Tag Archives: Italian

Lorena Experienced Italian Teacher in Birmingham

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I worked as an English teacher in a primary school in Milan for one year. After moving to the UK, I had the opportunity to work as a language assistant at the University of Birmingham. I organized a “Translation Workshop” from English into Italian for first and second year universitity students. Recently, I started teaching Italian via Skype and this activity is proving to be quite rewarding. I find particularly interesting to follow each student one by one and to plan fully personalised lessons. Having been a language student myself (I have a First Class Honours Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages), I had the opportunity to get in touch with many different teaching methods. Besides, I know that the most powerful incentive for students to learn is curiosity and amusement. I always plan my lessons keeping this in mind.

Paola Italian Teacher

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I worked in Italy, Morocco and Argentina. I’m Philosophy, Art and Italian teacher.
I love teaching because everytime I learn more about my Tongue and new languages. I worked with children and adults, in the school and in the office.
I adapt the methodology at the students, I think every people needs different method for learn one lenguage. I teacher the cultur(Art, Theatre, Films… ) Italian and the different pronunciation, because every Region in Italy speaks little different. I think that the grammar in Italian is very important, I know that isn’t very “funny”, for this razon I use differents form for transmit this. I have very problem with English writing… but I’m studying now. I show the films, if the livel is 0, only short video very easy, if the livel is 3 or 4, I show documentary about Italian Art, because I think is the most fascinanting aspect the my culture. If the people no love the Art I adapt the videos, I ask them the Hobbies and I try use these(sport, Politicy, food…). I taught Spanish and Napolitan too, because I lived for 5 years in Argetine, and I speak very good Spanish. I studied all my life, and I taught all my life… I hope teaching in London too… Sorry for my English and regards

Italian Teacher in West London

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Hi, my name is Chiara, I am 30 years old and I come from Italy. In 2012 I gained a good honoured master degree in Cultural Anthropology at the Humanities and Philosophy Faculty of the University of Bologna. I am currently attending a master in Museum Studies at the University of Westminster. I have also a backround in Photography, having attended a one year course of Photography Foundations during 2009-2010 in Florence.

I do believe the knowledge and the empathy with the tutee I will work with are the basic points to start from. I will plan the lessons and the program according to his/her needs and aptitude. I am interest in giving an in depth preparation, making use of a variety of materials (such as journals articles, movies, music, literature and poetry..) together with the most classic grammar and exercise books.

I have organized and run a course of Italian language for young people (15/18 years old) during a Voluntary camp. Thanks to my educational and academic background, I have developed an excellent knowledge of my language. Some of the exams I have taken are Italian Literature, Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology. I have studied Italian Grammar for the whole of my previous educational path (17 years).

Italian and Portuguese Teacher London

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Teacher name: Cristina 

 

I am a great teacher because I am a languages lover myself. I am mother tongue Italian and I love my language and literature. That’s why I try to teach it in the best way I can: I want it to be treated with the respect it deserves. I am also fluent in Portuguese, having studied foreign languages at University. At the moment I am taking Russian classes. I think knowing more languages helps me teaching better because I know how my students’ languages work. Moreover, I am a cheerful person who loves to talk and know new people, which makes me love every single student who crosses my path. I am precise and patient and seeing students learning is my big reward.

 

My first experience as an Italian teacher for foreigners was during the DITALS (certificate for teaching Italian to foreigners) course, as we had to practice what we learnt during classes. Afterwards I started a cooperation with a local language school as well as with my neighbourhood kinder garden and primary school, where I organised free Italian courses for foreign students’ parents. I use what we call Humanistic method, starting from everyday life dialogues, newsapaper’s articles and student’s experiences. From these, I get to the rules that regulate my language. I normally use books and photocopies that the school management prepares after my suggestion and sometimes I collect material from the Internet. I can teach both to adults and to children, having taken the corresponding DITALS certification. With children I always start from everyday life and never insist on rules. I let the children understand the rule by practicing the language or just present rules as games. When teaching to adults I make a difference between those who decided to study Italian for pleasure and those who have to, which are almost always immigrants. With the latter, I concentrate most on giving them the instruments to communicate in the most independent way, after that, I expand the contents of my lessons.

