It’s commonly said that children learn language more easily than adults, and while there’s some truth to it, it’s completely possible for someone to learn a foreign language at a later stage in life. As the most widely spoken language in the world, learning English is on many people’s bucket lists, and English lessons for adults are a great way to do that.
Learning English can open up many doors, both personal and professional—the key is getting started.
How Private English Lessons for Adults Can Work for You
Learning a foreign language as an adult is possible, but there are definitely ways to make it easier. Learning with private tutors on Eurekly is one of the better ways to go about it.
Learning on your own isn’t very effective—what happens when you feel discouraged and motivated? How do you get back on track? When you’re learning on your own, there are no easy answers.
Another option is to take a university course, but those options can be expensive. Plus, you have to vie with other students for the attention of the instructor, which means that you may not get to work on the areas that challenge you most.
English lessons with a private tutor are a great way to learn English as an adult, but when you look for local tutors, you’ll see that they are costly. Moreover, you have to work around their schedules, not your own.
When you learn with private tutors from Eurekly, on the other hand, you solve all the challenges of foreign language learning: you have someone to motivate you, you get personal attention, can work at your own pace and on your own schedule, and don’t have to pay a small fortune. English lessons for adults at Eurekly start as low as $5 per lesson.
How Do Children and Adults Learn Language Differently?
Taking English lessons for adults with a private online tutor solves the challenges posed by other learning methods. But how can adults who want to learn English deal with the challenge of learning a new language at an older age? Everyone knows that children learn languages more readily than adults, but what can adults do to improve their chances?
The first thing is to understand how children and adults learn language differently. In an article on the United Nations website, Dr. Eleonore Smalle discusses the differences between children and adult learning.
She describes how children learn language seemingly without even trying—they do so unconsciously, just by passively listening. Around age 12, the brain’s conscious memory system starts developing more, which makes it harder for them to passively pick up languages as they did when they were younger.
Adults learn consciously—in other words, they need to sit down and learn linguistic rules in order to master a language. The result of these different types of learning is that a child who is bilingual won’t have a problem switching back and forth between the grammar rules for both languages. An adult who learns a foreign language later on in life may end up translating from his mother tongue to the new language in his head before speaking. In other words, it’s not as natural.
Dr. Smalle recommends that adults who want to learn a new language should practice some sort of immersion, either listening to a podcast or movie that’s in the language they want to learn. This can give adults that unconscious push they need to absorb the language rules. Adults also take the cake when it comes to proactive learning; those who put their minds toward learning are likely to succeed.
As discussed above, the best kind of proactive learning for adults is with an online tutor who offers personal attention, motivation, and convenience.
Finding a Tutor Who Specializes in Adult Education
Since children and adults learn differently, it’s important to find a tutor who specializes in English lessons for adults. Eurekly has a large selection of tutors, and you can filter the results based on your criteria. You can sort by price, location, languages spoken, availability, and more.
You can then read the short bios of the tutors that show up and see what their specialties are. Some specialize in English lessons for kids, others in helping young adults pass the SATs or GED, and others in English as a second language for adults. The latter is the type of tutor you should be looking for.
Tutors on Eurekly are also given star ratings by their students, so you can see very quickly whether the person in question is someone you want to work with or not. Prices are very competitive and many tutors offer free trial lessons.
All of these extras are great perks, but the most important thing is to find a tutor who you click with so that you can succeed with flying colors. With the right tutor and motivation, you can be on your way to speaking English in no time.
