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Is this you?
You’re taking lessons to improve your English (perhaps to prepare for exams or an important work event), everything is going well and you have the best intentions but you can't find the time to do any speaking homework for your tutor.
When you get home from work after a long day, you’re tired, and other things always seem to get in the way and take priority. You have meals to prepare, your family to look after, and all sorts of other demands on your time. When you finally do manage to squeeze a few minutes to yourself, it's late, you're tired and you just want to go to bed.
You're determined to do your homework the following evening but the same thing happens ...again and again...
This running out of time cycle is a big problem for pharmacists and lawyers studying for TOEFL, and for anyone who works long, busy days.
The problem is that your tutor really needs to hear your speaking so they can assess your progress and provide valuable feedback. This individual feedback is absolutely the biggest benefit to having private lessons so you have to find time to do your speaking homework.
Happily there's an effective way you can fit speaking homework into your evening routine. It doesn't take very long to get used to but it does depend on being organized. And in fact, being organized is the key to making progress.
This is what to do.
Use the 3 steps “1. Plan 2. Prepare 3. Do” to help you.
Before Work
🟢 Before you go to work, check your homework instructions from your tutor.
🟢 You can do this quickly but make sure you read them carefully.
🟢 Understand exactly what you’re required to do.
🟢 Decide which part of your homework you're going to attempt that evening.
🟢 Don't attempt to do too much - especially to start with.
🟢 For example, plan to complete one speaking assignment. If everything goes well, you can always increase the amount you do the following evening. But start small, then you'll have a better chance of success.
Coming Home from Work
🟢 On your way home from work, start thinking about the speaking homework you are going to do.
🟢 Think about the resources you need.
For example, do you need to:
Find a handout?
Log into a website?
Review your video recording from your last lesson?
Go back to the notes you made a few lessons ago?
🟢 Make sure you know exactly where everything is and how you’re going to get it.
🟢 This sounds simple and really obvious but most effective planning is. You don’t want to be thinking about these things when you arrive home and have other demands on you.
🔵 When you get home take care of anything you need to do but mentally allocate a time for when you can do your speaking homework.
🔵 Again, start small and allocate just ten minutes or so to start with until you get used to this routine. Ten minutes of practice is better than nothing!
🔵 Tell your family or people you’re living with what your plan is.
🔵 Gather your computer, phone, notes, and any other resources you need. Put them in a pile where you can see them.
🔵 Open the relevant documents and websites on your computer.
You need to see that everything is set up and ready for you.
🟡 When you're ready to start your homework, reduce distractions as much as you can (for example, pause notifications on your phone, move away from the TV) and let everyone know what you're going to do.
🟡 Tell yourself that you are going to completely focus on this task for the next 10 or 20 or 30 minutes (you set the timeframe).
🟡 First, warm up by speaking a few sentences out loud in English.
It doesn’t matter which sentences you choose though it’s helpful if they are related to the task you’re going to do.
🟡 Read your homework task very carefully.
🟡 Follow your tutor’s instructions here as this will probably be something you’ve talked about in lessons especially if you’re doing skill-building practice.
🟡 Then speak and record your homework response.
Again, follow your tutor’s instructions. They may want to hear your first attempt or you may be ok to practice a few times.
🟡 Do not judge yourself at this point.
🟡 If you can do another attempt, and you would like to, then do it.
🟡 Finally, share your homework response with your tutor as they have instructed.
🟡 Relax and enjoy the rest of your evening 😊
🌟 As a tutor, I would much rather receive 1 homework response from a student (even if I've asked for more) than none at all.
🌟 Also I would prefer to receive a realistic response (the 1st, 2nd or 3rd attempt) rather than an over-rehearsed template-type response.
🌟 I really DON'T MIND if there is background household noise (children playing, someone in the kitchen) in the response. As long as I can hear your voice, that’s ok.
🌟 I DO MIND if you don’t follow my instructions and you do your own thing as that’s not going to help you to make progress.