Qualified Italian Teacher in London

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Name of the teacher: Martina 

I’m a qualified Italian Teacher and I have recently completed my teacher training at the Italian Cultural Institute in London.
I’ve always been interested in other cultures, languages and countries that’s the reason why I have decided to take my graduation in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation, studying French, English and Arabic.
I think that my enthusiasm in teaching Italian comes from the love for my country and the need to spread the main sides of our beautiful culture to people from different part of the world.
The student during each lesson has to be actively involved in the process of learning through the use of authentic sources like songs, audio, video, games, etc.. in order to enjoy himself while learning.

I’ve always had the idea that each student has to feel confident during the learning process and one of the most important things that a teacher has to do is to build with his students a sort of friendship in which they are not afraid to ask or make mistakes, they have to relax and don’t feel any kind of pressure.

Italian Teacher in the City of London

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Name of the teacher: Barbara 

In my career as a teacher I have experienced each and every segment of the work starting from planning to assessing the course outcomes. What is so appealing to me about this job is that one works with but above all for people, getting to know their ways of learning, of interacting and of evolving, but at the same time it helps one get to know him/herself better as well, comparing themselves with one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

As a teacher, I have always tried to present contents with different methods (visual and auditive especially at a basic level, situation-oriented, interactive-communicative, at upper ones), but I have also taken into consideration the importance of meta-cognitive strategies, peer-tutoring, cooperative learning, which are pivotal to set the best and most varied approaches and learning strategies during a lesson in a classroom and outside.

Using authentic materials, taken from different sources (books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, internet, etc…) is a must and always positively affects learners’ interest and involvement. Another key-word is supporting the autonomy of students, scaffolding and encouraging them to achieve their learning goals; to do that it is very important to augment students’ talking time and reduce teacher’s talking time, by presenting activities, games and exercises which allow them to practise the language, knowing that the
teacher is anyway there ready to help.

I am conscious that many obstacles can prevent a very good learning process from taking place, like peer-pressure and other psychological obstacle to acquisition, so I try to create a positive, cheerful, very
involving class-setting, where anybody can feel at ease and take part into lesson activities. Teaching and learning is a complex, delicate process that only takes place when it is based on a good interaction among partakers and when the atmosphere positively stimulates them to get involved.

Learners need to trust their “guide” and feel they can express themselves, so I would tend to accept their participation and give the appropriate feedback, supporting and giving some advice if needed to further improve their skills and inform them about their progression routes.

I am keen on studying and widening my teaching skills so I regularly attend courses to widen my competences and keep me updated. As you can see from my resumé, I graduated in 2006 with a Master Degree in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures; last year I completed a Post-Graduate Teacher Training during which I had the chance to work as Teaching Assistant side by side to Mrs Salzano, an MFL teacher in charge of supervising and observing my training.

Here in London, I attended a course about Behaviour Management in challenging classroom and I am in possess of the Enhanced CRB required to work with pupils.
Among the other certifications I took a Certificate of Proficiency in English, the “Teaching Knowledge Test – Module 3 and “Teaching Knowledge Test – Clil” at the ESOL Cambridge University Local Examiner and School, “The British School” where I was given the chance to be part of the team as an English teacher for young learners and as an invigilator during ESOL exams.

Concerning my experience, I started working as a teacher and tutor for a local association, GIOSEF -Italy, planning, delivering and assessing lessons for University students visiting our country and attending EUProgrammes,
like Leonardo and/or Erasmus. Meanwhile I started cooperating for “The British School” as an MFL teacher and invigilator. Then, I was hired by a Primary School as an English teacher and after 3 years I was called from a State Secondary School in a near city to teach German language and civilization. At the end of 2013 I had also the chance to be hired as a Commissioner for Final State Exams (High School Diploma).

