For Learners Seeking a Tutor or Conversation Partner

Free Tutoring with a CLS Tutor

Yale undergraduates whose teachers confirm their enrollment in a language course may request a CLS Tutor. This tutoring is free to the student for up to ten hours per semester (CLS Tutors are paid by Yale College). To get things started, just complete and submit a Request for Tutoring.

Before you begin the tutoring process, you should read the Guidelines for Tutees of CLS Tutors. And before you begin your tutoring sessions, read Making the Most of Tutoring for some important advice.

Once you have submitted a Request, the tutoring program coordinator will confirm your eligibility for tutoring and assign an appropriate tutor to you.

Free Drop-in Tutoring Sessions

All members of the Yale community may take advantage of the CLS' weekly, drop-in tutoring sessions, which afford an additional opportunity to improve and enhance foreign language skills. The program offers a number of advantages:

Drop-in sessions provide a more informal, less structured opportunity to address whatever language issues you may have.
Attending one or two drop-in sessions could help you focus on problem areas that might then be addressed by requesting a CLS Tutor (or an Open Exchange Tutor).
You may not have time to commit to ongoing tutoring sessions with a private tutor, or you may just need a quick fix to resolve one or two issues.

Drop-in sessions for Fall 2009 will begin the week of September 14th and will run through reading week (December 7th). All sessions will be held from 7:00pm – 9:00pm at the service desk in the Bass Library Collaborative Learning Center, according to the following schedule:

Tuesdays: French
Wednesdays: Chinese
Thursdays: Spanish

We plan to staff each session with a single tutor, but could expand to two tutors per session should the need arise. Students will meet with tutors on a first come, first served basis.

We hope that these drop-in sessions provide an added avenue of opportunity to language learners. Our tutors are anxious to begin plying their skills. Please stop by and meet with them.

Private Tutors (through Open Exchange)

Students who do not meet the requirements for free tutoring by CLS Tutors (such as graduate students or any student who isn't enrolled in a language course) or other members of the Yale community can seek a private tutoring arrangement, also called Open Exchange tutoring. Open Exchange tutors are not pre-screened , so you must take special care to make sure the tutor you find is right for you. You must make your own arrangements to pay an Open Exhange tutor. To search or create postings, log in to the Open Exchange system.

Conversation Exchange Partners

For all members of the Yale community, a Conversation Exchange Partner program is available. A conversation partner will speak a foreign language with you in exchange for time spent speaking a language you know already. For example, if you are a native speaker of English and you are learning Chinese, you might meet regularly with someone from China who is learning English and alternate languages. To search or create conversation partner postings, log in to the Open Exchange system.