Resources for Spanish tutors

The requirements to become a Spanish tutor are not very clear and there are tutors who decide to embark on this adventure and do not know where to start. It is normal to be a bit lost and wonder how to become a Spanish tutor. 

Being a Spanish tutor abroad is always a good idea, although it is often scary, it is recommended that you start with a simpler challenge and find a summer teaching job abroad or in your own country.

Spanish tutor, Cristian Pedraza,knows all about being a Spanish tutor. Watch our interview with him to discover how he helps his students when they're struggling with the language.

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To work as a Spanish tutor you will need resources. You need all kinds of materials to teach your classes and for your students to progress outside the classroom. We will start from the most traditional resources to the most modern ones. 

Books for teaching Spanish

There are many books for teaching Spanish and there are many publishers. The quality of the book depends on the country where you want to teach Spanish, the type of student, the level and the rest of the context. That is why we will show you how to choose a good Spanish textbook for foreigners:

• Be clear about what you are looking for: before you start looking for any book, try to create a list of the most important topics for your Spanish classes and then compare it with the book, so you will know if the book is as complete as you need it to be.
• Take into account the age of the students: it is not the same to teach Spanish to a small child as to an adult. If an adult is just starting to study Spanish, you cannot teach them with a children's book or they will get bored, in the same way a small child needs colours and stimuli to keep their attention.
• Edition for tutors: a good Spanish for foreigners textbook must have a version for tutors, which must contain a photocopy-friendly workbook, worksheets, teaching materials, audios, videos...
• Compare levels: it is obvious that you have to take into account the level of the student before deciding on a textbook. But if you decide on a publisher, you don't have to stick to it at all levels. There are some that do children's books better and others that are better at higher levels. Explore and compare.

Become a private tutor

Websites with exercises to learn Spanish

Websites are the perfect complement to any textbook. One of the first things you need to do to become a private Spanish tutor is to have a large number of resources. The ones you have in the books sometimes fall short or you simply need more personalised ones.

That's why the internet has always had pages with lots of resources, worksheets, exercises, texts, audios... All kinds of didactic complements, created by professionals specifically for giving private tuition in Spanish as a foreign language.

• Agencia EFE: the news agency has a website: aprendeespanol.com. On this website you can see the news highlights and below them you will have a series of related exercises and even an audio. This is a good way to learn Spanish vocabulary for foreigners.
• Profedeele.es: a Spanish tutor created this website and added different resources so that other problems would not have such a hard start. In addition, the site is totally intuitive and can be used by any students who want to use it.
• Spanish Learning Lab: one of the websites for those who have Spanish as a foreign language and are learning it. It is in English and is classified by levels and types of content. It has everything, even a part to improve conversation.

If you know of or discover any other websites with Spanish lessons for foreigners, make sure they have been created by experts. Check out the site where they talk about themselves and contrast the material before using it in class.

Dictionaries

Although nowadays if you Google any word it will tell you what it means, but dictionaries are far from being outdated. One way to have more students to give private tuition to is to offer special, quality resources with these.

A dictionary tells you much more than just a meaning, so we'll show you the most comprehensive dictionaries on the market:

• Diccionario panhispánico de dudas: both its online version and its physical version are essential for any student of Spanish who wants to reach a certain level. In this work, published by the Real Academia Española together with the association that brings together the rest of the tuition centres of the Spanish language, they try to solve all the doubts that Spanish usually generates, analysing all the rules of the language and explaining them.
• Diccionario Americano De Dudas Lengua Española: Larousse Mexico publishes this dictionary that tries to solve frequent doubts about the Spanish language. It is not as technical and normative as the pan-Hispanic dictionary, but is much more informative.
• Diccionario de Dudas del estudiante de Español como lengua extranjera: the Sociedad General Española de Librería created this dictionary to escape from the typical dictionaries of doubts, so you will find a much less boring version than the previous ones and it even has a section with common expressions that are difficult to understand for a foreigner.
• Wordreference: in the world of free online dictionaries, this is one of the most widely used. Since it was founded in 1999 it has improved a lot and has become one of the most useful tools for tutors and students in its community. On the web there is a forum where users solve doubts about languages and debate, in this community there are great experts who give a lot of value to the contents.

Continuing to use physical dictionaries still has its advantages, especially for memorising. Many also prefer it because it is a way of taking learning more seriously; the moment we buy a dictionary we may have a commitment to learning.

Spanish applications for foreigners

To be a tutor, you need to know all the methods that exist when it comes to teaching. With Spanish learning apps you can do extra exercises. Many of them are dynamic and can offer you the perfect complement for your students:

• Duolingo: is one of the most successful applications in the world. Through a dynamic system in the form of a test, it teaches you vocabulary, grammar and everything you need to speak any language. The perfect tool to complement Spanish courses for foreigners.

• Memrise: one of the most innovative applications, because they are videos of native speakers teaching you. This should not be seen as something that eliminates private tutors, they are just a complement.

• YouTube: although it seems very general, videos are an incredible way to learn. There are several yotubers who can teach you Spanish, such as the "Español con Juan" channel.

This kind of thing will never replace a private Spanish tutor. The way they guide, orientate and solve doubts can never be done with a mobile app. That's why it's a great idea to sign up as a tutor and help all the students who are waiting for you.