So far, I have been carrying out 3 different types of lessons:
(a) just conversation:
Here, the student prepares 5-6 different topics for the lesson, and prepares a document with the topics and short paragraph about each topic. This way, the student can start looking at the vocabulary for the topic before the lesson. Usually, the student sends this document by email 24 hours before the planned lesson. When we start the lesson, the first few minutes are just a few questions, small talk about the last few days and what is going on at the moment. Then, we move to the topics. Each topic takes approximately 10 minutes (more or less, depending on the content). For each topic, the student first introduces the topic and what they know about it so far, then we discuss the issue, I ask some content questions or questions about your views on this subject, etc. These discussions are very helpful for conversation, sentence fluency, and vocabulary development.
When the student makes a mistake in grammar, sentence, or word choice, I correct them and help them understand their mistakes. Usually, each student has a little notebook where they note down their mistakes or new words and phrases that they have learnt. During the following lesson, I may ask a few questions about the topics from the previous lesson, in order to refresh the student's memory regarding their previous mistakes and new vocabulary.
(b) conversation and description:
This is the same as the conversation type (a) above, but there are only 3 topics and it lasts approximately 35-40 minutes. The second half of the lesson is prepared by me. I send a document with 3-5 pictures. The student describes what they see, using position vocabulary, descriptive words, and tried to interpret what is going on in the picture. This is also very good for language development and verbal fluency. After the student finished describing as well as they can, I will describe in a little bit more depth, to make sure that all new words and phrases are mentioned. During following lesson, the first 10 minutes of the second part of the lesson (for picture description) are for a short reviewing of last lesson's pictures, refreshing memory and making sure all words are understood and well-used.
(c) conversation and writing:
This is the same as the conversation type (a) above, but the last 15 minutes are focused on writing skills. Usually, we look at different writing styles such as formal versus casual, a typical formal email, a typical friendly email, how to ask for help, etc.
Of course, lesson types can changes as often as you want! Some of my students had the first lessons in style (c), and then we switched to one in style (a) and one in style (b).
I am also very flexible in terms of what you want to do and what you prefer as a student!
I hope this information helps you for you decision and if you have more questions, please do not hesitate!
