- The UAB Team
Private tutor or group classes?
Updated: Aug 21, 2019
Any second-language student has to deal with the dilemma of either joining an actual course or finding a private tutor, especially those who want to improve their speaking skills. On the one hand it seems logical that if a student sits with a tutor, he would have more of an opportunity to speak. However, the student misses the chance to listen to a group conversation and then jump in and take part of it.

In a private session, usually what the tutor will do is adjust his level of speaking to that of the students. Whereas in a small group environment, the student is exposed to other students who may know a few more words than him and is pushed to speak faster. Private tutoring is great for working on a specific problem, but in order to get a solid base of speaking a language, it is crucial to be in a small group setting.
We recommend joining a small group in order to work on your speaking skills, even though one-on-one sessions sound tempting.