The majority of my students are professionals: lawyers, consultants, engineers, and executives in finance and technology. My students are primarily seeking to enhance their English skills for career advancement, including leading meetings, giving presentations, and networking in English. Many students work for multinational corporations and need to be able to speak English with both clients and colleagues around the world.

My approach to teaching is communicative, emphasizing learning through communicating real meaning. I use authentic materials in my lessons that are customized for each student: audio, video, and written materials students might encounter every day at work and in their personal lives. Because I customize my lessons for each student, we can focus on the areas where a student is most interested in improving. Additionally, I offer practical real-world roleplaying scenarios in the business context; I also provide my students with custom digital flash card decks for learning industry jargon, idioms, phrasal verbs, and collocations. 

When teaching pronunciation, I focus on showing students how to build awareness of the way the mouth and tongue move when correctly pronouncing sounds in English. Generally, pronunciation errors are difficult to address simply by listening, as the mechanical movement of the mouth must also be understood to produce the correct sounds. I believe that the paramount goal of learning to pronounce words correctly in English is comprehensibility; as English becomes the universal language of business, speaking English with an accent lends depth and richness to the language. I do not view accents as something that should be eliminated, rather I teach pronunciation in order to support understanding and connection across cultures.

I strive to create a positive and supportive learning environment for my students. At the same time, I believe error correction is fundamental to learning. Some errors can be addressed unobtrusively, simply by modeling the correct language for the student. I correct errors which impede the progress or understanding of the lesson immediately. I also take detailed notes during each lesson and focus the last 5-10 minutes on addressing errors and opportunities for improvement in more depth. But all corrections are done with empathy and sensitivity. 

At the initial lesson, I provide each student with a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goal setting worksheet. This allows us to set specific goals with clear milestones for how to achieve them. Since most of my students are busy professionals, I am always flexible about things like assigning homework and adjusting class schedules. 

Please feel free to contact me for a complimentary initial consultation and needs assessment. I’m looking forward to meeting you soon!