How To Really Learn Spanish - by Ricardo González, Founder & Executive Director of Bilingual America  

Table of Contents
Forward - Dr. Jane Madsen Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Importance of Methods
Chapter 2 - Assess Your Abilities
Chapter 3 - The Fruit and the Root
Chapter 4 - The Power of Patterns
Chapter 5 - You're Not A Native...All About Immersion
Chapter 6 - The Four Secrets To Long Term Retention
Chapter 7 - The Cozy Comfortable Classroom
Chapter 8 - Eight Reasons Why Telephone Tutoring is Better Than Face to Face Tutoring
Chapter 9 - What To Expect From a Great Tutor
Chapter 10 - What To Expect From Great Course Materials
Chapter 11 - Mastering Pronunciation, Speech Flow and Comprehension
Chapter 12 - Put Your Products on the Shelf!
Chapter 13 - What to Do When You Already Speak Some Spanish
Chapter 14 - Cultural Training and Language
Closing Thoughts


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Chapter 9 - What To Expect From A Great Tutor

What should you expect from a great tutor?

• Results
• Consistency
• Motivation
• Direction
• Accountability
• Patience

Most people need a skilled tutor to work with them throughout the learning process in order to achieve strong results.

Here are four reasons why working with a skilled instructor is important:

1. You will build confidence in communicating with a real person.
2. You will be paced in a way that is appropriate for you.
3. You will be accountable to a skilled professional.
4. You will have a consistent resource to clarify any concerns you may have.

A great tutor will work with students within the framework of their knowledge base. It is my firm belief that the tutor should not spend tutoring sessions "spoon feeding" information to students. You do not need to have your teacher "teach" you new words, or do writing exercises with you. That can, and should, be accomplished through the use of the right kind of course materials.

What your tutor should do is to apply the knowledge that you acquire through course materials into a live and dynamic interchange. In other words, your teacher will very quickly begin speaking with you in Spanish, but within the framework of what you have learned to that point in your course materials.

As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, if you are constantly needing to ask, "¿Cómo se dice?" or "¿Qué significa?" then we have a human dictionary, not a skilled instructor.

Please understand this. Your instructor's primary responsibility to to help you develop confidence in the use of the knowledge that you develop in well-structured course materials. This balance needs to exist in any truly results-driven training process.

I always tell our teachers, "you can measure your greatness as a Spanish tutor by your slowest learners. If you can get them to learn, you are great. If you can only get decent learners to learn, you are good. If you can only get great learners to learn, you are not very good at all as a tutor."

Great tutors are trained, not born!

There are very few people who are naturally great instructors.

So, where will you find a great tutor? At a school that has well thought out training and learning systems for their instructors!

You see, a tutor is only as good as the learning system implemented. If the instructor is using books that have poor training systems, that is how good the tutor becomes. It is that simple.

Many people think that just because people are native Spanish speakers they can tutor them to learn Spanish. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because people speak Spanish does not mean they know how to "teach" Spanish. I can drive a car but if I were you, I would not hire me to do repair work on your car!

Bilingual America tutors are excellent because our training systems for our tutors are superior. We employ native Spanish-speakers who have strong people skills, and a strong desire to see their students succeed. We then train our teachers in the art of tutoring. In fact, before people can ever tutor at Bilingual America they must pass a very comprehensive exam regarding the tutoring process. These people must then follow instructions "to the letter" when working with students.

Our tutors are held accountable through:

• Taping of all tutoring sessions. (we grade them!)
• Reporting of each session via the Internet.
• Receiving student evaluations throughout the learning process.

So, how will you know if you have a great teacher? Your tutor will:

• Give you a strong sense that, "I am progressing."
• Consistently keep you motivated.
• Iimplement a plan and consistently execute that plan.
• Be prepared and keep things moving.
• Not allow you to control the tutoring sessions because your tutor is the expert, not you!
• Be able to carry full conversations in Spanish with you, working within the framework of what you have learned to that point in your courses materials. This is critical because it keeps you from "trying to talk in Spanish" using words and structures that you have not learned to that point.
• Will allow you to "succeed" in the process. You will never be defeated or made to feel like you are stupid.
• Will keep you positive about learning Spanish.
• Will adjust to your scheduling needs, not you to your tutor's.

I can guarantee you one thing. If you have a Bilingual America instructor, you will have a well-trained and effective instructor. In fact, if you ever have a tutoring session that you believe to be ineffective or unprofessional, we will give you that session free as well as an additional session at no charge. That is how confident we are about our tutoring process.