I’ve run the Calgary Language Nerds for 9 years.
In the beginning, I was a Budget Tutor (i.e., I had low rates and was rather inexperienced). There was no need to train anybody and I couldn’t have done it anyway. I was an unskilled one-man-band.
About 3 years in, this changed.
I moved up to what I now call a Standard Tutor. I charged market rates and was competent. Therefore, I was able to hire tutors and train them up. The training process was relatively simple.
And now I have my Guaranteed Fluency Program.
Here’s a table I made that outlines the difference between a Budget Tutor, Standard Tutor, and the program I run now. I use this table as an objective tool do help potential students figure out if they should hire me, a Standard Tutor, or a Budget Tutor. The intent was to clearly outline what I believe to be the differences between the three categories of tutors and let people decide what they value most.
How I train tutors in my Guaranteed Fluency Program.
I used to be very happy with my training procedures, but I’ve gotten a bit lazy in recent months. I am writing this blog post as a way to concretize what I should be doing for training compared to what I am actually doing now.
Furthermore, since I am hiring new tutors, the time felt right to formally document what training processes I use.
Let’s dive in!
Step 0: Training starts during the interview.
As you read the steps below, you’ll notice that tutor applicants begin working with me through the interview process. They are also receiving training and hands-on teaching experience almost immediately.
Step 1: Tutor applies.
Purpose: Set up an initial meeting.
Provided there aren’t any immediate reasons that disqualify them for the position, I reply and we set up a time to discuss further. Sometimes I ask more qualifying questions over email first.
Step 2: Casual initial discussion.
Purpose: Figure out if the applicant should have a formal interview.
If the three bullet points below align, it generally makes sense for the person to formally interview for the position:
Do the basics about the position (hours, pay, schedule, etc) work for the applicant? Is this a job they they actually want?
Does this position help the applicant achieve their personal and/or professional goals? If yes, how does this job connect with their goals?
Is the applicant eager to learn? No matter how much (or how little) experience they have, the applicant will need plenty of additional training in my Guaranteed Fluency Program.
Step 3: Interview prep.
Purpose: Help the applicant ace the interview.
I want the tutor applicant to succeed. It’s kind of like dating: nobody wants to go on hundreds of dates until they find their future spouse. They hope to find a great man/woman right away.
I’m like that when hiring. I’d rather find the right person for the job ASAP.
Therefore, I send materials to help the applicant prepare for the interview and set a separate meeting before the interview to make sure they feel ready.
What does the interview look like, you may be wondering.
Let me tell you 😊
Step 4: The interview.
Purpose: See if the applicant can “somewhat” do the job
Let me tell you a story. I used to have a window cleaning business. I figured out quite quickly that the best way to find a good window cleaner was to:
Show them how to clean a window
Watch them try to clean some windows
I didn’t expect perfection. I knew they’d make mistakes. Mistakes were allowed. I just wanted to see if they could somewhat do the job.
For tutor interviews, I have a similar approach: I have the applicant teach a real class with a real student. Again, the tutor is allowed to make mistakes. They won’t be perfect. That’s for sure.
I’m just trying to see if the applicant can somewhat do the job.
Step 5: Feedback
Purpose: See if the applicant is coachable and self-reflective
I schedule a separate meeting with the tutor to provide feedback on what they did well and what they could have done better when teaching. I share only objective, observable feedback. No value judgements.
I also will see what the tutor thought of their own performance. I’m curious to see if they are self-reflective of their own strengths and weaknesses.
Step 6: Teach another class (sometimes I skip this)
Purpose: See if the the applicant can apply feedback
I only do step 6 if the applicant made so many mistakes in the first interview that I cannot hire them. However, before turning them down for the position I will give them a second chance to teach another class. If they are able to implement all of the feedback I provided, I will hire them.
Being able to quickly implement feedback means you are highly-coachable. I can work with someone like that.
Not all applicants choose to teach a 2nd class, interestingly.
Step 7: Contract review & signing
Purpose: Finalize the hiring process
At this point, we have already discussed all the details about the job, but we have not signed a contract. The contract formally outlines all the job details. If I did a good job throughout the interview process, the applicant reads the contract and has relatively few questions. They then sign it because they already understand what to expect in the position.
If I wasn’t clear enough throughout the interview process, the tutor applicant has lots of questions about the contract or, in rare circumstances, doesn’t sign the contract and decides not to take the position.
