Personal Description:

Hello,

My name is Maria and I am a University of Toronto Graduate. My academic experience is in French, English, Italian and Spanish. You could say I have a passion for languages and communication. call me a language buff, or a linguaphile. I love expressing myself in the different languages I speak and I look forward to sharing that excitement for learning a new language with my students. There is a unique joy to finding a new way of expressing what you feel, think and believe!

Tutoring Experience:

I have been tutoring for 5 years part-time to youth (ages 11-14) as well as to adults. I help my students understand how to help themselves by pushing them just a little ahead of what they already know. By engaging with content a little harder than your current level, you can step up to the next level in your language learning.

Tutoring Approach:

My approach is based on the communicative method of language teaching which encourage fluency and listening comprehension. By having natural conversations in a range of subject areas specific to your needs, students will gain vocabulary knowledge and learn to understand native speakers.

Depending on your needs, I can focus on grammar and language construction for assignments, essay writing or business communications.

I can also apply a very visual teaching style and you can expect lots of photos and videos of words or ideas we are discussing. This helps to form a visual connection to the word/idea being learned. I find this has helped me greatly in remembering concepts in the language I am learning. You can also expect to be talking a lot and presenting.

Finally if the student prefers I can assign exercises to be done between sessions and charge a reduced rate to mark the assignments and give feedback.