A clock on a wall. How long is the perfect one-to-one online lesson? Image from freeimages.com.

Online Language Learning: Counting the Hours

How long should one-to-one online language lessons be? 30 minutes? 45 minutes? An hour? Even longer?

I spend a lot of time in online lessons on iTalki. There, as on similar sites, the norm is the hour-long lesson. Although other options are sometimes available depending on the individual tutor, they are not a given. Many tutors only offer 60-minute sessions.

The trouble with an hour

Of course, there is nothing wrong with the idea of the hour-long lesson in itself. A full hour to work systematically on your language, one-to-one, can be great. However, it does depend on the teacher. If you strike it lucky with a tutor who organises meticulously and uses varied and engaging resources, an hour can fly by.

This does require a skilled and experienced tutor, though. I have worked with a handful of excellent teachers on the platform, who make an hour work really well. I get solid results in that setting, and I stick with them for that. But since iTalki tends to foster a more casual and informal vibe than traditional face-to-face lessons, the full whammy can sometimes feel a bit too long with others.

It depends on the student, too, of course. I won’t let myself off that lightly! An hour – plus the pre-prep and the post-housekeeping (adding words to Anki, etc.) – represents a substantial chunk of a busy day. You might end up, like I do, spacing our hour-long lessons across ten-day to fortnightly stretches, just to cram everything in along with work and general ‘life stuff’. At that pace, you risk losing momentum.

A more brain-friendly approach?

For me, for the majority of lessons now, there is a better way: plumping for sessions of just 30 minutes at a time. There may be fewer tutors that offer them, but they are worth the hunt.

For a start, since language learning is embedded in a busy life already, the 30-minute format mirrors the way I fit other activities into my schedule too. Just as I grab half an hour here, half an hour there, shorter lessons can be squeezed into a lunch break on the busiest of days. This way, classes are both less disruptive and a lot less painful to keep up as a habit.

Secondly, best practices around attention span and pacing during independent study support the idea of shorter, snappier and more effective lessons. When approaches like the Pomodoro Technique chunk our time against a maximum span of 20-25 minutes, then long, amorphous online language lessons should ring alarm bells. We need either shorter sessions, or very conscious and deliberate pacing of longer lessons for optimal learning on the part of the tutor. In the fairly informal setting of iTalki and similar platforms, the former is a lot easier to achieve.

Spaced learning

Combined with a more regular timetable – easier to achieve with shorter sessions – half an hour also respects the old little – but often adage. Why wear out a tired brain lumping all those minutes together, when you could spread the load? Techniques like spaced practice / repetition rely on the fact that the brain works on new material in the background between study sessions. Shorter but more frequent lessons give it the chance to do the same.

That said, I did initially worry that half an hour might be too brief to get anything substanital achieved with my tutor. A lot of that comes from the pressure of the norm. It can be hard tofind the self-assurance to question that and go against the grain. Maybe, that little voice says, there is good reason that many tutors only offer a full hour.

But in practice, it just works for me. Cumulatively, the effect is just as much learning with a lot less learner fatigue. And given the short window of time, the determination to eke the very most out of the lesson is all the greater.

Shorter online language lessons: worth the extra

There is one extra consideration to take into account. The minute-per-minute ratio between hour-long lessons and their shorter counterparts is not quite even. Generally, there is a price disadvantage for the student with shorter sessions. Understandably so, since, as a former teacher, I know well that there is a minimum time layout for topic-based prep for your students, regardless of the lesson length.

That said, I find that the extra cost is worth it for the attentional and organisational benefits. Looking for new teachers, I now filter based on lesson length offered. I am much more likely to go for the half-hour squad, especially with community tutors.

Ultimately, the teacher rarely loses out in my case. As I can fit them in more easily, I am much more likely to book a more frequent classes if I have the shorter option. The result: a much more lucrative student!

Online teachers, please consider adding a 30-minute option to your menu if you haven’t already. There’s nothing like having more options as a student to make these choices and have a little more control over your learning calendar.

How long is your ideal online lesson? Let us know in the comments!

Meet you teachers over a coffee or three!

From iTalki to real life: meeting your online teachers

Language lessons via Skype have been an important learning method of mine for some time now. Thanks to sites like iTalki, learners can now connect with teachers across the globe.

But however much experience you have with online classes, there might always remain a certain element of the unreal. It’s understandable; you only see your teachers for around an hour at a time, and under controlled and limited circumstances. It’s sometimes easy to forget that they are actually out there too, in the real world.

Breaking through the invisible wall

Over the last week, I had the chance to remedy that with a couple of my iTalki teachers. It was all lucky circumstance, really. Through regular lesson chat, it transpired that I would cross paths with my Icelandic and Polish tutors. What else to do but arrange coffee and cake (as if any excuse were needed!)?

Now, for a naturally shy language learner, meeting your online tutors can feel like a rather big step. There is something very safe and non-threatening about learning via video chat – the digital platform contains the teacher-pupil relationship quite neatly. On the other hand, out in the wild of real life, we lack those digital boundaries – the nature of greetings, niceties and farewells is quite different.

Performance pressure (with get-out clauses!)

Not only that, but there is also just a little performance pressure! In my case, Polish was a particular source of this, being a fair bit weaker than my Icelandic. Combined with a bit of social anxiety, the stress we put ourselves under to do well can jam up the brain somewhat. I am a perfectionist, after all (but I’m working on that!).

