Private Tutoring vs. Group Classes
Which is the Best Option for You?
Image by: Kampus Production
By Hanyu Tales (28th April 2025)
Language learners often opt for paid classes as a way of taking their language learning to the next level. Paid classes offer structure, guidance, and motivation, all of which can benefit learners hugely while reducing the cognitive load that designing your own study plan entails. However, the choice between group classes and a private tutor needs to be made. In this article, we will go over the benefits and drawbacks of each, while offering some pointers to help you decide which option is right for you.
Private Tutor Advantages
A thesis by Pavla Korpasová, looking at the learning of primary school kids in Czech Republic, notes the following: 
“A number of parents does not find the amount or quality of English education at schools sufficient, which is the reason they turn to private tutors.”
This decision to combat inadequate school education with private tutoring is justifiable, as a study on Ugandan students found that private tutoring was one of the main variables that had an effect on the literacy rates of students. But what makes private tutoring so impactful? - Individual Attention: Research on Kazakhstani undergraduate students found that the individual attention is what students value about private tutoring versus classes, where the teacher’s attention is divided.
- Time Efficiency: Given the fact it is just you and the tutor, no time is lost catering to classmates with different goals to you, or waiting for those who are five minutes late.
- Personalisation: While group classes should be personalised to some extent, no two students are identical, therefore a one-on-one tutoring session cannot be beaten in terms of personalisation.
Image by: Antoni Shkraba Studio (cropped)
Private Tutor Disadvantages
For the aforementioned benefits of private tutoring to count for anything, a competent teacher is needed. This leads to the first potential issue with this option. In this paper, Anna Valerio highlights the lack of regulation that the private tutoring industry suffers from. It is crucial to find a private tutor that truly personalises content and gives the student all of their attention and, given the lack of regulation, learners must dedicate time to doing their research before paying for private tutoring sessions. Furthermore, good teachers are often fairly expensive, which is likely why this article on English Private Tutoring (EPT) revealed:
“These students are more likely to like EPT if they (a) are in families perceived to have superior financial resources”
Given the existence of platforms like Italki, it is possible to find affordable online tutors. However, this study found that some online students noted reduced engagement and motivation as a result of missing the physical proximity of face-to-face sessions. Therefore, while the internet can serve as a source of affordable (and sometimes excellent tutors), online tutoring may not be for everyone. In addition, the lack of regulation is even more prevalent online, unless students are willing to pay extra for more reputable tutors. Group Class Advantages
An article in TESOL Quarterly found that:
“Group methods registered significantly greater improvement than the whole-class method”
If group work is better than work with the whole class, does this mean less students is always better and that private tutoring is far superior? Not necessarily. Group classes carry a wealth of plus points, such as: - Cooperative Learning: Group classes offer a platform for cooperative learning, which this article suggests: “helped significantly to enhance the junior high school learners’ oral communicative competence and their motivation toward learning English”.
- Positive Feeling: In an article by Z. Dörnyei and A. Malderez, they highlight the fact that experiencing group goals and individual goals simultaneously can encourage students to experience positive feelings while enrolled in the class. Success is always best enjoyed in company.
- Cheaper: Money is a significant factor for many students and group classes are often much more affordable than private tutoring sessions.
Group Class Disadvantages
Despite the potential for a positive learning atmosphere through cooperative learning, an article in The Modern Language Journal reminds us that the benefits of cooperative learning depend upon the affective domain in which it takes place. In other words, the efficacy of cooperative learning is heavily influence by the feeling of the learning environment, and that depends on the other students. This may be why some research has suggested that:
“Group work has a useful but somewhat restricted role in classroom second language acquisition”
For cooperative learning to be useful, the other students must want to learn and it must be pleasant to communicate with them; attitude is not the only thing that may prevent this. This article highlights the possible influence of cultural differences, different first languages, among other factors that may also mean your experience will vary depending on the class. As with unregulated private tutoring, it is a lottery as to how useful the class will be, only this time you are not only taking a chance with the teacher, but also with your classmates. So Which Is Right For You?
As with any unregulated industry, there is always a chance of wasted time and money. However, this does not mean that you should not give online classes or private tutoring a try. Despite the potential benefits of cooperative learning (assuming favorable student chemistry), the heightened personalization and complete attention received in a private tutoring session mean that, from a learning efficiency standpoint, one-on-one sessions are hard to beat. However, cost is a significant factor, so if you cannot afford private tutoring with a reputable tutor, group classes with a reputable tutor are likely a better investment than private tutoring with a questionable tutor offering prices that seem too good to be true.