Ceri Barnes

I have experience teaching languages to both primary school children and beginner/elementary university students.

The format I use will be a function of the requirements of the pupil, depending on their level but also their preferred learning style and specific areas for improvement. The first lesson would be used to gauge these preferences and needs and then a plan will be formulated, with pupil feedback, for the coming sessions. Most importantly, I will ensure that lessons are engaging, with a variety of different learning tasks, to ensure that sessions are both interesting and enjoyable. For example, this will include sessions that look at more colloquial Spanish that I picked up during my time living in Barcelona for a year, to ensure pupils not only gain exposure to textbook Spanish, but also Spanish actually used day to day by speakers across Spain and Latin America.

One thing that I believe is really important is having the opportunity to practice unstructured Spanish conversation with a Spanish speaker each week so this will be an important objective of every single lesson. I think it is the best way to improve confidence, and so I will ensure that I work on this with every pupil, whether that is building up to unstructured conversations using practice questions, or whether that be pushing pupils who are already able to converse using more complicated topics that test vocabulary and tenses.

I will also provide homework from each session but this will be varied and doesn't have to be boring! Personally, watching Spanish tv programmes and reading Spanish books has been a great way for me to improve my Spanish, alongside being hugely enjoyable, and I have different resources that cater to the needs of Spanish students at all levels, from beginner to intermediate. I believe assigning homework is hugely important in gaining momentum and optimising Spanish learning in the long run.

On the whole I endeavour to make my Spanish lessons a space where pupils feel comfortable to push themselves and enjoy the journey of learning this beautiful language. Looking forward to hearing from you! :)