Busy Schedule? English Classes Designed for You!
Are you busy and do you have the weight of the world on your shoulders? You have to make choices to maximize your time and to focus on improving in the areas of your life that are important to you. Do you want to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself? You often start going to in-person English classes and then easily give-up after you realize that you can’t dedicate 3 hours a day to language study. Or, you decide not to sign-up for in-person classes at all because you have a very complicated schedule. You travel for your job and find yourself unable to maintain a normal routine and take classes at a language school. You want to continue dedicating time to your language goals, but you need to fit the classes into your busy schedule. What is the solution? Online English classes that fit your busy schedule.
Private Classes Help you Learn English FAST
Many students are nervous about learning English online and are a bit uncomfortable about the idea of taking a class online. Most people are used to the conventional approach to learning a language: sitting in a big classroom with 20 other people with the teacher in the front of the room. Although these traditional classes can be fun and personal and a great way to meet new people, they don’t offer the language student an efficient way to improve their language skills. Online English classes offer a comprehensive approach that will help you improve your speaking skills very quickly.
How do Online English Classes work?
I teach online English classes on both Zoom and Skype. We will also login to a platform where we will access the lesson and materials for the class. We then connect through live video and live chat. I try to create a warm, friendly environment and make an effort to make the student feel comfortable. I introduce myself and we do a warm-up for the student to start thinking in English. We might talk about a recent news article from the top headlines we might share a story from our day-to-day experience. After that, we look at the students’ writing assignment in google docs. We read the assignment aloud and the teacher and the student brainstorm ways to improve the writing.
I then ask the student many questions about a video I assigned the student to watch at home. We might talk about their opinions and their reactions about the video. We use the rest of the class to speak English, review key grammar points, study idioms and common expressions. It is so important for students to listen to native English speakers and to also have conversations with native English speakers. Many students complain they live in a rural area and don’t have access to native English speakers. These conversations help the student speak English more accurately. The student learns to express him/herself freely and talk about a variety of topics. These speaking opportunities help expand their vocabulary. Also, since the student wrote about the topic at home before the class, they are already learning and embodying the new words, which they retain in future conversations. I use interactive lesson plans from Off2Class, fluentize and ESL library that are well-designed and comprehensive, covering the 4 language skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
Online Classes Motivate you to Speak English
Many traditional English classes focus on grammar, writing, listening and reading and may dedicate the last 5 or 10 minutes of the class to a speaking activity. This doesn’t give students the amount of time they need to practice speaking the language. The truth is, speaking English is the most important and practical skill that will serve you in many different situations. However, you need the kind of class structure that prioritizes speaking and communication. In my online English classes, I prioritize speaking and help you reach your goals for improved fluency.
What is your English level?
Before you begin taking classes with me, it is important that I test your overall level and see how fluent you are in English. I do this by testing your grammar, speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in a 90 minute test that you take on your own at home. The test will tell you what level your English is, based on the European framework for language proficiency or CEFR, which organizes language proficiency in six levels, A1 to C2, which can be categorized into three broad levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced. You can try to determine your own level by doing this self-assessment.
The level test then helps determine your learning program. I create an individualized program for you that is designed to strengthen your weaknesses and challenge you at the level you are currently at, without frustrating you with lessons that are either too difficult or too easy. If you sign-up for a consultation with me, I will send you the placement test to complete before we meet.
Corrections Help you Learn from your Mistakes
Making mistakes is a very natural part of language learning. However, many times you don’t realize you make a mistake and native speakers are too polite to correct you. So, you keep making the same mistakes over and over again. You don’t improve very quickly and reach a kind of plateau with your language learning. Online classes are very effective because I can give you live corrections if you make any mistakes. I can correct you verbally and I also write your corrections in the chat bar. You can save these corrections and practice saying the words and sentences throughout the week. Sometimes, you have to make the mistake many times before you stop making it again, but the native speaker can help you realize you are making it and quickly help you correct it. By using this live method, you will feel your fluency advancing very quickly.
Shy Students Excel in a Live Classroom
I’ve noticed in large classroom contexts, shy students tend to listen more than they speak. The talkative students dominate the conversations and the shy students say very little. This prevents the shy students from practicing as much as they need to. Learning English online gives these students the opportunity to practice speaking, to improve their pronunciation, and to benefit from a more personalized learning experience.
Improve Pronunciation with Audio Feedback
After the class, I will record my voice saying the words and sentences that you said incorrectly. These corrections will help you learn efficiently because you can focus on pronunciation, repetition, and accuracy. Not all teachers leave audio feedback for their students and many times the students forget the words they said incorrectly. So, the audio feedback pushes students to review what they learned in the class and become more aware of their language production. Audio feedback is brilliant and I have noticed that my students retain the words I teach them and make faster progress towards fluency in English.
The Google Classroom as the Ultimate Learning Tool
I use the google classroom to organize the class materials, homework, writing assignments, and audio feedback. The google classroom is an excellent tool that will help you visualize what we have completed. The classroom also shows the homework you need to complete. Many times, teachers just send students homework via email, but they don’t see how much progress they have made and they can’t remember the kind of activities they completed in previous classes. The google classroom has so many innovative tools that will always keep you excited about learning. Tracking your progress is essential and will help you maintain movement forward.
How can I schedule classes and how much do they cost?
You can sign-up for a free 30 minute consultation and then we can discuss the class package that would be best suited for you. You can take classes 1x, 2x or 3x a week with me and I offer availability from 18:00-21:00 Beijing time.
A Youtube VIDEO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE ADVANTAGES OF LEARNING LANGUAGES ONLINE IN SPANISH: (Una Entrevista conmigo sobre las ventajas de aprender un idioma online con Blabla Español)