Spanish tutor with GCSE experience and excellent teaching skills

I have taught languages (English and Spanish) for over 15 years in a variety of Universities, institutes and schools. I am a fluent Spanish speaker, having lived in Latin America for over 10 years. I was originally trained as an English teacher, but transferred these skills to Spanish GCSE teaching when I returned to the UK last summer (2025).

I am fully versed in the Spanish GCSE curriculum, and create engaging lessons uses a wide variety of interactive resources, standard texts and effective teaching methods. My pedagogical method accelerates students' learning by quickly assessing their needs and adapting instruction to their level, quickly advancing from core vocabulary and grammar into concrete speaking and listening skills.

I have a calm and patient teaching style, and work to bring the best out of my students by developing materials that focus on their interests. I ground their learning in their own lives by helping model phrases and sentences in Spanish that refer to their lived experiences.

I frequently find that grammar can be taught in a overly complicated way, moving too quickly into abstract ideas rather than developing a sound experiential knowledge of the language before "figuring out how it works". Grammar is, essentially, a means to and end (a quick way of talking "about" language) rather than the goal, which is to perfect the four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing.

I am a graduate of Essex University (MSc, Computer Studies), but switched my career to language tuition in 2002 when I studied teaching English as a foreign language. Although the languages are different, the teaching methods are identical.

Having had to learn Spanish from nothing to the level of native fluency I now have means that I am fully aware of all the problems and difficulties English speakers face when learning Spanish. This means I can provide simple and clear examples and explanations to quickly move learning forward.