What is your teaching philosophy?

I tailor lesson plans for each student's specific needs. I use a largely "implicit" method of instruction, as opposed to "explicit". I'll often ask you how you "feel" about a particular word or grammar point, provoking open discussion, instead of just giving you the explicit or textbook answer. I want you to be able to develop an intuitive sense of how parts of a language work, which allows you to manipulate and expand your usage faster than just memorizing.

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

I evaluate the student's individual needs and listen to their goals. I establish benchmarks based on where they want to be and where they currently are.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

I want to help develop a student's internal sense of how a language works, so that in the future they are able to take new words or grammar and understand them intuitively without too much outside help.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I make learning the subject matter exciting for them - I give them real-world examples of why it's important or useful to know the language.

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

I will give them exercises that are designed to target what they might be missing from their reading comprehension toolkit. So for example, if they are studying Chinese, I will give them radical identification practice - radicals are "clues" that help you understand and remember what each character is.

What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?

Listening is extremely important - chances are they aren't being listened to by their classroom teacher, and I can do better than that. In addition, I want the student to understand any difficulty they experience is not their fault or that there is something wrong with them.