zealand curriculum.
There are plenty of reasons to hire private tutors, as well as there are several types of tuition available.
So, what is the purpose of one to one tutoring?
One of the most wide spread reasons to search for a tutor is to provide children with additional support as they get formal education.
English can at times be a tough subject if you have missed some important point, so tutors are there to spot your weaknesses and fill in the gaps.
But let’s be aware that English tutoring isn’t just about boosting your English grades at school and university. It will help you do better in other subjects too.
Learning the principles of essay writing with an English tutor will be very valuable for subjects like history, whereas productive revision methods can be applied to any exam you are about to sit.
Bost your reading comprehension may even help you with maths since you'll get better at solving word problems!
English school classes are essential to enhancing your communication abilities as an adult, and the opportunities it will open up are really endless.
Is It Worth Learning English with A Tutor For Anything Pre-NCEA Levels?
Obviously, the NCEA years are an extremely important time for every learner's education. Their results will determine their future, such as the university they can enter and the jobs they can apply for. But to succeed when studying English, you have to learn it gradually through the school years, starting from year 1 of education.
It's really essential to acquire a decent level of English at an early stage so that when you enter the first year of NCEA, your English learning journey much easier.
However, not just your English studies will improve thanks to your hard work. Working on your English knowledge will allow you to acquire a number of transferable skills that will determine how you do in other subjects too.
You could leave it until you reach NCEA to look for a tutor to catch up with the curriculum, but it would be much cleverer to do so as soon as you notice any signs of difficulty. This way, you can get back on track in fewer sessions than if your learning were completely out of hand!
While sometimes, parents of young students hesitate to pay for their child's extra tuition as it might upset their school teacher, private tutoring services do not necessarily mean that the learner's school lessons are bad.
A schoolchild may experience problems in class for various reasons. It is not always possible (even if the teacher is just amazing) to get enough attention from the instructor and to deal with difficulties effectively.
The simple reason for that is that teachers can be in charge of over 30+ students in some cases. So, in most cases, school teachers should be offended by your hiring a private instructor.
Tutoring suits students of any age, and schools should support it. Tutoring classes can really boost a learner's confidence in the English language which can, in turn, have a positive impact on other subjects.
For those in difficulty, it's a great opportunity to get back on track and for those who already have good grades, it's a way to fine-tune their abilities and to work on revision methods to achieve even greater heights.
Additionally, tutoring is much less stressful for students and, in some ways, for the English tutor too.
Take NCEA students, for example, who want to get a specific grade and enter the university course of their choice in New Zealand. A bit of extra support will give them optimism about their grades and their final results may be even higher than they expected.
In the same way, teachers who make serious efforts to help their students enter the universities they like in New Zealand can stay reassured since they know that their students have all the necessary tools to sit the exams and get an excellent grade.
To conclude, the positive effect of hiring a tutor at different stages of school is undeniable. Learners gain extra knowledge and schools benefit from their students' good performance to enhance their reputation!
Tutoring can also be helpful to children with special learning needs or for those who look for a particular kind of support, as that can change their entire education experience.
English tutoring expectations
Strike an agreement with your English Tutor
Hiring a tutor can lead not to just one positive result - getting a better grade.
There are plenty of other great benefits to get from it. Indeed, tutors strive to help you boost your grade but on top of that basic goals, a good tutor will push you to really learn and allow you to become a more confident and effective learner in general.
Before you select a tutor and start classes, you really should pay attention to a few things.
To begin with, talk about your expectations to potential candidates. Describe your goals? At what level do you want to get support and what level do you want to reach by the end of the school year? Do you want assistance with particular homework tasks? Do you or your parents want regular feedback from the tutor after tutoring sessions? If you ask these questions right from the start, you will know for sure if a tutor can be good for you.
It is totally okay to ask for help when you have difficulty. Obviously, getting extra classes to practice English may not make you very proud, especially if your classmates are all having good grades in class, but you should also keep in mind that this small effort after school will make you a much better learner, you'll become more confident and autonomous and exams won't seem so difficult to you anymore whereas your classmates might not be so well-equipped to prepare for a test and pass it without stress.
