Taisa Staskevica

I was trained by a team of professors for whom Spanish was a native language. Although I am Belarussian and got my degree at the MInsk State Linguistic University, I was trained to such a level that it did not make any difference if I spoke my native language (Belarussian) or Spanish. Since then, I like to pay attention at the pronunciation of the words. I teach by topics, explaining parallelly the key grammar rules in the topic, so that the student can use the rule and make similar sentences. I give some exercise of different levels to drill the rule and use the vocabulary. An important part of the teaching process is learning by heart short dialogues; it develops memory and makes the student more confident when talking. At the end of the topic, we do a test and I take it a exciting part of the process; we come back to the whole topic, revise it and memorize it better, and the mistakes marked in red use the visual memory and help to make less mistakes in the future. I never say to the student that making mistakes is bad, quite opposite, I say that we need to love our mistakes, with them the final result is stronger.
Obviously, I also introduce the students to the Spanish culture; I can share a tasty recipe, tell about the history of the country; I also know their classical art quite well. As a result of it, the student not only says "dos cervezas, por favor", but feels like saying more and more and, preferably, in the real environment of the Spain, or maybe even in Mexico, Argentina, etc.