Regarding the books, I tend to create a mix between some online sources, bespoke exercise and activities, and some books, like “Espresso”, “Noi”, “Italian Grammar Drills”, but I am always open to students’ input and so to sort fo create a “new formula” each time.

 

Teaching and learning is a complex, delicate process that only takes place when it is based on a good interaction among partakers and when the atmosphere positively stimulates them to get involved. This is the reason why I always try to create a positive, cheerful, very engaging class-setting, where anybody can feel at ease and take part into lesson activities. The approach I tend to implement is the meta-cognitive where the learner is encouraged and actively engaged to explore and gaining self-awareness about his cognitive processes, thus developing autonomy of thoughts, independent judgement and recognition of their limits, abilities and chances. I have been working in the educational field for more than 15 years and I still think this is a challenging but very rewarding and enriching profession, and I really wish to put all my knowledge, skills and heart to good use to prove myself an efficient teacher.

Languages Teacher in London

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Teacher name: MARIA

In the past 5 years I’ve been working a lot in private tuition of several pupils, aged from 10 to 18, teaching them various subjects but especially languages (English, Spanish and French). I’m Italian mothertongue and I’ve just graduated in Chinese, so I would love to teach all these languages. Throughout my academic career I’ve met some amazing languages teachers who made me love learning foreign languages as much as the relative cultures. That’s why I would love to transmit the same passion to my tutees, always finidng some new approches to stimulate them according to their characters.

I’m young, cheerful and smily, and according to my experience with teachers that always helps! I’m prepared aswell though, because as I said, learning and later on teaching languages have always been part of my life.

Spanish, French and Italian teacher in the City of London

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Name of the teacher: Silvia

I worked for several years in a private Language school in the North of Italy, where I taught English, Spanish, French and Italian for foreign learners. In the school I took care of searching and arranging for the materials for the classes and teaching, keeping up-to-date on teaching methods and materials in order to build a complete and rich path of study for the students. I was also responsible to participate to the selection of other teachers for the school given my competency and knowledge of English, French and Spanish (I also spent several months in France and on the island of St. Martin where French is the second official language). I also prepared and corrected the exams the students regularly take. I’m always attentive and interested in improving the quality of the lessons offered, integrating them with notions of culture, history and history of the language related to the language studied, all of this cooperating with the language coordinator. I always engage and captivate my students’ attention also through virtual learning in many different ways and with different means such as cinema, theatre, arts and music, reminding them that the beauty and richness of a culture can better be understood through the complete understanding of its inner language system.

I served as Language Teaching Assistant in the Department of Italian Studies at Wellesley College (Wellesley, Massachusetts USA), through the Overseas scholarship I received from the University of Bologna during my graduate studies, for an academic year, from August 2012 until May 2013. My duties included:

• acting as a language resource for those Wellesley students who had opted to live on the College’s Italian Cluster;
• offering drop-in office hours for students needing extra help with their Italian;
• assisting advanced students with their writing skills;
• organizing weekly Italian Tables for interested students;
• assisting students about to go to Bologna on the College’s Eastern College Consortium program;
• co-organizing two series of Italian films;
• organizing and preparing other Italian-based social events, such as dinners;
• acting as occasional supplemental teacher for language courses.

These teaching experiences have shown me how rewarding is to pass your skills and knowledge on to someone, so doing inspiring the posterity. I wish to transmit to my students the belief that a foreign language is not an exclusive space, on the contrary, as long as there is interest, enthusiasm and commitment, anyone can gain access to it and benefit from it in many ways.

 

I am an enthusiastic communicator with a pleasant personality, I have excellent team working skills, genuine interest in people education; I am highly organized with good time organization and project management skills. I am able to relate in heterogeneous and multicultural contexts. I speak and write fluently English, French and Spanish, and I also read and speak a little of Catalan and German. Thanks to my Master of Arts at the University of Bologna, in Language, Society and Communication I have developed and reached a highly practical competency and deep theoretical knowledge in two languages of international communication, English and Spanish (level C2).

