Abstract :Although the private tutoring market has an important place in the world, studies in this field are quite limited. Private lessons, which are widely given at all levels of education in our country, are an important phenomenon that is ignored. In this context, it is thought that it will be important to determine the place of private lessons in our education system and the reasons for their need. The aim of this study is to shed light on the processes of English private tutors to develop these tutoring programs. For this purpose, one-to-one interviews were conducted with approximately 10 English private tutors selected according to the typical case sampling method. The open-ended questions were created with the help of a review of the relevant literature and expert support. With the questions asked, it was aimed to determine the criteria used by the participating English tutors in preparing the lesson programs. The obtained data were analyzed with qualitative data analysis methods which are thematic analysis and sequential analysis. After analysis of interviews, findings were categorised into 6 themes as "progression, needs analysis, content, decision mechanism, evaluation, and termination". The results have shown that teachers are a curriculum designer in private tutoring, but these curriculums can show flexibility. It has been observed that teachers consider various factors while preparing their plans, such as; identification of objectives, learners' lacks, learners' levels, learners' learning styles, learners' expectations and parents' expectations. It was observed that especially four basic skills were taken into consideration in determining the contents and the ratio of these skills was adjusted according to the student's wants and goals. Although the evaluation criteria and factors of the teachers differ, it has been seen that they attach importance to evaluation and do this with various tests, observations and comments from third parties. This study yielded two more important findings which are specific to curriculum development in private tutoring. First, it has been seen that the teachers are the decision makers in their programs, but they work together with the parents and students on issues such as determining the lesson hours and days. It has been seen that this is not typical of curriculum development studies for institutional purposes where most of the decisions are taken by policy makers and administrators. Secondly, it has been observed that the teachers work on the termination of private lessons with a target- oriented approach or without being tied to any target. Especially financial factors play a role in this matter. It has been concluded that this brings a lot of unpredictability, thus; requires more flexibility in terms of curriculum design compared to institutional contexts. These findings were discussed again in the light of the relevant literature. This research is designed as the premise of a more comprehensive thesis to be developed. Keywords : private tutoring, one-to-one education, syllabus design
