Needs Assessment or "Wing It"

An anonymous reader writes:

Hi there, What are your suggestions on the initial assessment of new students? Do you have a particular type of assessment that you give students or do you "wing-it?"

Love you site -- what a resource!

My response:

Hi Reader,

As a starting point, I use a Needs Analysis form I've adapted from various other Needs Assessment forms I've run across in previous teaching jobs. I've hesitated to post it to my sites because I really do also wing it depending on the student, and I haven't edited the form I use to reflect this.

Since I usually work one-on-one with very advanced English language learners, they are usually able to articulate what it is they want to work on. Mostly, I listen to what they say and how they say it and then take notes on what I think needs to be improved. This helps me to be able to tell my potential student how I would proceed in working with them. If they want to work on their writing skills, I ask them to send me a writing sample before our first class, and I analyze that before we meet.

My first meeting with potential students is always free as I do a Needs Analysis to determine their strengths and challenges. It also gives us both a chance to decide if we would like to work together, with no obligation.

Another reason that it's important to have a "form" is that it lets potential students know that you're a professional. I've had numerous students comment on the fact that the process is very professional. They seem to appreciate this and want to work with me more.

Good luck,
Debra
Teaching ESL to Adults

Teaching ESL During the Holidays

Things sometimes slow down in the ESL tutoring world during the Thanksgiving holiday. Sometimes I wonder if it's because of the teachers and tutors or because of the ESL students. The American Thanksgiving holiday is not something that's celebrated by many of my ESL adult students. For a few, it's a time to take a four-day weekend and head to Vegas.

Although, I do have one student who has a kindergarten-aged child who insists on all the traditional trimmings. Since he's only five or six years old and has only learned about the basics of the trimmings in class, his mom takes certain liberties in preparing the meal. They have a traditional American Thanksgiving with some Chinese flavor.

Another thing I've noticed over the last few years of tutoring ESL students privately is that I've traditionally gotten several new students in the month of December. I assumed when I started out that December would be a really slow month. I expected January to be a bigger month, but it's never worked that way. Strangely, December is the busy month.

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ESL Students and Leaving Voicemails

I've had a few ESL students who are reluctant to leave voicemails. For some, they think that their English isn't good enough. For some of us who are old enough, we can probably remember back to when it was just plain awkward to leave telephone messages on answering machines. So maybe we can appreciate our students', or other ESL speakers', reluctance to leave voicemails.

The only time that I insist that students call me (and possibly have to leave a voicemail) is when they are potential new students who I haven't met or who haven't been referred to me. This is just for the sake of safety. It helps me to get a little bit of a feel for the person I may be meeting. I meet my students in a public space, so I have less of a safety issue than someone who meets new students in a private location.

This is just one of those safety tips I want to mention for private ESL tutors.

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New Intermediate Student and Grammar

I'm excited to have a new adult ESL student who is at an intermediate level. Most of my students lately have been very advanced ESL students. While this is enjoyable in a lot of ways, having more to teach is even more exciting.

With my advanced ESL students, mostly we practice conversation skills and sometimes pronunciation. Only occasionally do we need to review grammar points.

With most intermediate ESL students, grammar review is also a part of our lessons, although the review is more extensive than for advanced students. I actually like grammar and enjoy teaching it.

I look forward to refreshing my English grammar teaching skills.

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Using Craigslist to Advertise for ESL Students

As a private ESL tutor, I continue to find my students through posting free advertisements on craigslist.org. My postings have allowed me to earn a living teaching ESL to adults for quite a while now.

The effectiveness of craigslist.org depends on the area of the U.S. you are in, or even the area of the world--as it is now available in many cities around the world. I'm fortunate to live and work in an area where a huge percentage of the population, including English language learners, knows about craigslist.org.

I would love hear about other options ESL tutors use to find students. Please send me any ideas you have and I will be sure to post them so that they may be useful to other tutors.

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Meeting a New ESL Student

I met with a new ESL student today to do a free Needs Assessment. I always offer a first free meeting to potential students. This gives me a chance to decide if I would like to work with the student and gives the student a chance to decide if he or she would like to work with me.

