Martha Dooley

Hello!
My name is Martha and I am Secondary school Mandarin teacher at an inner city London school. I have been working as a Mandarin teacher and Key Stage 3 Mandarin Coordinator for three years. Prior to becoming a Mandarin teacher I completed my teacher training at the Institute of Education (IOE) in London. Prior to that I studied Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. After graduating in 2017 I moved to China to teach English as a foreign language.

I have experience of working in one of the largest Mandarin teaching departments in the UK. I am responsible for teaching Mandarin to students ages 11 through to students aged 17. I have experience teaching the UK GCSE Mandarin syllabus.


I absolutely love teaching and my main priority when working with any student is to help them realise their immense potential. At the beginning of each lesson, I speak about the relevance of what we will be studying that day and how it may help them in later life. By implementing these methods, I have been able to inspire and motivate many students who did not see the number of opportunities that were out there prior to studying Mandarin.

Alongside teaching in the UK I also have experience teaching in China. From February 2018 until June 2019 I was working in a foreign language school in Taicang, China. During my time there I was responsible for teaching ages 4 – 17 years old. I was responsible for creating and implementing classes in line with the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. In addition to running classes for 30 + pupils, I was also responsible for running individual intervention sessions for certain pupils, most specifically those wanting to pass their IELTS examinations.


Outside of teaching Mandarin to UK school students I also have experience of running one on one and small group language sessions for adults. These sessions can range in ability, topics and size. For example, some students decide to focus on purely speaking practice, whereas others decide to work on translation. I am very flexible and will tailor my service to each of my client’s individual needs.

In addition to teaching the language, I always ensure that my classes involve at least one element of culture. This is incredibly important for me as language and culture are interconnected and therefore you cannot have one without the other. Furthermore, I also try to use as much target language as possible (Mandarin) and keep English use to a minimal. Of course, this will depend on each and every individual student's needs but I am very much of the opinion that as much of a full immersion as possible is incredibly important and can reap the most benefits!

I look forward to working with you!

Best wishes,

Martha