After you've chosen a private tutor
Once you've started to get support from your private English instructor, you should be aware that tutoring doesn't work like school courses and you can be involved in making plans together with your tutor. For example, you can talk freely about your difficulties and they will make suggestions on how to overcome them. Your tutor is likely to have knowledge of the national curriculum but you can tell them about the particular assignments you get and show them the learning materials like textbooks you are using.
Make sure to have a convenient place where you can meet your tutor and study without stress.
The best way to make your classes more effective is to show exercises and tasks you struggle with directly to the tutor. They can suggest learning tips to help you overcome your problems and will have a better idea about the areas you are good at and what aspects are to be improved.
You should be open and honest with your tutor. Tell them about any learning activities you do because it's an important part of your personality. Talk about your future career goals too. You can also show them books you like since literature is important for language learning.
Obviously, your tutor doesn't have to become a friend but being relaxed will help your learning.
And don't forget to eat well before each class so as not to be distracted by hunger! The more you're focused the more you'll get from tutoring and the better you'll remember the materials learnt.
Here are a few key areas in which a tutor can give you a hand to improve your English grades:
-Grammar (grammar rules)
-Verbs (Tenses, infinitive, irregular verbs, simple past, simple present, present simple, and so on)
-Vocabulary (distinguishing adverb, idiom, preposition, noun etc...)
-Adjectives
-English reading abilities
-Spelling
-English Writing (Basic English or Conversational English vs Business English)
-English speaking (English conversational speech)
-English listening (listening comprehension, understanding dialect)
-English pronunciation
Finding An English Tutor for you
Taking classes in your area
Lots of people are nowadays aware of the importance of English and the abilities it teaches. So, the demand for English tutors is very high. Happily, there are plenty of qualified education professionals willing to assist students too.
But how difficult is it to find the right tutor near you?
There are lots of potential tutors, from retired teachers to PhD students. The tutoring community in New Zealand is really big, so you just need to know where to look for them!
The most important thing is simplicity. You will not have to check out every English tutor living in your town to find a good one for you.
For example, you can begin with local newspapers as some tutors place their ads there.
In the age of technology, you may, obviously, be tempted to turn to the internet. That is a very powerful means to meet a tutor but the traditional approach often works too.
By simply skimming over the advertisements in your favourite newspaper, you’ll come across numerous tutors’ names, contact details and even information on their services.
Other great places are supermarkets and convenience stores. Teachers often display advertisements there and you can find someone living really close to you.
So next time you go shopping, have a quick look at the notice boards. Maybe, there'll be something really interesting.
Search for A Tutor Online
If, on the other hand, you have a preference for modern technology, you can still find a tutor living close to you!
The Internet provides a wealth of information about tutoring services in each city and some platforms allow you to search for educators in a certain radius.
Superprof is among these platforms.
On our website, you can find both online and in-home tutors.
There are three simple steps that will help you find the right tutor:
- Go to the Superprof New Zealand homepage
- Fill in the relevant information (e.g. English lessons in your city)
- Click ‘Find a tutor’
You’ll get a list of tutors filtered according to your criteria.
You can always narrow down your search by adding more filters on the top of the page.
So, searching for an English tutor close to you is really simple and there are plenty of avenues to be explored!
As for our tutors' rates, you might find your answers here!
All you should know about Online English Tutors
A face-to-face tutor can be found in many ways. By contrast, searching for an online English tutor can only be done with the help of the Internet.
In a lot of cases, finding a tutor who'll teach you via a webcam online is easier than searching for instructors close to you.
That is quite logical. When it comes to online support, there are no restrictions based on your location and it is not necessary to make travel arrangements. You can just pay attention to each tutor's professional skills rather than the practical side of tutoring.
So, you can use the same advice to look for a remote tutor as a local one, the process is quite similar but you can do it right from home!
All you need is a stable Internet connection.
The internet is an amazing place to get information about tutoring by reading articles and blog posts on different sites, including Superprof, but there are also many tools to filter your search results so you'll get only relevant results and come across the right person quickly.
Online tutors mostly advertise their classes on online education platforms, like Superprof. The search process is practically the same, with the only difference being that you search for online educators.
Both online and in-person tutoring have their pros and cons, so the final choice depends on the learner and their preferences.
Whatever your final decision will be, there are lots of resources both online and in your town, you can use to search for tutors and improve your knowledge with the right person.
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