Tag Archives: Italian teacher for beginners in London

Italian Teacher in South London

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teacher2

 

Teacher name: Alessia 

I possess language teaching experience in a range of environments. In 2007, I spent three months in India working at the Italian Consulate of Kolkata where I organised and held an Italian language course for beginners. Additionally, in 2009, I was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Education to serve as an Italian language assistant in three Austrian high schools. On that occasion, I delivered Italian classes at various levels, from beginners to intermediate and advanced; I also planned teaching units and collaborated with Head Teachers. I assessed students during exams and requested feedback. Moreover, in 2012, I participated in the organisation of language classes as part of a project to teach Italian to a group of asylum seekers from Africa whose first language was French. I currently teach Italian to children and adults through various agencies in London. Finally, in March 2014 I completed the accredited DITALS II training course to teach Italian as a Foreign Language and in October 2014 I obtained the DITALS II qualification to teach Italian as a foreign language. My experience ranges from children to teenagers and adults. I have experience teaching to groups of people and on a 1:1 basis and I also used online platform to share teaching materials with students and for students’ self assessment. My approach to language teaching is mostly communicative with the creation of communicative situations where students can use their language skills in context and in real-life situations. With young children, I tend to integrate this method with a Total Physical Response approach.

I have been a language student myself in the first place, therefore I am aware of the needs of students of foreign languages. I have a strong background in language acquisition and a strong knowledge of new technologies to make language learning an enjoyable process. I have a deep knowledge of the Italian culture, having been born and brought up in the South, but having studied in the North. I bring a lot of culture into the class, including books or movies or news and information about society in order to make language a less abstract entity for my students.

 

Parli italiano? Qualified Italian teacher – One to one lessons

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My name is Karen M. I am an Italian citizen (Italian is my native language) with solid and extensive experience in teaching Italian overseas.

In 2004 I graduated from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan, Italy) with a Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Media/Film Studies. In 2005 I moved to Melbourne (Australia) where I became a fully qualified teacher after completing my Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Secondary Teaching), and taught Italian here for 9 years.

I recently decided to move to London to be closer to my family.

While overseas, I taught Italian at all levels (beginners to advanced) to students of all ages and abilities in both language centres and high schools.

When teaching, I employ a variety of teaching methods such as the communicative method; as well as audio-lingual, direct and sociocognitive approaches among others.

This means, for instance, that my learning activities include a varied range of tasks that mimic the use of the Italian language in real life situations. Grammar rules are never the focus of a lesson. Grammar is taught inductively; rules are generalised from practice, experience and examples.

The acquisition of the ability to speak in another language has mainly communicative purposes. In that sense, it goes beyond grammar, including body language, cultural assumptions and it is context specific. Learning a language is a social activity and it should be fun! Learning Italian also means developing an understanding of Italian culture, customs and traditions.

In my lessons I like to create a friendly and enthusiastic environment were everyone feels comfortable in participating and is engaged in the activities.

When teaching, I like to incorporated the use of ICT both in class and to support individual extended learning outside classroom. I aim to create lessons that focus on the development of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills using all sort of authentic material (newspaper, magazines etc.), audio-visual texts (tv commercials, songs, films etc.) and recordings, just to mention some.

I am very passionate about Italian language and culture and I am writing to you in the hope to be able to continue teaching Italian also in London.

Thank you,
Karen

Italian classes for beginners in London

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Italian is a niche but popular language to learn in London, starting as a beginner should not be a daunting task for anyone wanting to embrace the Italian culture. Here a few tips that should help if you want to get started with this Latin language quickly and easily.

Get a private Italian tutor in London.

Of course the best you can do is to get a private native teacher to teach you, these days you can find a qualified teacher at pretty good rates due to the economic downturn. The Language class offer private Italian lessons for beginners in London  given by qualified native speakers at competitive rates.

Start slow and keep the pace.

Sometimes the excitement might lead you to want to learn many structures as fast as possible, but the best results will be given by a steady learning pace. So it is OK to start the usual simple things such as the ABC and numbers. It takes quite a bit of practice to remember those simple and basic structures. Later you will see the benefits of mastering the basics.

Make a schedule for your learning and keep it. We all know that life in London is as busy as it can get, so make sure that you have a plan for your learning and you follow it.

Embrace the new language and culture.

Many students make a fundamental mistake when learning the language, they question why structures are different and refuse to assimilate them. Instead you should give yourself  a favour and you should have an accepting attitude to the Italian grammar, and culture. Altogether this will enable you to learn faster.

Brush up your English grammar.

We noticed that sometimes adult students struggle to distinguish a verb from an adjective and if you are going to learn a new language you should brush up your grammar in English. Knowing what each piece of a sentence is will help you considerably when assimilating the new grammar.

How long before I am fluent in Italian?

Our students ask this question a lot, unfortunately we cannot answer it as everyone is different and everyone learn at different speed. On the other hand Italian share many common Latin vocabulary with the English language. If you pay enough attention you will see that you already know many words. Of course for the grammar is another story. However to get to a decent level of independently you do not need to master all tenses at once, but just few of the basic ones.