Qualified Spanish Teacher/Tutor in North London

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Teacher name: Natalia 

I am a Qualified Spanish Teacher. I had my first experience teaching in a secondary School in Spain few years ago. Since I came to London, two years ago, I have been working as a Spanish Preschool Teacher for pupils aged 3-4 years old. It has been a great experience in my teaching career! Nowadays I am working as a Spanish Tutor to adults, doing one to one lessons for students of all levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (A1-C1). I hold the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and I am currently studying the Graduate Certificate in Spanish Language Teaching to Adults (GCSLTA) at The Instituto Cervantes of London.

As a teacher, I am supportive of the Communicative Approach, based on the idea that learning a language successfully involves that learners practice to communicate in real situations where they can develop their natural communication skills and strategies to acquire the target language. As part of my teaching style, I also believe in the importance of teaching grammar and lexis inductively to make the students deduce, through examples, the grammar rules and words meanings. In that way students can think and realise by themselves, they are able to build their own strategies and, consequently, the learning process will be more effective. I spite of supporting one method or another, I think the best teaching practice consists in meeting the students’ needs and interests, that is why I am really sensitive with the preferences of the students regarding to the lessons and I am flexible and adapt my methodology to the characteristics of each group.

What makes you a good teacher?

I am passionate about teaching Spanish to pupils of all ages and I always bring my enthusiasm and creative ideas into the classroom in order to keep the students motivated at all times. I possess excellent organization and communication skills and I am responsible, reliable, friendly and approachable person. I like to prepare carefully my lessons and adapt my methodology to the characteristics and preferences of the students. I am enthusiastic and energetic and I enjoy learning new procedures and looking for new and original resources to use in my lessons. From my professional experience working both as a Spanish Tutor and as a Preschool Spanish Teacher, I have always received positive feedbacks from managers, colleagues, parents and students for my commitment and excellent job performance.

Italian Teacher in South London

 

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Teacher name: Alessia 

I possess language teaching experience in a range of environments. In 2007, I spent three months in India working at the Italian Consulate of Kolkata where I organised and held an Italian language course for beginners. Additionally, in 2009, I was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Education to serve as an Italian language assistant in three Austrian high schools. On that occasion, I delivered Italian classes at various levels, from beginners to intermediate and advanced; I also planned teaching units and collaborated with Head Teachers. I assessed students during exams and requested feedback. Moreover, in 2012, I participated in the organisation of language classes as part of a project to teach Italian to a group of asylum seekers from Africa whose first language was French. I currently teach Italian to children and adults through various agencies in London. Finally, in March 2014 I completed the accredited DITALS II training course to teach Italian as a Foreign Language and in October 2014 I obtained the DITALS II qualification to teach Italian as a foreign language. My experience ranges from children to teenagers and adults. I have experience teaching to groups of people and on a 1:1 basis and I also used online platform to share teaching materials with students and for students’ self assessment. My approach to language teaching is mostly communicative with the creation of communicative situations where students can use their language skills in context and in real-life situations. With young children, I tend to integrate this method with a Total Physical Response approach.

I have been a language student myself in the first place, therefore I am aware of the needs of students of foreign languages. I have a strong background in language acquisition and a strong knowledge of new technologies to make language learning an enjoyable process. I have a deep knowledge of the Italian culture, having been born and brought up in the South, but having studied in the North. I bring a lot of culture into the class, including books or movies or news and information about society in order to make language a less abstract entity for my students.

 

Italian Teacher Central London

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Name of the teacher: Maddalena

I am patient and I truly enjoy exchanging opinions with my tutee. I think it offers a great possibility of personal growth other than cultural. Also, I taught myself english just by watching movies and listening to music, so I think I know the most effective ways to make a subject interesting and stimulating, by integrating it into the daily life.

Ever since I was in middle school, I loved to tutor and help friends and family with school homework. At first, I did it for free, just because they asked me to but then, as the word spread, more and more people asked me to help them with different subjects and so what started as a simple favors exchanging became a sort of part-time job. I especially tutored in humanistic subjects (italian, philosophy and history) and languages (English and French).
As I am really young and some of the people I helped were around my age or slightly younger, I tend to use a more relaxed approach and like to see my ‘students’ more as my pairs than actual students.
I liked to interest them bringing new life to what they considered boring or difficult subjects and used any possible mean (tv-series, music, books, news) to stimulate their curiosity and keep them motivated to keep practicing on their own time.
A girl I used to help with English, is now a tv-series lover and watch them in the original language with subtitles as I used to do when I was learning English; she gets amazing grades and gets more fluent day by day.
But, most importantly, she enjoys doing it.

