Ruth Tunnicliffe Wilson

My name is Ruth. I have a Diploma in teaching English as a Foreign Language, and my guiding principle as a teacher is that language is for communicating; where possible, learning should be fun; and that building confidence in using the language can sometimes be more important than practising grammar.

The content and format of my lessons depends on why the student(s) want/need to improve their English; my first step is always to listen, and then check I have understood the main objectives of the student(s) before planning a course of study.

As far as possible I base lessons on language (topics, vocabulary, etc.) which will be meaningful and useful to the student, and I focus on the skills (from Speaking / Listening / Reading / Writing) which will be most helpful.

I am able to tailor my teaching for each situation, partly because I am naturally empathic and interested in helping people, partly because of my wide teaching experience:

- Type of student: professional adults, Spanish-speaking state school teachers of English, university students, groups of secondary school children, mixed-nationality children on summer school courses;
- Language level: beginner to advanced. One group were complete beginners when we started, and by the time we finished a few months later they were able to write me very moving letters thanking me in English for what they had learned;
- Reason for study: preparation for Cambridge exams (Proficiency and First), pre-sessional course for English-medium university, general English;
- Number of students: individual private lessons, private language school classes up to 20, state education classes from 20 to 80;

While teaching I also worked as a Speaking Examiner for the Cambridge First and Proficiency examinations, and then I started working for the organisation which runs the Cambridge exams. I worked in many roles, including exam content-creation, quality assurance processes for Speaking Examiners and then improving the processes for creating and running examinations. I am also a qualified continuous / process improvement professional.

This training and experience means that if you are interested in improving your English in a business context; as an entrepreneur for example, (e.g. to improve your pitching skills or language-check a website) or other business-related context, I can help you.

Throughout this varied career, I've focused on making sure I understand what the customer wants and needs, and I can honestly say I really care about helping people.