Thankfully, being a fellow polyglot, my Polish tutor chatted quite happily to me in both German and Spanish as well, providing a nice way out of my clumsy polski when needed. And that is one of the perks of meeting teachers who are, in all likelihood, fellow language enthusiasts – it becomes a bit of a meeting of minds, with more than enough common ground to talk about (in the target language or not!).

That said, it’s also important to note that these kinds of meet-up are not lessons in themselves. They should be an informal hello, rather than any test of your ability. In other words, it is all about putting a three-dimensional, human face to the digital presence from my hour once a week or fortnight. That can only help to create greater rapport. And ultimately, that should lead to more lively lessons, with more to talk about.

Chocolate perks

All in all, I had two very positive experiences with two lovely people. Affirming a distance connection face to face also makes the world seem a smaller, friendlier place. If you have the chance to meet your online tutors face to face, go for it! You might even be regaled with chocolate (dziękuję, Jan!)…

Polski torcik from my Polish teacher!

Yum…

Headphones and an internet-connected device - all you need to start chatting on iTalki

Justifying iTalki : bumper bang for your language learning buck

I’ve been spending a fortune on iTalki recently. This very popular website is a kind of language teacher directory service, where students can browse and contact hundreds of experts for one-to-one lessons on Skype. I learnt about the service some time ago from Benny Lewis’ site fluentin3months.com, and have since found out how highly addictive it is for language junkies.

But it can be an expensive business, scheduling countless lessons a month – especially if you learn several languages at once. Ever a good home economist, I’m always trying to justify my spending. So here is my reasoning on why iTalki is still an excellent use of my dosh.

Cheaper than travelling

Countless online articles expound the necessity of immersion for advanced fluency. However, ‘traditional’ immersion – travelling to hear and speak a language – can be costly. As a casual learner of Russian in the UK, I know that only too well. Flights and hotels are not cheap. Add to that the difficulties of getting visas and travel documents in many cases, and immersion abroad is simply off the cards for many.

iTalki offers immersion in short, intense chunks for a much smaller outlay. Russian teachers are available from $5 (about £3.60 at the time of writing) per hour upwards. You could have scores of lessons at that price before you hit the budget for a trip to Russia. Even at $20+, you’ll go a long way before it gets cheaper to travel abroad to learn and practise.

Immersion in an iTalki lesson is also very focussed, intense and directed. That contrasts with a wide variability of experience quality when travelling to learn languages. When travelling, you might go a whole day without managing to strike up much conversation beyond asking directions. On iTalki, you have up to an hour or more, exclusively for you to practise. That’s bumper bang for your buck.

Cheaper than competitors

Generally speaking, iTalki prices compare very favourably with other teacher directory / lesson sites. One of the other ‘biggies’, VerbLing, seems quite expensive by comparison. Likewise, when searching online for independent tutors, prices can be prohibitively high.

For mainstream languages like French and Spanish, the sheer number of tutors, and resulting competition, results in some very favourable prices for lessons. Additionally, most teachers offer a trial lesson for an extremely small sum. Under these conditions, students can more easily try multiple tutors to find a perfect match. Chopping and changing was never so easy!

iTalki’s tiering system of professional / community tutors makes for more affordable lessons, too. Good community tutors can be just as good as professional tutors, but often charge significantly less. Often the distinction is not one of teaching quality, but simply a case of hard qualifications. Some of my best iTalki tutors of all have been community tutors.

Community learning

Being part of iTalki is about more than just lessons. The creators have tried hard to create a dynamic community, as well as a market for teachers. There are many free, peer-to-peer features, which aim to get members helping each other. And there is nothing like helping others to boost your own motivation.

The question and answer forum is particularly busy, and somewhere you can also give a little back by addressing learner questions about your native language. The peer correction service can also be a real godsend, especially in lesser-taught languages.

What’s more, the site regularly hosts events that aim to egg students on. From February this year, for example, the iTalki Challenge will chivvy along the most dedicated amongst us, with leaderboards and prize badges awarded for the number of lessons taken. Some might criticise this as a cynical marketing move to increase lesson turnover, but the promise of public reward is surprisingly effective!

Turning the tables

As a language learner, you have your own unique insight into the learning process. That means that you, too, could help others by giving lessons in your native tongue, either as a community or professional tutor, depending on your background. As such, you can earn back iTalki dollars to keep a steady stream of lessons going. And of course, there’s always a chance that you’ll really enjoy it, and decide to turn it into an extra stream of income.

If you’re not quite ready for that step (and I’m not quite there yet, despite a professional teaching background!), then you can earn back in other ways. The site has a decent referral scheme, awarding you $10 for every friend you sign up for lessons. The friend also gets $10 credit, so it’s win-win. Here’s my link if you want that to start you off – and I’d be very grateful for your click! 😊

Peripheral benefits

As a fairly shy person by nature, another minor benefit of iTalki has occurred to me a lot recently: it is excellent practice at one-to-one conversation with new faces. Practising social niceties and the art of chat is a really useful side-effect of regular lessons on the platform.

Moreover, some of my long-term teachers have become good friends over the years. And if that isn’t a great peripheral plus-note, I don’t know what is.

Make the most of your iTalki dollars

Of course, it is vital to be prepared to make the most of your investment, too. Plan what you want to cover, perhaps using speaking bingo sheets. Make sure you write up your notes from the lesson. Transfer them to digital formats like Anki, where appropriate. And, most importantly, keep going, even when it seems difficult. Be honest with your tutors about the expected level of work, and they can adjust and tweak to suit you best.

iTalki can be a shot in the arm to your language learning, especially if you’ve been used to studying alone with your books. Those prices are deceptively cheap, given the return on your cash. Give it a go today.