On today’s Question & Answer call on Skypecast (my skype names are greg.davis and the.ideal.school), Martin from Slovakia asked about speaking. He wanted to know how to practice speaking English more. Many students take English classes, but they want more practice with their actual production of the language. They can study vocabulary and grammar on their own. They can practice listening to various audio sources on the Internet, on TV, and in movies.
The problem is that they need an English speaker to talk with. Many fluent English speakers are willing to chat, but most of them will not correct your grammar or help you choose more appropriate vocabulary. Most students I work with say they are happiest and get the best results when working with a professional language educator, someone who is trained in teaching foreign languages, who does that for their full-time profession.
You can use the free internet phone service Skype to make free phone calls to other computers all over the world. Now, learners of English have access to fluent English speakers all over the world. Although the phone service is free, you will need to pay the teacher for his/her time with you. In some countries, you have to pay over $100 per hour for private tutoring. Where I live, on the west coast of the United States, the range for someone with a Master’s degree is $25 to $50. People who have a Master’s degree are highly trained professionals who have invested a significant amount of time, energy, and money into their professional education. Tutoring over the Internet is typically less expensive.
How much do students of English as a Foreign Language usually pay for one-on-one tutoring? I would like to hear from you. What is the most you have paid? What is the least you have paid? Have you been satisfied? Explain.
TOEFL Tips 
March 12, 2008 at 1:21 am
One to one prices vary from country to country like you say. The web can level out the variations and it is best to work wth a qualified teacher, of course. But as you point out qualified teachers, wherever they are, come at a price and most of the world’s English learners would find them a bit pricey. I have to fess up a commercial interest at this point, I came up with the idea for Guardian Languages, which is along the same lines of Livemocha and MyHappyPlanet but with a few crucial differences. Our idea came from our tried and tested teaching materials which we have used for years in London. The materials all lead up to a conversation that facilitates practice of the target language and we use unwitting members of the public for practice in London. Online the materials can be used with any fluent speaker prepared to help. They are told not to try and teach if they are not teachers, but most people can say, ‘we say it like this’ or explain a word’s meaning. We vet people, i.e. speak to them, before we activate their profile online and most of them are retired and highly educated Guardian readers. We also have quite a few qualified teachers on the system. I think ELT has, probably through necessity (most people learning English rarely get to meet an English speaker), slightly ignored the science of language practice and production and its place in acquiring language skills. For example, many students from the Far East have excellent reading and writing skills but find it difficult to speak. Confidence building strategies and both the physiology and psychology of language production and acquisition are probably going to be growth areas in the future and that will undoubtedly be down to the growth of broadband internet access.
March 12, 2008 at 2:53 pm
From looking at this site, it appears that learners have to pay £6.95 for an hour of speaking practice. According to Yahoo Finance, that is a little more than $14 per hour.