Eli
Certified Tutor
Hello! Hola!
I look forward to helping you with your Spanish. I am currently in the Spanish M.A. program at Portland State University, and I also teach beginning Spanish students at the university level. I have lived abroad in Mexico and have had extensive professional and interpersonal contact with people from all over the Spanish speaking world. I am confident I can help you improve your level of Spanish whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced student.
When I began learning Spanish about twelve years ago, it was a very challenging and frustrating experience. I felt like I was the slowest student in class, and even though I spent a lot of time studying, some things just did not make sense to me. I felt like I would never be able to become fluent and have a comprehensible conversation with a native speaker. Now, I have enjoyed being completely fluent in Spanish for several years, and I have even had a few native speakers confuse me for a fellow native Spanish speaker.
I have recently began a career as a Spanish instructor for first and second year university students, and I have been tutoring Spanish students off and on for the last seven years. While I love teaching in the classroom, I also love the one-on-one experience of being able to personalize the content to an individual's needs and move at the student's own pace. This is ideal and very important when learning!
I look forward to connecting with you and helping!
Connect with a tutor like Eli
Undergraduate Degree: Portland State University - Bachelor in Arts, Spanish
Graduate Degree: Portland State University - Master of Arts, Spanish
family, friends, traveling, food, culinary arts, sports, fitness, Spanish, translation, academics, research
What is your teaching philosophy?
Teaching should be student-centered, focusing on what interests and motivates them. It's important to tap into their curiosity and then to structure learning around that in order to create an experience that is authentic and engaging. This approach helps students become successful agents of their own learning process.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I will talk to a student about what their interests are and get to know a little about them. I also like to talk to them about what their goals are and what difficulties they have encountered in the subject to center my tutoring around them.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
The two ways in which I do this are by: 1) Centering lessons around their interests and things that are relevant to their everyday life; and 2) leading them to find their own answers instead of just giving them the answer. Once a student realizes he or she found the answer on their own, they realize they can do the same thing over and over again.