Getting the most out of private classes

hello all.

what would be the best way to make use of class time in private tuition or small groups?

i would think that reading and writing could be done outside class, so that leaves reading out loud, listening and speaking practice with the teacher during class would be most useful, right? and if so, how should this be done? roleplaying, repeating after the teacher, speaking out loud new sentences with the same grammar structure?

are there any other activities that would make good use of class time with the teacher?

thanks.

I think that the advantage of learning in a very small group or by private tuition is being able to get more attention/time from the teacher than learning in a big class with many students.

I've been learning a foreign language for a few years. I used to attend a course where there are only 5-6 of us, yet main activity was listening and reading and not much of speaking or writing.
Now I'm sharing a teacher with only another student, I can ask many questions during the class, I can submit a short essay and have it corrected, and the teacher make two of us to practice to speak, which is also good as we have his full attention to our pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

Just my two cents.

I'll tell you what I used to tell my private English students.

The best use of your time is to study like hell on your own and use your contact time to ask questions and get clarification of stuff.

Empathic said:

hello all.
what would be the best way to make use of class time in private tuition or small groups?
i would think that reading and writing could be done outside class, so that leaves reading out loud, listening and speaking practice with the teacher during class would be most useful, right? and if so, how should this be done? roleplaying, repeating after the teacher, speaking out loud new sentences with the same grammar structure?
are there any other activities that would make good use of class time with the teacher?
thanks.

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It depends on what level of Japanese proficiency you are at, and what level you want to reach.

If you are beginner and just want to learn some Japanese, roleplaying stuff is alright, just that this kind of stuff tend to take up valuable time.

If you are intermediate/advanced, then you want to get clarification on things you cant find in your normal textbook. Japanese is interesting in that there is one way of getting your point across (so called "gaijin nihongo") and then there's another way of "speaking like a native". For me at least, I strive to speak as similarly to the native speaker, thus I would normally have translated sentences and would ask for clarification on the spot. If you want to do that in your own private lessons, make sure you prepare well in advance.

cheers for the input so far.

what else is most useful with a teacher, in addition to clarifying things in the textbook and asking for help on confusion?

i would think homework and a lot of the writing aspects can be done at home, so can a lot of the vocabulary. so i reckon that grammar, usage, reading aloud, speaking and listening would be best with a teacher.

are there particular areas that need attention which students tend to forget to do during class with a teacher? what else is there that self-studying cannot replace and must be done in the presence of a teacher?

when u get a tutor, just make sure that you ask him/her to speak at her normal pace. most of the times, native speakers will talk to foreigners in SLOOOOW japanese, since they think that their language is ultra difficult to understand. when you don't understand a phrase, just ask.

a teacher can help with aspects on stress if you are learning a dialect like kansai ben. speaking is pretty easy with japanese, so i guess you will get a hang of that in no time.

japanese are infamous for NOT correcting mistakes by others. As a test, I tried to see if they would correct me if i were to make a major mistake, such as saying "basu wo noru" instead of the correct "basu ni noru", and guess what, the majority of the ppl whom i met for the first time didn't try to correct me. this is usual considering that they always don't try to break the "wa", or harmony. But you see, everytime i would ask them in advance to correct my japanese before i carry out the experiment. Anyway, this is not to say that japanese people are not helpful or that they are inconsiderate or anything, but that we all should know about this in advance.