Stefania Puddu

My students find my lessons engaging, interactive and they say they learn a lot. They put into practise what they learn straight away. My approach to teaching is student-centred and I look for opportunities for communicative practice wherever possible.

Lessons normally start with a warmer (it could be a question, a picture and so on) to activate the topic/discussion and schemata. Then there is an intro to new vocabulary using some activities (i.e. matching pics to new vocabulary, etc.). After the students will either read a text or listen to a dialogue or watch a video.

Grammar is never thought in isolation but always in context, often via guided discovery tasks to find out grammar rules and using samples extrapolated from a reading or listening task. After, students will be given a practical exercise to complete to have a better understanding of the grammar rule just learnt (i.e. grammar exercise). I tend to give an example and then leave my student the time to complete the task by setting some time constraints. Afterwards, we'll correct the exercise and I'll intervene explaining the rule again if necessary or clarifying doubts if any.

Finally, it's time for the best part: Students will put into practice what they learnt during the lesson using their productive skills (writing or speaking). I tend to give writing tasks as homework to consolidate what learnt in class and tend to focus on the speaking practice during the lesson/tuition.

Students enjoy using the language straight away and communicating in the foreign language by doing speaking tasks following the brief, doing role plays, etc. This is how I normally stage a lesson but obviously some students may need to focus more on grammar or pronunciation or speaking and so on, and in private tuitions I can tailor lessons based on students' needs.

I have a broaden experience in teaching Italian to complete beginners and I deeply enjoy seeing my students progressing from this level onwards. I love my job and my aim is also to pass on my enthusiasm for learning a foreign language to my students too!