EXPERIENCED ESL TEACHER

I have been teaching students at all levels from all over the world since 1995.

AMERICAN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION and ACCENT REDUCTION SPECIALIST

I have been teaching American English Pronunciation and Accent Reduction independently on-line since 2018.

MASTER'S DEGREE TRAINING in LINGUISTICS, PHONETICS, and PHONOLOGY

Unlike most ESL teachers, I hold a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics (UT Arlington, 1995). In other words, I have the training to help my students with their accent and pronunciation. Good pronunciation is the first step to being understood in any language.

What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?

I earned a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy (Seattle Pacific University, 1990) and a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics (University of Texas at Arlington, 1995) during which I received training in phonetics and phonology. I earned all A’s in these courses; they were my favorite!

After finishing graduate school, I spent two years teaching ESL for the Dallas County Community Colleges. Then I spent 13 months in Portugal learning my own second language.

After I learned Portuguese, I spent six years in Mozambique, Africa working as a Field Linguist for SIL International. I was assigned to work among the speakers of Lolo, which is a minority language indigenous to Mozambique. This language had no alphabet—nothing had ever been written in Lolo before. I went in, listened to their language, learned their sound system, wrote them an alphabet, and started teaching them to read and write their own language. Then I chose some of their brightest—training them to translate from Portuguese into Lolo.

After that, I returned to teaching ESL, amassing another eight years of ESL experience teaching English to students of all levels from all over the world. My teaching has sent me to The United States, Egypt, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, and Afghanistan.

I have spent the last two-plus years as an independent ESL Teacher - Online Only. I am trained to prepare students for oral examinations. I am skilled at teaching American English pronunciation.

How did you get started doing this type of work?

I really enjoyed my Applied Linguistics major at graduate school. My favorite classes were Phonetics and Phonology so teaching pronunciation of sounds is a good fit for me. Very few ESL teachers have had the training in Phonetics and Phonology that I have.

In my dream job, I worked for six years documenting an unwritten language in Africa. I studied their sound system and created an alphabet for them. Then I set to work teaching them to read and write in their own language and training some to translate literature from Portuguese. I loved that work.

Then, I returned to teaching ESL. In every school where I taught, no special attention was given to pronunciation. Very few teachers on-line specialize in English pronunciation and accent reduction. So now, I do.

What types of customers have you worked with?

I have taught English to students of all levels, from pre-literate to advanced. My students have come from every continent in the world. Their needs have been as varied as the first languages from which they started--every student is different.

Describe a recent project you are fond of. How long did it take?

Last fall, a student came to me through Thumbtack for help with her English pronunciation. There were several sounds that she didn’t know how to make. In our first session, I showed her how to make those sounds and then gave her a link for my pronunciation practice website. I didn’t see her again for three weeks. When she returned for a second session with me, she had taken care of all of those pronunciation mistakes and was able to make the sounds exactly as I showed her to.

I was very proud of the work I did in Japan training students to take the Oral Proficiency Interview. Within a month, I raised one student's score from a 2, 2 to a 2+,2+ . He was the first from his department to reach that score.

Recently, I taught at the Afghan Air Force Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was very rewarding to train and mentor the future leaders of their country.

At present, I am enjoying the satisfaction that comes with helping my on-line students improve their English, correct their pronunciation, and reduce their accents.

What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Don't settle for an average teacher.

What questions should customers think through before purchasing an American English pronunciation course?

Think about your future. Do you use English every day? Is English important at your job? Is poor English and a hard-to-understand accent keeping you from being understood?

Improve today, Improve for life!