How to make the best use of an online tutor (Open Discussion)

[suMMit]

On 10/12/2019 at 1:07 AM, NinjaTurtle said:

Another big thing about this student was that he had everything down cold from the previous lesson Most students forget a lot from the previous lesson. As a result, it is common in this kind of teaching to waste a lot of time reviewing the previous lesson, going over what they had forgot (or never learned in the first place) which can be up to 40% of the next lesson's time. Not this guy. Another important thing. He would take a lesson, but he would not take another lesson until he had completely mastered everything in the previous lesson. Very smart. Biggest bang for the buck. Of course this guy progressed a lot faster than the average student. I started using his method for my own language study, and it made a big difference for me too.

 

Personally, I don't agree with this method. Definitely not at the early stages of language learning. I think its better to keep moving through things and let what sticks stick, you will forget some, but if its important, you'll see it again and more will stick.

 

As an example, I was at a coffeeshop yesterday and ordered several items along with few extra requests. Afterwards, I couldn't help but reflect on how smoothly I had managed the whole transaction. I thought back to a year ago when I was struggling to remember the adjectives, the grammar and getting the pronunciation right in this very same coffeeshop interaction. Back then, I had gone back to the lessons a few more times. Still, back at the coffeeshop, they didn't stick. So, I moved on.

 

It was easy yesterday not because I sat there until I mastered everything in the coffeeshop lesson, but because I've since had practice using/hearing/seeing these verbs, phrases, adjectives, nouns in many contexts.

 

Imagine if you started a beginner textbook and didn't move on until each thing was "mastered". You'd still be at wo bu shi ying guo ren in pinyin.

[Flickserve]

20 hours ago, suMMit said:

Personally, I don't agree with this method. Definitely not at the early stages of language learning. I think its better to keep moving through things and let what sticks stick, you will forget some, but if its important, you'll see it again and more will stick.

 

It's really up to the individual but if we go up to around 80% revision of the last class (assuming the breaks in between aren't too long), I would say that is pretty good going.

 

Complete mastery (varying definition depending on who you ask) maybe 20% would be reasonably good?