Simon

I am a fully-qualified TEFL teaching professional with a passion for my job. I have a huge range of experience: teaching students in language schools and businesspeople in companies; teaching all levels of English from beginner to advanced; and - my passion and specialisation - teaching exam English, especially IELTS.

Tutoring Experience

After qualifying as a teacher at Sheffield Hallam University in 1997, I worked in Warsaw, Poland from 1997 to 2007. I taught businesspeople in companies and worked in a language school. I returned to the UK in 2007 and worked in a language school in Nottingham for over 12 years. I've therefore worked for 20+ years, and taught over 20,000 hours of English to thousands of students.

Tutoring Approach

With one-to-one students, I start with a needs analysis meeting, allowing me to work out with the student exactly what s/he requires and how to proceed. For exam lessons, and especially IELTS, I focus on speaking and writing. For writing, I expect students to produce a large amount of written homework. After I mark this work, I can then assess the student's weaknesses and prepare materials and lessons to address these areas and improve the student's exam marks.