European Framework for languages – our levels explained

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There are three basic divisions in the European Framework for Languages

A Basic Speaker

B Independent Speaker

C Proficient Speaker

These are subdivided into six levels

 A1 Beginner

A2 Elementary

B1 Intermediate

B2 Upper Intermediate

C1 Advanced

C2 Master

 

The European Framework for Languages describes what each level entails in detail. According to these guidelines, there are the following reading, writing, listening, and speaking guidelines for each level

 

A1 Beginner speakers can use and understand commonly used expressions and basic phrases that are related to satisfying particular needs. Speakers in this level can also introduce themselves and answer very basic questions about themselves. Beginner speakers can interact in a limited manner if the other person helps them and speaks slowly.

A2 Elementary speakers can follow sentences and phrases about common subjects, such as directions, employment, restaurants, and shopping. Speakers in this level can communicate simply and directly and can describe their environment, basic needs, and basic aspects of their background in very simple terms.

B1 Intermediate speakers can follow the basics of a conversation dealing with familiar, everyday matters. Speakers in this level can handle common situations that may be encountered if traveling to the area where the language is used. Intermediate level users are also expected to be able to write basic texts with simple grammar on topics in which they are interested or knowledgeable. They can also describe events and explain their opinions and ambitions.

B2 Upper intermediate speakers can glean the main idea from a complicated text, especially technical text related to their particular expertise. Speakers in this level should be able to interact with a native speaker without noticeable strain. Their writing should be detailed and with the capacity to explain their opinion and to clearly state their reasoning and different possible options.

C1 Advanced speakers can understand most texts and can make connections related to aspects implicit in the text they are reading. When speaking, users in this level should be able to talk fluently without having to search for words or expressions repeatedly or obviously. Their language should be flexible and with the capacity to provide text that is not only detailed and correct but also with a use of different linguistic devices such as connectors or organizers.

C2 Mastery is achieved when the speaker can understand anything that is listened to or read and can draw effective paraphrases from complex sources as well as being able to construct a coherent text or presentation from various sources. Speakers in this level should be able to use their language in complex situations spontaneously, flexibly, and understanding subtle changes in meaning.

Post GCSE and A Levels how to retain your language abilities in London

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Say that you have put in the considerable effort necessary in getting your GCSE, a University Degree, or an A level in a particular language. However, actually learning a language is only the beginning, it is often just as difficult to keep your language skills from getting rusty. That’s because languages require immersion and constant use. Otherwise, you are apt to forget a lot of your vocabulary and also have problems retaining your fluency. That is where language conversation classes come in! Even if you live in a country where you cannot practice your second language, language conversation classes can help you practice your skills and make sure that they are not forgotten due to lack of use.

 

Language conversation classes are also great for intermediate and advanced speakers looking for a less structured course. Often, at the advanced levels there are little alternatives but official courses designed to prepare students for some kind of accreditation, exam, or diploma. However, many people do not want that, they may simply want to practice their second language in a relaxed environment without the pressure of an examination. While you can do a lot of things to practice your skills on your own (for example, watching TV in a foreign language, watching foreign films, travelling frequently, and reading the news in a second language,) these kinds of activities are only effective up to a point. Eventually you are going to want to have real live speakers to interact with.

 

While regular language conversation classes are often hard to find, speakers in London have access to a great service within easy reach. These kinds of courses will usually be quite open ended and will typically last from two to three months with one or two weekly sessions. They do not need to be too often as the whole point of language conversation classes is simply to practice an already acquired skill, rather than learning a whole new language. Because of this, they are often also considerably more accessible than traditional language courses. Best of all, language conversation classes tend to be a lot of fun, more of a guided social gathering where you will meet interesting people, learn new things, and practice fun activities while at the same time keeping your second language skills from stagnating. Remember constant practice is the best way to keep your acquired language skills polished. Do not let your years of hard work go to waste because of lack of practice, look for a language conversation class today!