One-to-one vs group lessons

I’ve been thinking recently about the differences between one-to-one lessons and group lessons, plus the advantages and disadvantages of each. I asked my Facebook followers which they thought was best and I was surprised by the answers!

I thought most people would say that one-to-one was best but I think the results were about 50:50, with a lot of people giving interesting reasons for preferring group lessons. Of course, some people were probably thinking about classroom lessons but small group classes can work very well online too. 
 
My story and my experience
I started teaching English in the year 2000. My first job was in Warsaw, Poland and my second was in Cambridge, UK. I taught mostly groups and a few one-to-one lessons, always face-to-face. In 2016, I worked part-time in the language school and I started doing some one-to-one lessons online in my free time.

Then in 2020, COVID happened and the language schools struggled to survive. Our school offered lessons online but a lot of students were only interested in classroom lessons and didn’t continue with us. They didn’t see how it was possible to learn online.

However, I really enjoyed the online lessons (and working from home!) so in 2020, I left my job and set up my own business teaching one-to-one online. COVID has changed a lot of things and I think more and more people are now realising the benefits of online learning.

In early 2024, I offered group lessons on italki for a short time. I enjoyed going back to teaching groups after doing just one-to-one for four years, but unfortunately, I didn't get enough people signing up on a regular basis to make it work.

Advantages of one-to-one and group lessons
One-to-one lessons
Here are some of the advantages of one-to-one lessons:

• You get more time to speak than in a group.
• You have the teacher’s attention all the time.
• The teacher can create lessons just for you.
• You can ask whatever questions you like without worrying about taking somebody else’s time and without worrying what other people might think of you.
• You can learn at your own pace.​

​Group lessons
Here are some possible advantages of group lessons:

• They’re cheaper!
• You can meet new people and make international friends. Maybe you can even practise English with your new friends outside lesson time.
• You get the chance to practise listening to people with different accents. Many of you are learning English so you can travel or so you can work in an international company. It’s therefore important to be able to understand people from other countries and not just native speakers.
• You can learn a lot by listening to other people. They might use new words which you can learn. You can also learn from each other’s mistakes and the questions other people ask the teacher. However, you do have to be willing to have your mistakes corrected (gently and politely, of course) in front of other people.
• You can learn other things from each other too, not just about English. You can learn a lot about other countries and cultures.
• Some people find group lessons less intense and more relaxing. There is less pressure on you in a group whereas one-to-one lessons can be quite tiring. You might feel more confident when you realise you’re not the only one making mistakes.

Some people think that can only learn from people who are better at English than they are. They also think that they will learn mistakes or incorrect pronunciation from others in a group class. This isn’t true, especially when you have a teacher to guide you. I taught classes in a language school for twenty years and I never saw this happen.

You get better at speaking by speaking! It doesn’t actually matter who you’re talking to. You grow in confidence and fluency even if you’re talking to somebody with a lower level of English.

Update July 2024
Since writing this post, I've completely changed what I offer. At the moment, I'm not offering group lessons. 

I now offer a three-month programme for professional women who want or need to use English at work but they are not as confident as they would like to be.

If this programme sounds like something you need, you can read all about it here.
​​