What is your teaching philosophy?

Without the knowledge of foreign languages, I would not be where I am today. For that reason, I want to guide others in discovering and effectively learning foreign languages. I see myself as the facilitator and motivator in the language learning process. All of my teaching is designed to put language into meaningful context, that is real-life, relatable language situations. Just as important as providing the right set of exercises is providing reasons for why language learning is important and introducing tools which make language learning effective. Last but not least, to be sure to cater to a variety of different learners, I get to know my students and try to personalize the learning material and approach.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

In the first meeting, I want to learn who I am working with. What are their likes and dislikes, strength and weaknesses? What else is going on in life? We might do a little personal survey, where we both exchange information, and do some assessment to find out in more depth about their academic skills.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

As a teacher of foreign languages, I am a facilitator and a motivator. I can help my students find reasons for why they are learning a foreign language, and I can try to make learning exciting through personalized and real-life language situations. Along with the right tools for memorization and (creating) their own practice exercises/situations outside of the classroom and tutoring, I am setting students up to becoming independent learners.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

Finding motivation is a matter of seeing progress and purpose in what you are doing. Language learning is not about doing everything perfectly right from the beginning, but rather about monitoring errors, learning from them and progressing. Helping students see and monitor their own progress is a great tool for keeping them motivated. Next, reminding them of the importance of language study for their own life is another important factor.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

Go back to the beginning of the problem, track where the student is stuck, and continue step-by-step from there. I would also try different approaches to introducing a skill or concept.

How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?

Prepare them for reading by introducing reading comprehension strategies, and by scaffolding. For example, first talking about the topic of a text in the student's native language, then introducing vocabulary in the target language, and associating images with target language vocabulary before continuing to the reading comprehension task.