Personal Description:

Hello! I am friendly, helpful, and extremely patient tutor with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. I hold TESL and TESOL certificates. I tutor online via Skype or Google Hangouts and also meet my students in-person in public spaces near downtown Halifax. I am enthusiastic about helping my students not only improve their English but also learn about themselves, others, and the world. I also really love English!

Tutoring Experience:

Since 1995, I have been mostly self-employed as an ESL/EFL tutor, guiding hundreds of adult intermediate and advanced ESL/EFL students to improve their English for work, personal, and school reasons. I have tutored online since 2010. I actually began tutoring with the goal of becoming an ESL instructor. However, I soon realized that I preferred tutoring, as I have a talent for teaching one-on-one. Tutoring is lower stress (yet still stimulating!) and more flexible than learning in a class. It can also lead to faster progress, because the content is specific to each student.

Tutoring Approach:

My approach to tutoring is to make the content relevant to a student’s goals, level, age, interests, and learning style. I have become an expert in teaching conversational English and various types of writing (I am published writer), as I have a passion to help my students find their “voice” in English so that they can express themselves with greater confidence. When I tutor conversation, I also cover other aspects of English, such as grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, sometimes giving homework that targets what is most helpful. I am a good listener, so I engage my students by asking a lot of questions. Though I want them to have many chances to talk, I do correct them in what one of my ex-students called a “kind and… professional” way. So, I give them a chance to develop fluency and accuracy.