Clive Cusens

I believe in student-focused learning, based on your needs. I am flexible with the types of materials to use during lessons. Would you prefer to use a language coursebook, or do you prefer to use real-life materials such as e-mails, news sites, technical material related to your work, or something else? Let's work with whatever makes you more comfortable!

I'm a big fan of using our lesson time to activate skills such as speaking and listening. If there is any grammar we need to discuss, we will spend some time on it during our lesson, but you can get additional practice on your own for homework. In this way, we can focus our time together to get you to speak as much as possible, use new grammar and vocabulary as fluidly as possible, and giving you plenty of time to speak.

In general, my lessons follow this structure:
1) an introduction to talk about your week so far, to help you shift to an English-speaking mindset.
2) set up phase: this is where I as the teacher check what you already know about the target language that is the focus of the lesson.
3) discover phase: this is where I introduce the target language, giving you the opportunity to learn and understand it.
4) practice phase: this is where we do a few controlled exercises to help you practice what you've learnt.
5) activation phase: this is where we have an open and more natural discussion, giving you the opportunity to use the target language in a less controlled and more realistic setting.

Additionally, I'm a pronunciation specialist, and we can also dedicate some time to refining your pronunciation in English. My goal is to make you both more accurate and more fluent when using English.