Italian Teacher/Tutor in London

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Teacher name: Alessandra

The best thing about teaching is the opportunity to create human contacts with your students, which act like bridges to convey notions and information about the language they wish to study. I reach my goals as a teacher when I manage to build these connections by respecting the students’ needs and personalities, and I can see significant results in their language skills. A teacher must be able to make students love the language they learn: this is the fundamental rule of my teaching style. Of course, strong knowledge and competence of the teacher are indispensable to reach this result.
I have had many experiences as a teacher so far, and what I discovered is that you have the chance to build the right connection with every kind of person you meet. The teacher must have the ability to recognize the best approach to be used with each of them; in order to do this, I think the best way could be having a preparatory meeting with the student. Through this, the teacher has the possibility to settle a proper linguistic and grammar plan based on the student’s needs and wishes. And s/he can speak with him/her, in order to establish a relationship founded on mutual trust and respect. Students must have the impression that the teacher is giving his/her best effort to make them improve their language. As well, the teacher must have the ability to make language interesting and keep boredom away from the lessons. Language is a living thing, and so the perfect lessons should be.

 

I believe to own quite a good intuition. This allows me to build the connection with my students, which I have written about so far. In my years of experience as a teacher, and of course through my entire studies I acquired the “technical” preparation which is primary for a good learning. I studied how to teach Italian to foreign students, I developed by myself a project in which I taught Italian to foreigners by visiting a museum in Bologna; I have studied English since my middle school days until now, and I still dedicate to it with passion and creativity. I like talking with my students, find out much about them. This empathy, my experience and the studies I have done make me confident in teaching.

Italian teacher in West London

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Teacher name: Katrine 

I taught Italian Language, Literature and History at university and high school students.

As a university tutor, I helped students during their thesis preparation, I checked grammar and syntax mistakes in the projects and did useful research. In my opinion, one good method to learn is the self-learning: I showed my students their mistakes and brought them to understand what they did wrong, so they would not repeat the same error again. I also gave assistance and support to students.
As a Teacher, I taught Italian, History and Literature, I gave assistance and support in the learning process. I achieved abilities in communicating with the students and in teaching them how to learn the language:
– First of all, at the beginning, I think it is useful to explain the official rules of the grammar.
I believe grammar is an important component of any language. For example, without grammar one cannot understand the time of action, whether it is past or present, idioms and the correct construction of a sentence.
In my opinion, the simplest way to understand the grammar of the language, rather than just studying grammar rules, is to read any Italian book or newspaper. So, I am used to pushing my students to read as much as they can and, possibly, loudly (in this way, it is easier for them to acquire a good vocabulary too).
– Secondly, I often open free debates about different topics (the students can speak in Italian about anything they feel like) and, at the same time, I address them to use the language correctly, as the spoken language has to be understood. This will bring my students to use a correct pronunciation and expose their ideas clearly.
– Thirdly, listening! A good method to learn Italian is watching Italian movies, news, shows and getting in touch with Italian people. These methods allow to understand not only the language but also the Italian culture and “behaviour”, that is why I like to motivate my students to watch Italian TV and get connected with natives.
Furthermore, another important aspect to improve Italian language is the atmosphere!
The atmosphere should be quite, informal and cheerful and I encourage my students to talk on any topic and problem.

 

During my experience, I dealt with people who came from different country and, thanks to them, I learnt how each and every one had different culture and way of seeing the world. I think that the best way to be a great teacher is to keep an open mind and understand students’ difficulties while learning, by helping them to overcome their problems and fears. I explain in a clear and direct way by always keeping an eye on the tougher topics, trying to illustrate them in different ways to make all students understand them. In addition, I gained high-quality teaching skills during my Degree and PhD studies and I am sure I can awaken my students’ interest in learning more. Furthermore, I know how to handle my class well by opening debates and arousing important doubts related to the subject.

French private tutor in East London

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Name of the teacher: Aude 

Language: French

I am currently working in a school as a foreign language assistant since September. I have experience from working as a foreign language assistant for one year in Liverpool. I was also a private tutor in my home country, France. My job as FLA was /is to prepare GCSE and A-level students for their exams. Using an example of their exam board, adapting it to each students’ strengths and weaknesses, I first go over what they already know, consolidate their knowledge and from there, move on to the more difficult aspects of language. In each session I incorporate an element of French culture, so that they don’t simply learn a language but the culture as well. In my year as a private tutor (for the French tutoring agency Acadomia), I have had a few adult learners and I have applied this process to them as well, with a few tweaks here and there. The main reason is because they decide to learn French for more specific reasons and I always adapt my lessons according to their need rather than an exam board’s. If they need to learn business French, I make sure to change my lessons so that even examples of sentences may be used by my students. I also research what I need so that I can give them as much information about the field they are targeting. As for homework, I always try to include fun ones, using audio files and videos to work on oral comprehension and production. It is not enough to know the grammar, it is essential to be able to understand the spoken language, especially since French is tricky in terms of speaking/spelling.

What makes me a great teacher is that I care about my students. I am interested in why they want to learn, how they feel about their learning and make sure to know if we are moving too fast for them. I am patient, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I am creative, both in my lessons and in my approach to any problems. I always find different was of explaining a point. I am adaptable, and I often put myself in their shoes to understand what gives them a hard time. I am friendly, approachable and I never judge. I also know when to push a student and when to stop, when to congratulate them and encourage them.