French tutors

Establish the level before looking

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, published by the Council of Europe in 2001 after development between 1986 and 1989, gives six levels across three bands. A1 and A2 are the Basic User band; B1 and B2 the Independent User band; C1 and C2 the Proficient User band.

The descriptors are concrete. A2 covers expressions of immediate relevance — family, shopping, employment — and simple routine tasks. B2 covers complex text on concrete and abstract topics including technical discussion, with fluent interaction with native speakers. C2 describes someone who understands virtually everything heard or read and can summarise information from different spoken and written sources with nuanced precision.

Knowing the current level and the target level turns a vague request into a specific one. "B1 going to B2 by June for a school exam" gets a useful answer from a tutor; "improve their French" does not. A 2020 Companion Volume extended the descriptors to cover online interaction and mediation, which matters if the goal is practical communication rather than examination performance.

• A1–A2 — Basic User: everyday expressions, routine tasks
• B1–B2 — Independent User: connected text, technical discussion
• C1–C2 — Proficient User: implicit meaning, nuanced precision
• State current level, target level and deadline when enquiring

Native speaker or trained teacher?

Both have a place and they are not interchangeable. A native speaker gives exposure to natural pace, idiom and pronunciation, which is what a student at B2 aiming for C1 mostly needs — the remaining gap is fluency and register rather than rules.

A trained teacher, native or not, can explain why the subjunctive appears in one clause and not another, and can diagnose which of several plausible errors a student is actually making. For a student at A2 or B1, or one preparing for a written examination, that explanatory ability matters more than the accent.

A non-native tutor who learned French as an adult has one underrated advantage: they remember finding it difficult. They have conscious knowledge of the rules a native speaker applies automatically and has never needed to articulate.

Matching the tutor to the goal

Ask what the tutoring is actually for, and be specific about it, because the answers diverge sharply.

For a school examination, specification familiarity dominates: the tutor should know the assessment structure, the speaking-exam format and the mark scheme. For conversational fluency, frequency beats duration — three short conversations a week outperform one long lesson. For a professional or relocation goal, register and domain vocabulary matter more than examination technique.

A good language tutor asks these questions before quoting. One who offers the same plan regardless of goal has one plan.

Timing and cost

Language learning is the clearest case for the evidence on session frequency. One-to-one tuition shows optimum impact from short, regular sessions — around 30 minutes, three to five times a week — over a defined period, rather than a single long weekly lesson. Language acquisition is particularly sensitive to this, because retention between sessions decays quickly at lower levels.

If the budget permits only one hour a week, splitting it into two half-hours will generally outperform one long lesson.

Expect roughly €40 to €90 an hour. Examination specialists and C1/C2-level tutors sit at the upper end, conversational practice at the lower. TutorDeluxe lists tutors from €40 an hour, charges students nothing and takes no commission.