I have had many years experience teaching English to Chinese learners both in mainland China and in Hong Kong; and now online from the UK. Having completed a master's degree in Applied Linguistics, I am aware of the reasons why students make mistakes in both written and spoken English and am able to address these areas in my tutoring. I have a particular interest in English pronunciation, having completed my master's dissertation on the intonation patterns of English. I received a distinction for my dissertation and followed it up with an article in the IATEFL 'Speak Out' journal.

I have also had experience in SEN teaching. At the start of my teaching career I taught literacy to adults with learning disabilities, which I found very rewarding. From 2002 to 2004 I was a personal tutor for an autistic teenager in Hong Kong, accompanying him to international school and modifying all the lessons being taught by the class teacher to make them more understandable for him. More recently I have helped an autistic primary-aged child with English and mathematics during a time when he was unable to attend school. I find that the key to teaching in the SEN field is to provide stepping stones along the way in order to accomplish a task.

My own son is on the autistic spectrum and is now in his final GCSE year. I have homeschooled him for 9 years, taking him out of school at the age of 7 because he couldn't read. At that point he had a reading age of a 5 year old; 6 months later his reading age was that of a 12 year old. I am confident I can help your child in the same way as I helped my own.

My objective in a session is to identify problem areas and use practical scenarios to show why these areas are so important. I design my own teaching materials and aim to make the lessons fun