Home Tutor Cognitions and the Nature of Tutor—Learner Relationships

The focus of this chapter is on the relationships that language learners engage in with people beyond formal classroom contexts. In this case, the relationships are those that emerge and evolve in informal one-on-one tutoring situations. Although this is a teaching arrangement, it is certainly not as formal as one would find in classroom contexts, and it is not as informal as would be the case if learners received no support at all. The learners are adult migrants and refugees participating in a home tutoring programme which involves volunteer tutors meeting with their learners for one hour per week in the learners’ homes. The tutoring is different from classroom teaching in a number of respects, the most obvious being that the tutor works with only one learner. Although English learning is the main focus of tutorial sessions and the tutors are resourceful in designing appropriate materials, the lessons are usually quite unstructured and sometimes even unplanned, and no common syllabus or curriculum is followed. There is no assessment. What is of central importance, and what often dictates the content and focus of lessons, are the immediate needs and desires of learners (e.g. deciphering a letter from the city council), their emotional state (e.g. needing a friend to talk to), and their longer-term goals (e.g. successfully participating in a citizenship interview). This low-structure context (Johnson 1989) means minimal constraints on what tutors and learners do when they meet, and it allows space for the development of learner—tutor relationships not possible in classrooms.