Description: Fiona is a qualified English as a second language ESL teacher and British Sign Language teacher. Her experience spans across various varied settings – classroom, 1 to 1, in person and online. Here’s a short snippet of her tutor profile.
I am a qualified TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) Teacher and to date have taught over 1000 students online. I have the advantage of two other professions that assist in my teaching: 1) My experience as a BSL (British Sign Language) Communicator for the Deaf and 2) my work as a Professional Actress in Europe, Canada and America.
My work as a Communicator for the Deaf enables me to communicate well with hearing people or individuals who either do not have English as their Mother Language or are lacking in confidence somehow. I look for non-verbal methods along with verbal ways to communicate information to my learners.
This often includes using gestures or TPR (Total Physical Response) in addition to preparatory visual aids when designing my lessons. 2) Professionally, I am also an Actress. I have worked mainly in America where I obtained a scholarship to earn a Master’s Degree in Theatre and Film.
I have learned that the choice to be animated in the classroom – if the situation, content or material lends itself to this focus – can assist in both learning and comprehension. Emphasis on or animation of certain words might also be used especially when the objective is to capture the meaning, purpose, motive or even the emotion behind them.
I have often found that these non-traditional techniques can help learning ‘stick’ and raise the level of attention from the learner in the given time we have for the lesson. Working as a British Sign Language Communicator and Actress combine very well in communicating quickly and efficiently lesson content to students online.
I believe this is one of the greatest beauties of online teaching. As a teacher that utilises different experiences, I believe I can assist learning in a way that is fruitful and unique.
My interests and hobbies include learning other languages, reading, playing the piano, singing, art and photography.
• Teaching and communicating English as a second language in online classes to young learners in China. This involves the use of company proprietary software which includes videos, audio, and drawing tools.
• Successfully teaching ILEX, A’ Level, BTEC and NVQ Law at the University of West Herts to learners in evening adult classes and for younger adult learners in the daytime.
• Using the SMART board, PowerPoint and proprietary Visual aids to teach a diverse audience of learners with varying needs. Also researched video content relevant to the subject in hand.
• Translating and modifying the English language with sign language, word simplification, visuals, symbols and gesticulation for Deaf clientele who have a limited or non-existent vocabulary of English.
• Assisting Deaf learners and Deaf employee clientele in schools, college and The Ministry of Justice to understand and carry out their educational and employment commitment by accessing the English Language from their employer and the curriculum.
• Tutoring two groups of Sign Language students in the week and at the weekends to learn—British Language (BSL) and Sign Support Language (SSE).
Interested in working with Fiona? Contact Us here.