My name is Ruth. I have a Diploma in teaching English as a Foreign Language, and my guiding principle as a teacher is that language is for communicating; where possible, learning it should be fun; and that building confidence in using the language can sometimes be more important than practising grammar.

The content and format of my lessons depends on why the student(s) want/need to improve their English; my first step is always to listen, and then check I have understood the main objectives of the student(s) before planning a course of study.

As far as possible I base lessons on language (topics, vocabulary, etc.) which will be meaningful and useful to the student, and I focus on the skills (from Speaking / Listening / Reading / Writing) which will be most helpful.

I am able to tailor my teaching for each situation, partly because I am naturally empathic and interested in helping people, partly because of my wide teaching experience:

- Type of student: professional adults, Spanish-speaking state school teachers of English, university students, groups of secondary school children, mixed-nationality children on summer school courses;
- Language level: beginner to advanced. One group were complete beginners when we started, and by the time we finished a few months later they were able to write me very moving letters thanking me in English for what they had learned;
- Reason for study: preparation for Cambridge exams (Proficiency and First), pre-sessional course for English-medium university, general English;
- Number of students: individual private lessons, private language school classes up to 20, state education classes from 20 to 80;

While teaching I also worked as a Speaking Examiner for the Cambridge First and Proficiency examinations, and then I started working for the organisation which runs the Cambridge exams. I worked in many roles, including exam content-creation, quality assurance processes for Speaking Examiners and then improving the processes for creating and running examinations. I am also a qualified continuous / process improvement professional.

This training and experience means that if you are interested in improving your English to support you, for example as an entrepreneur (e.g. to improve your pitching skills or language-check a website) or other business-related context, I can help you.

Throughout this varied career, I've focused on making sure I understand what the customer wants and needs, and I can honestly say I really care about helping people.