About Ailsa
If you get nervous or even freeze when you're speaking English, I think I can help.
I am a friendly and supportive teacher, and I help Intermediate students move towards an Advanced level of English.
Our classes will move at the right pace for you: I'll give you enough correction and revision so that you know you're improving, and we'll talk about a variety of topics to help your confidence and fluency.
My own interests are reading and music. I'm in a book group and I play the violin. Of course I'm also very interested in communication and learning – I'm trying to learn Finnish, and the experience has filled me with admiration for everyone learning English: you all deserve a round of applause!
I look forward to meeting you and finding out why you want to improve your English.
Teaching style
A typical lesson with me looks like this:
1. Catch-up: what have you been up to since our last lesson?
2. Revision: let's remind ourselves of some words and phrases that came up recently. How do we pronounce them; what do they mean; when might we use them?
3. The lesson: I use lessons from high-quality companies like ESL Brains or Peachey Publications, and I create my own lessons too. A lesson can have a grammar focus, vocabulary, listening or speaking. There's always some reading, but most students don't need writing practice. If you do need to work on your writing, let me know and we'll do that too.
However, a lesson can also look like this:
1. Catch-up.... and if it turns out that there's something in your life you want to talk about for a whole lesson, then great, let's do that! Often, the reason a student is learning English is for exactly this: expressing yourself. The vocabulary you need will come up naturally, and that's a great way to learn.