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I tend to believe in some of Stephen Krashen's notions of language acquisition. Specifically that there is a difference between learning (being able to remember and repeat something) and acquisition (being able to use it fluently). Also that acquisition comes from comprehension. I also believe that language acquisition is no different than any the acquisition of any other skill. Many people don't agree with these ideas, but I'm laying it out as my assumptions before I start :-)

With that in mind, one of the interesting findings in language acquisition studies is that when free reading (reading things for pleasure), it takes 95% comprehension of the text in order to acquire new grammar and vocabulary in context (quite a bit higher than most people imagine -- which is one of the reason people advance a lot more slowly than they might otherwise).

With that, just like your experience, the key to teaching is to ensure that the student comprehends at least 95% of what you are saying. The only way to ensure this is by constantly testing their comprehension with a two way dialog. Once a very high level of comprehension is reached, and once enough repetition happens to remember the thing, you will acquire the knowledge.

It is incredibly difficult to do this unless you are teaching 1:1. There is a special technique called "circling" that you can use to teach language to a larger number of students and it worked extremely well for me. I still can't effectively do it for more than about 10 or 15 though. If you think in a 45 minute class, if I have 15 students, then each student gets 3 minutes of my time. It's not actually surprising that classes of 30 or 40 basically impossible.

Quick note: I'm no longer teaching, in case it is unclear from the above.

There are other ways of making sure the student understood the concept. Recently I played the game 'The Witness'. The whole game is about learning new puzzle rules, and yet there is not a single dialog within the game or even text explaining those rules.

I am not saying that their technique is the most efficient (e.g., adding hints would undoubtedly increase the efficiency, but also ruin the game experience), just that there are other methods of making sure a student understands a concept. You don't necessarily need the one-on-one conversations. Those conversations are mostly useful to round up incomplete teaching material (again, I am not saying that creating perfect teaching material is easy).

You had a one on one conversation with Jon Blow's creation. This is not an argument against one on one. More like an argument for low-key AI tutors.

While I like your way of thinking, I don't think the argument applies. The game itself doesn't possess any kind of AI and is somewhat static, more like a sudoku book: There are lots of puzzles, but you know it when you have solved one.

The one-on-one tutor idea is that you have a master who sees the mistakes the student makes and gives him an exercise to target precisely the misconception the student might have in his head.

The Witness, on the other hand, doesn't possess such intelligence. Instead, it is a carefully crafted series of puzzles which slowly broaden the possible moves. Most of the time every next puzzle requires you to learn a new part of the rules. Sometimes you assumed that part anyway, and the puzzles are easy. But sometimes you have to find out that misconception in your head and replace it with something correct which makes the puzzle harder.

So one concept includes an intelligent observer while the other is more like a perfected text book.

> it takes 95% comprehension of the text in order to acquire new grammar and vocabulary

strongly disagree. learning chinese by youtube. I comprehend 15% but I pick up new patterns and words all the time.

That's interesting. I'm definitely interested to understand what you are doing. Are you watching Chinese videos or Chinese language instruction videos? Are you able to use the language fluently?

I find it hard to maintain motivation and attention if I'm not getting at least ~30%. This applies to both movies and real-life conversations in another language. And, now I think about it, it also applies to English-language materials that require specific technical background, e.g. academic papers.

Any good sources you recommend for learning Chinese on YouTube? I’m just getting started with HelloChinese and Fluent Forever - watching video seems too deep for now.

Start with https://hooktube.com/watch?v=ZMsU9O7II1k songs https://hooktube.com/channel/UCJdwm0ut_GzVT5VzzylqDQA

then

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfAyWdGHnLdErys013Ysp... 走遍中国 Across China https://hooktube.com/watch?v=slFB9JhOTxk Homeland Dreamland 远方的家 no subs = better!

Not YouTube, but Chinese Pod is really great.

I think the One-on-One Tutoring things is something the AI current movement could make a difference. Everybody seems to be obsessed with building really cool stuff, but our teaching system is quite obsolete and could get better by adding smart systems.

That said I must to add, that I am referring to teaching humans who are 12 years and older (IMHO young kids require physical interaction if you want to avoid psychological conditions).

I agree, generally; however, I believe the lownhanging fruit is in assistive tools for teachers.

The commenter above made a good point about the value of removing barriers to learning as a primary asset of a good teacher. People tend to focus on content knowledge/curriculum as the mark of good teaching, but removing barriers is the real, difficult work. Tools that assist the instructor in understanding their students’, their students’ knowledge, and their learning behaviors would be valuable. Don’t focus on content delivery. Focus on making in-class assessment more frequent and trustable. Focus on tools that assist an instructor understand thirty students as they might understand five.

I am working to solve this by creating a conversation bot based interface that can make personalized learning viable. If you are interested for updates you can sign up here: https://tinyletter.com/primerlabs/

P.S: I was supposed launch a month back. But a lot of rewrites made it difficult. For now, I can say I will be launching soon.

As a teacher -- yes! More of a life coach, someone who rewards you for good decisions, eating well, homework, being kind etc

Tutoring is often the only time that a student will sit down for a dedicated amount of time and study without distractions. As much as I want to believe in my own value as a tutor (and I do think there is some value), I will admit that a fair portion of the benefit is just having someone force the student to study.

> Recently, I'm seeing the other side, while self-learning some maths. I can see how much one-on-one tutoring would help clear up misunderstandings. Instead, I'm using the strategy of insisting on starting from the basics, chasing down each detail as much as I can, using online resources, and working out proofs for myself. Each step is a journey in itself...

I did this for a while and gave up the self-learning aspect and went to university to study math part-time. I have the utmost respect for anyone who has the patience to push through it on their own. Some things I can learn on my own but higher maths I couldn't--at least with any degree of efficiency.

I think listening is also valuable because verbalizing a problem often brings up misconceptions or helps internalizing the idea and thus leads to a solution, maybe with a nudge in the right direction if that's expected in a dialog, thus not going the full way.

I had that experience sometimes when preparing a question to ask on-line. Sometimes it becomes clear when trying to see it from the other direction of the listener, or researching the problem space to phrase the question properly yields unexpected results.