¡Hola!
My name is Patricia and I am a native Spanish teacher from Madrid. I love teaching my own language and creating my own teaching materials so that I can facilitate your language learning process. My teaching approach varies according to your skill level and needs, and is completely personalised. I prepare interesting, dynamic and motivating activities that let you enjoy Spanish, without losing sight of the results you are looking for.
QUALIFICATIONS
QUALIFICATIONS
2012 - 2016 PhD in Applied Linguistics
University of Greenwich
Thesis title: “The acquisition of alternation in a Second Language” You can find my PhD thesis at the Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA):
2008 - 2009 MA in Spanish as a Second language
Complutense University of Madrid
2008 - 2009 Certificate of Teacher Training (equivalent to PGCE)
Complutense University of Madrid
2003 - 2008 BA in History
Complutense University of Madrid
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
I have a broad experience of teaching Spanish at all levels in Secondary (GCSE and A Level) and Higher Educational settings in the United Kingdom and in Spain. I have taught at three British universities and two British Secondary schools over the 10 years that I lived in London.
GCSE and A Level teaching experience
In 2020 I started teaching Spanish remotely. I quickly realised that there was a wide variety of practical activities which could be adapted to create engaging and dynamic live online lessons. I love being able to continue teaching Spanish GCSE and Spanish A Level to students in the United Kingdom and thanks to my direct experience of the AQA and Edexcel specifications, I know exactly what examiners are looking for. In my lessons I cover everything you need to know and I use past exam papers to help you learn and revise as quickly and easily as possible. Here you can see some teaching materials I created for the Spanish A Level exam based on real newspaper articles:
https://www.tes.com/member/sotonvillage
Adult education
Teaching Spanish remotely is a passion of mine because it allows me to teach students from all over the world who are less likely to join a traditional classroom course due to work and other demands on their time. In addition to the United Kingdom, current students live in the United States, Australia, China and Europe. I enjoy watching my students’ progress, starting from short sentences and descriptions to discussions on more complex topics. It makes me very proud when my students tell me about their trips to Spanish-speaking countries and how they have interacted with the locals.
Medical Spanish
I enjoy creating teaching materials for specific purposes. In particular, I have experience teaching Spanish for health professionals. In 2022 I completed a postgraduate course on medical Spanish at the International Centre for Higher Spanish Studies at the CIESE-Comillas Foundation. This course helped me to develop teaching materials focused on doctor-patient communication so that learners can use strategic skills (e.g., active listening, empathy, verbal politeness, non-verbal communication and assertiveness) to gather relevant information in order to facilitate accurate diagnosis and sustain a successful therapeutic doctor- patient relationship.
TEACHING APPROACH
My teaching practice draws upon my academic background and broad experience of teaching Spanish as a foreign language. I apply a scaffolding approach to ensure students are challenged whatever their linguistic background. I pride myself on providing a friendly environment where students can feel secure in expressing themselves, improving their fluency and confidence in Spanish. I produce innovative teaching materials based on current issues in culture, literature, modern fiction and history of Spanish-speaking countries. Indeed, a key motivation is to engage students’ interest in Spanish and Latin American cultures, of which I have a profound understanding through formal studies and travel to Mexico, Colombia and Chile.