Hands on —as soon as the student is able to produce anything, oral or written, s/he is encouraged to do so. Learning comes from looking at the production and analyzing errors. Grammar is only need-based: in my experience, endless repetition is not very useful, but an explanation of what went wrong and why, followed by a couple of examples of the right pattern to be used, can be very effective. The same method applies to TOEFL preparation: I ask the student to complete the written parts of the test, then we go over the incorrect answers and I explain why they are wrong. No sense in wasting time on topics the student handles well...
I graduated as an ESL teacher in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1971 and have been teaching both English and Spanish ever since. I am perfectly bilingual and have done extensive translation work in my language pair. Worked for nine years at the American Community School in Buenos Aires. Since 1992 I have devoted my time to translation and SAT/TOEFL preparation.
TOEFL preparation lessons shall be $25/hour, since the student will have already worked on the material and we will cover a lot more than in a regular class. I will provide the materials needed for practice.
1971 ESL Teacher - Instituto Nacional Superior del Profesorado en Lenguas Vivas “Juan Ramon Fernandez “ - Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
1979 MA in Modern Languages Spanish - University of Akron, Akron, Ohio
25 years of classroom work in both languages, in Argentina and the US. My best teaching years were at the American Community School in Buenos Aires, and official American school serving the expatriate community and others who wanted an American education for their children.
In addition to my teaching career and parallel to it I worked as a translator, handling all kinds of topics. Although I am not certified as a translator, some of my translations have been published.
I was always so shy about speaking in English and had a lot of worries before I met Graciela. I’m very thankful for her commitment and empathy, how encouraging she was, and her ability to never give up on me. She was always very understanding and worked seriously more than expected. I am positive any student who is willing to study hard with Graciela will get excellent results.
Was fortunate enough to have Graciela as a teacher; her knowledge of the English language as a whole is second only to her comprehension of colloquialism, idiom, syntax.
I have known Graciela for over 25 years both on a business and a personal level, she and her family have the highest degree of loyalty and integrity that anyone can wish for, her knowledge of the English and Spanish languages is at the highest levels and with teaching skills she will make it an enjoyable, easy and fast learning experience.
Harry Cunningham
M/C International
I was privileged to have taken Graduate studies with Graciela and to have worked with her in the same Department of Modern Languages, teaching undergraduate Spanish courses at the University of Akron. She is one of the most intelligent, patient, kind, trustworthy, and intuitive people I know! She uses time judiciously, and she gets to the point. She is gifted and efficient in language teaching. I wholeheartedly recommend her as a teacher!
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