ESL Blogs

        Learning anything requires a teacher. Surely, you can learn things yourself, but let’s be honest, most of us are not that self-disciplined. Thus, we need a teacher, and better a good one. Only a good teacher can ensure that our time and money do not go down the drain. Only a good teacher can help you achieve good results and actually start speaking a language.

        But how can you tell whether a teacher is good? There are some signs that can help you recognize a truly good teacher.

1. A teacher asks about your goals. To get somewhere you have to know where you are going. Before you start learning a foreign language, you need to set certain goals. You learn a language for some purpose, right? Maybe, you want to travel and be able to communicate with no problems. Or maybe you need to pass IELTS. Your teacher has to know your purpose.
2. Your teacher has a planned system of classes. He/she has to have a plan how to teach you and when to teach you certain things. Random lessons and topics are not acceptable. They are proved to be ineffective. You need to be taught certain elements of language one by one, which will build a whole system at the end.
3. You understand. A good teacher can make things clear. Even those things that you couldn’t get for years.
4. Modern vivid examples. Modern material proves that your teacher grows and doesn’t use the same material for 20 years in a row. It doesn’t mean that some old books are bad, though. Teachers can use them, but not only them.
5. Your teacher prepares you for real life situations. If you don’t have certain situations that you need to be ready for, of course. For example, knowledge that you need for passing an exam isn’t always required in the real life. Strict theory with exercises cannot help you much if you happen to communicate with a native speaker. 
6. Full-fledged studying program. Your teacher has to work on all of your skills, not only on reading and on translation, for example. Main language skills include speaking, reading (and translating), hearing and writing. Your lessons have to include exercises for all of those skills.
7. A good teacher has to be disciplined and punctual. He/she cannot be late all the time or cancel lessons every now and then. Discipline is very important in learning a foreign language.
8. Good resume and good references from students. Well, this point is quite clear. Talk to other students and ask about his/her manner of teaching. Don’t be embarrassed to ask to see your potential teacher’s resume.
9. You like your teacher’s personality. A job of a teacher is tricky. A teacher can be a talented pedagogue who helped many students, but if you don’t feel comfortable around him/her, maybe you should keep looking.