Step 8: Training on customer service basics
Purpose: Introduce the basics of customer service
It’s not just about knowing the ins & outs of the language the tutor teaches. It’s also about various “soft skills” that leads to high student satisfaction. Here are some of the main basic protocols/skills I teach:
24 hour response time to emails/texts (faster is better)
Answer language-related questions in-class, not over email/text
Set up a regular weekly lesson schedule with all students
Never end a lesson without scheduling the next lesson
Maintain good posture in-class when teaching
Send an email summary after each class
Maintain a confident tone of voice
Strong internet connection (if teaching online)
Clear video quality (if teaching online)
Clear audio quality (if teaching online)
I also teach professional email formatting. I think almost every tutor I have ever hired did not know at first how to format an email.
Hi ____ (name),
Message body - broken into paragraphs if needed.
Warm regards (or similar closing message),
Name
Calgary Language Nerds tutor
Step 9: Training on acquisition vs learning
Purpose: Redefine what “learning” a language means
This is quite peculiar, but even when I hire tutors with a language teaching background, they lean heavily into “learning.” They do minimal “acquisition.” I don’t know why this happens. Heck, I did the same thing for years too!
In short:
Learning: Worksheets, flashcards, textbooks, memorization exercises, PowerPoints, explaining rules. Anything that feels like studying and/or learning a school subject.
Acquisition: Listening, reading, and free-flowing conversation. Think of how babies and young children absorb their first language through massive amounts of listening and conversation.
80% of all teaching efforts are on acquisition. 20% is on learning.
To make it even simpler:
Have students do lots of listening, reading, and conversation
Have students do a little bit of studying
There are one-off exceptions to this 80/20 rule that are handled on a case-by-case basis. But almost everyone will fall into the 80/20 rule.
Step 10: Training on class formats.
Purpose: Provide tutors with an easy way to teach classes effectively.
There are lots of interesting class formats that drive student progress. If a tutor comes in with previous experience, I am flexible with how they choose to teach provided they are following the 80/20 rule for acquisition vs learning.
If they do not have much previous experience, I teach them a super simple, yet super effective class format: free-flowing conversation. The tutor could probably just stick with this class format all of the time, as long as they give enough variety in terms of their self-study assignments (more on this in step 11).
The main skills a tutor has to learn to facilitate free-flowing conversation are:
How to talk super slowly for beginners
How to talk slowly for intermediate learners
How to use super easy words with beginners
How to use easy words with intermediate learners
How to use super simple grammar for beginners
How to use simple grammar for intermediate learners
How to keep a conversation going for the duration of a class
How to use Zoom and Google Docs
They also need to have training on this 5-step process for the beginning of each lesson and the student onboarding process.
Step 11: Training on self-study activities
Purpose: Teach tutors what to assign for homework
Most of the time, even the most experienced tutors have no idea how to learn a language at home. They haven’t done it before. They can teach, but are not skilled in clear self-study program design. Therefore, they resort to worksheets and vague instructions like “just reread your notes and maybe watch some videos.”
I teach tutors 10 types of self-study exercises. I also provide training on which exercises they will need the most often and what resources they can recommend to students for each self-study exercise type.
Step 12: Training on grammar and pronunciation
Purpose: Teach tutors the basics of their mother tongue
If a tutor is inexperienced, they usually need training on how their language works. What tenses are there? When do you use them? What other grammar points are there? How does your language’s pronunciation work? How do you best teach that? What do people struggle with in general? Etc.
Step 13: Training on data analytics
Purpose: Teach tutors how to measure and predict progress
This is a big one. I have never in my lifetime of learning languages seen anyone who measures progress like we do at CLN. What’s even more important, however, is being able to look at student progress data to:
Diagnose root progress roadblocks
Predict future performance
Create self-study plans
In other words, a tutor needs to be able to tell a student something like this:
If you do ____, you will reach ____ level in ____months.
Most importantly, their estimate has to be reasonably accurate.
Let me provide a non-language example. I had a foot injury. My personal trainer told me that if I followed his plan, he was quite sure that in 2 months it would be completely healed.
In the end, he wasn’t 100% right, but his estimate was reasonably accurate. 2 months later my foot injury wasn’t completely healed, but it was mostly healed.
We’re not trying to be fortune tellers.
That would be impossible. But we should be able to combine student data with previous teaching experiences to provide reasonably accurate progress estimates. Frankly, I haven’t yet figured out how to systematize the data analytics portion of the training, so I use another method to help tutors learn it: ongoing coaching.
Step 14: Ongoing coaching
Purpose: Put theoretical learning into practice
I have 1-1 regular meetings with tutors to:
Discuss their students
Watch lesson recordings together
Provide feedback
New tutors teach students who get a discounted rate, knowing that their tutor is going through training. It’s kinds of like an “apprenticeship” until the tutor is fully trained and confident in their abilities.
That’s the training process!
It was helpful to write this out. It feels more concrete in my mind 😊 I also feel like the past few months where I’ve been lazy with training are behind me.
Thanks for reading!
Azren
Calgary Language Nerds owner
https://azrenthelanguagenerd.com