Personal Description:

My name is Lisa. I am a professional ESL and English teacher with over 10 years of hands on teaching experience in Europe and South Korea. I am a friendly Canadian who enjoys the outdoors, animals, reading, singing, song-writing, and spending time meeting others in Toronto. I completed my bachelor's degree in English language and literature from Brock University and completed my tesol certification in Prague, Czech Republic. I have traveled to over 25 countries and I love to meet people from other countries and learn about new languages and culture. I hope to meet you soon!

Tutoring Experience:

I have over 10 years of professional English, ESL, academic preparation, test preparation, and academic writing teaching experience. I worked in South Korea as a visiting professor for 3 years working with freshmen to senior students and 4 years working with professional Korean public school English teachers. My specialty is in teaching effective communication skills in pronunciation, listening, and speaking. I can help you with accent reduction training, preparing for the IELTS or TOEIC examinations, business communication, preparing for an interview, can edit your work and help you develop effective essay or paragraph writing skills, or I can help you with general communication skills such as listening and speaking. Whatever focus areas you need, I will do an assessment of your needs and we will go from there! I’m also an IELTS writing and speaking examiner so I can easily assess your areas of weakness and work efficiently to prepare you for any upcoming examinations.

Tutoring Approach:

My approach to tutoring is based on your personal and professional needs. I will start with an assessment of your overall language skills and then we can discuss your personal goals and what areas you are looking to improve on. This is an informal assessment. We can then discuss your specific goals and how you learn best. I believe each student has their own learning style and I will find out what materials and methods to use that will suit your unique personality. I like to use activities and materials that will be engaging and of personal interest for you such as articles, speaking activities, or general discussion topics because I believe in utilizing students background knowledge to improve language skills. It is important to improve your active vocabulary skills (new words used in speaking and writing) so we can do a lot of activities to improve these areas. If you are looking to work on your writing skills, I can help you with style, organization, and the use of writing devices that will help you write effective essays for academic or professional purposes. If you would like to work on accent reduction, I have lots of strategies such as listening practice and recording and transcribing techniques that can help you to sound more 'Canadian'… eh? Let's work together to improve your specific language needs :)