Ariana Villacorta

I have had experience tutoring different subjects, not just Spanish, for 5 years. As a tutor, I consider it most important to practice all four skills; reading, listening, writing, speaking and encourage conversation in Spanish among my students. But we don't need to do everything at once. Learning a language takes time and it should be fun to learn how to express yourself in a different language than what you're used to. We can begin with some basic vocabulary that we can then use in conversation. When learning a new language, it's often daunting to actually speak it and we get embarrassed to mispronounce something or get the order of the words mixed up. However, by stimulating your conversation in Spanish, your confidence will be boosted as you slowly begin to grasp the language when you're speaking, and so it will become easier to read and write. Speaking a language is about communication, and you can communicate ideas effectively even if your pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary aren't perfect. There's time to work on those as well. To help with grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, I like to use visual aids like alphabet pronunciation charts, body parts posters, and verb conjugation tables. When we move onto another topic, the charts and posters will be replaced accordingly.