The potential student I met today is a philosophy professor from Russia. He's a visiting scholar here in the States. I enjoyed talking to him a lot. I'm really fortunate to have a lot of students who are very interesting and with whom I can have interesting conversations.

I look forward to working with this new ESL student.

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Professionalism with ESL Students

I always meet my potential ESL students for a free first meeting. This gives the student an opportunity to meet me, and me to meet the potential student so that we can decide whether we want to work together. This first free ESL meeting is as much for me as it is for them. If I get a weird feeling from the student, or just decide that we wouldn't be a good match, then the student has not spent his or her money needlessly. (I really don't believe that all that much teaching and learning can be accomplished in a first meeting with a student without knowing about the student.)

In our first meeting together, I always do a needs assessment. I follow a form that I've developed. Using this form and asking other relevant questions as needed shows the potential student that they are working with a professional. Since they are paying good money for my lessons, this helps to set the tone of what they can expect and it impresses the potential student.

Apparently, I'm one of a rare few ESL tutors in my area that offers a free first session. I don't understand why. It really pays off in the long run in finding quality students and happy students (and paying students!).

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Fees for Tutoring ESL Students

I received an email from an elementary school teacher who is planning to take on her first adult ESL student. She wrote to my other website Teaching ESL to Adults to ask me how much to charge for her ESL tutoring services. She is somewhere in the United States. She didn't provide her city or state.

To find out how much to charge for ESL tutoring services, especially in the U.S., I recommend visiting www.craigslist.org and looking at their "Lessons" section. You can limit your search to "ESL" or "English" to find out how much other tutors are charging in your area (or nearby) and use that as a basis to charge your private ESL students.

Another tip for finding new ESL students is to peruse the above section of Craig's list for students. Often, adult students looking for a private tutor will post their request. I've actually gotten a few students this way in the past couple of years.

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Meeting ESL Students Once a Week

Well, today I met with a new student for our initial assessment meeting. She is a very advanced ESL student. She wants to improve her speaking skills and writing skills, as well as learn idioms and how to make small talk; AND she wants to sound like a native speaker. A pretty full plate.

And guess how often she wants to meet and how many times per week? Once a week for one hour. I gave my warnings, but this is what she wants to try. I sometimes wonder if I should refuse students who can only commit to one hour per week. Being self-employed, it's probably not a good idea. But to do justice to the student, I do my best to inform them of the progress they can expect with only one hour of instruction and practice per week.

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Taking New ESL Students with Limited Time

I had met with a particular student once a week for about four or five weeks. During our assessment meeting (I always offer a free assessment meeting to potential students—it also gives us both a chance to decide if we would like to work together), the student said that she wanted to improve her spoken English. Her skills were quite advanced, but she wanted to improve more and have an opportunity to speak English, because she speaks her native language at home and with most of her colleagues. Yesterday, she emailed to apologize and tell me that she did not have time to continue classes; also, she felt that since she was not able to practice English outside of class, she did not feel that her English was improving.

In my advertisement for new students, and at my first meeting with new students, I highly recommend to students that they take at least two English classes per week if at all possible. I tell them that the difference between one class and two is often the difference between no improvement (if taking only one class per week) and substantial improvement. I had warned this particular student of the same thing, but she wanted to try anyway. And now she has given up (for now).

I have had one student that I met only once a week for several months; and his English skills progressed a lot. However, he was willing to do a substantial amount of homework during the week; and when something immediate and really important came up (like preparing for job interviews), we temporarily increased our meetings to two to three times per week.

When taking on new students, I highly recommend that English tutors stress the importance of doing more to improve their English skills than meeting with a tutor one time per week. The “more” could be taking additional classes, doing homework, making sure to practice English skills everyday, etc.

As a self-employed tutor, I generally do not turn away ESL students who can meet me only once per week. Most of my students are working adults, and one time per week is all they can manage. However, I am very clear with my students about what is possible by only having one meeting. Learning a language is not a once-a-week endeavor, and I want to make sure that my students know the best ways to improve their English skills. And I also do not take it personally if I do not see significant improvement. I am always sure to do my part, but the learning is the student’s responsibility.

