Paul

I specialise in one to one coaching of adults, to make the best use of my particular skills and experience, and to enjoy my work. I have spent almost all my working life enabling and empowering adults in different ways, including counselling people with personal problems, training people in new skills and managing advice centres. I have never been a schoolteacher. There is no universal formula for coaching. Each session is planned for an individual learner. I give honest, constructive feedback on students' use of English, to enable them to make progress. Accurate, sensitive correction of errors is a vital part of the learning process. I appreciate the courage it takes to risk making a mistake, and aim to create an environment where students feel safe to take such risks. Confidentiality is essential to a safe learning environment. Students usually want to learn how to talk about themselves in English, and that often involves talking about personal things. Sessions are covered by Classgap's confidentiality policy. I do not pass on any confidential information learners choose to give me, except where required by law. I know what is was like for me to be a student, sometimes uncertain, sometimes confident, sometimes motivated, sometimes distracted, sometimes not understanding what a teacher was saying. I have developed a high degree of empathy, and advanced listening skills from training and working as a psychotherapist. I try to imagine what it is like to be the learner with whom I am working, and encourage each one to ask me to give better explanations when they do not understand. I focus on their goals for learning the language and enable them to develop the necessary skills to achieve those goals at a pace which suits their ways of learning. My studies of psychology and my work as a counsellor have enabled me to develop an expertise in motivation. I minimise the possibility of low motivation by recognising students' strengths and successes, and by making lessons interesting and highly relevant to their lives. I enable them to reflect on the causes of low motivation when it happens, and take a mature decision on what to do about it. Learning in a way that motivates you is key. Students often suggest their own lessons. Here are some examples of lessons initiated by students: • Role-play of a challenging professional situation she was going to encounter in the next couple of days. • Rehearsing and improving a series of lectures to Masters students, so that her English was fluent and idiomatic. • Improving pronunciation by receiving feedback on lists of words she had prepared • Helping someone to learn French by teaching in the way he wanted - reading with him a favourite English novel (Pride and Prejudice) translated into French, and helping him work out the meaning and construction of the French through comparing it with the English original. My studies and my working life have given me familiarity with specialised language used in management, psychological therapies, advanced education in British universities, and English law. In my many years of experience as chief officer of organisations in England, I have been part of selection panels in hundreds of job interviews in English. I can coach people in the language needed to get an interview, and to speak English confidently and accurately during interviews. I can help people practice by role-playing interviews, reacting as an experienced professional interviewer. I have always enjoyed learning languages. I chose to study languages and lingustics for my degree at Cambridge, and the psychology of language for my Masters in psychology. I now enjoy teaching my native language after taking a UK level 5 diploma in teaching English as a foreign language. I speak English as much as possible during the lessons, but I can help by speaking French (fluently), Italian (CEFR level B2) and Spanish (CEFR level B2) when it would be beneficial. Most of my students do not want to take exams for qualifications in English, but three have taken them. Two obtained Cambridge C1 certificates, and one a TOEIC Listening and Reading score of 915. My internet connection is through France's fibre-optic cable network. If you are interested and want to know more, please contact me through the Classgap messaging service.