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Scamming ESL Tutors on craigslist.org

I've mentioned before that I advertise for ESL students on craigslist.org. This is my primary source of advertising and marketing. My other source is referrals from past students. Students work with me for a few months and either return to their countries of origin and/or have met their English language goals, so I often need new students to replace old students.

I regularly run an ad offering my tutoring services to English learners in the Lessons section of craigslist.org. Without fail, right after I post my ad, I receive one to three offers from someone claiming they are from another country and they would like me to teach their children because their children are going to be in the U.S. "on holiday" and they want their children to keep busy, etc. They will also ask me for my rate for three or four weeks, my address, phone number, etc. They tell me that they need this information so that they can send me a money order or cashier's check. Their email will never be in correct English although some claim to have grown up in the U.S., but are now living abroad. It will usually be in all bold letters.

Over two years ago, when I started using craigslist to find students, I actually fell for one of these scams (for a little while). I corresponded with the scammer, providing most of the information he requested and asking him for more information about his son (age, level of English proficiency, etc.). He said he wanted to hire me for two-hour lessons, five days a week for one month. I actually started planning my work (and vacation schedule around this scammer). I didn't receive any money, but the month came and went and the "student" never showed up. A couple of weeks later, I got another email explaining that there had been a family emergency. By this point, I finally realized that I was the target of a fraud scheme.

The way it works is that the person saying they want English lessons eventually sends you a cashier's check or money order for an amount over the amount of the total English lessons. Then the ESL tutor is supposed to reimburse the scammer for the overage. It takes about a month for banks to discover that a cashier's check is fraudulent. In the meantime, the scammee has sent real money to the scammer.

This scam is not only used on English tutors. Someone tried to scam a student of mine who was selling a car. It's the same idea. The scammer sends you payment for over the amount of the transaction and the victim is supposed to return the excess payment.

I just think it's really low to try to scam teachers!

How to Find New ESL Students

As a self-employed English as a Second Language tutor, it's my responsibility (and livelihood!) to find my own students. Adult learners often have specific goals in mind. About half of my students at any given time live and work in the U.S. This is their home and they are trying to advance in their careers. The other half are ESL students who live in other countries and are here for a short while (a few months to a year) to study classes in their particular field and/or to improve their English language skills. We are able to meet their goals in a matter of months, so I continually need to market my services in order to have a constant source of students.

My primary source of new students is craigslist.org. I keep at least one ad running (almost) at all times. Since I only tutor adult ESL learners, my ads focus on professionals living in the U.S. and visiting scholars. This free method of advertising has worked very well for me and has allowed me to earn a living through the number of students it provides me.

The trick to running an ad for ESL students (or any other type of new client) is to tell the reader what you can do for him or her first. People look at ads because they have a "problem" or a need and they want to find someone who can help them. So it's best to start your ad by telling your potential student what you can do for them.

I see a lot of ads where the writer makes the mistake of talking about themselves way too much. While the potential student wants to make sure that you are qualified, even more importantly he or she wants to make sure you can help solve their problem. Talk about your major qualifications at the end of the ad. Remember that it is more important to tell the reader how you can help him or her solve a problem.

Student Needs Assessment

A Student Needs Assessment (aka Student Needs Analysis) is essential when you are teaching students one-to-one. Completing this process gives you a beginning roadmap to follow for the first couple of lessons with your new student. You'll learn more about the student's needs as you spend time with your student.

I work with adults only. The majority of my students are advanced ESL students, so they are able to tell me the areas they would like to focus on. That doesn't mean I slack off in doing the Needs Assessment. Sometimes the student may not be able to articulate the precise areas they need to improve. They just know that they want to improve their listening skills, for example, but they don't that the problem they are having is identifying reductions commonly used by native English speakers.

I always set up a free first meeting with a potential new student. This allows me to do an English skills Needs Analysis and it also gives the student and me an opportunity to decide if we would like to work together. This meeting takes between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. Of course, for beginning English level students, it takes a lot less time.