English Foundations

for individuals, small groups, and teams

English is a global language.

Fluency in English brings benefits like new jobs, promotions and opportunities. It means you'll be able to communicate confidently with clients, colleagues, and other people in your English-speaking community.

I've called this course English Foundations because strong foundations build fluency.

Then English Foundations is right for you!

In these sessions, our focus is to expand and access vocabulary, as well as reinforce grammar knowledge. We'll do this through logical, organized instruction with lots of practical real-life exercises that include speaking, reading, listening and writing. There will be homework, self study suggestions, and detailed feedback for everything you do.

There are two modules. You start with Module 1 because the sessions are designed to follow on from one another, and build your language proficiency logically. We'll go as fast or as slow as you need to.

You can take a break after Module 1, then return for Module 2 if you'd like to. Or you can do one immediately after the other.

Lesson Package Availability and Cost

Then English Foundations is right for you!

What's Different about this Course?

A lot of online English instruction is geared towards complete beginners or advanced, academic learners. Very few resources focus specifically on intermediate levels, but that's what I do with this course.

Intermediate levels cover a wide range of proficiencies. It can be difficult to assess and help learners at this level because they may appear to be fluent in some areas but lack knowledge in others. And sometimes learners have become skilled at hiding their knowledge gaps as well, so it takes an experienced tutor to uncover them. This is what I do best.

My teaching experience means that I know how to assess learners in order to uncover which language areas to target. I understand that everyone will have started at a different place, with a different background in instruction and will have different gaps in their knowledge.

My role is to take this information, feed it into the course structure, and create the most effective learning experience for every single student.

In a survey, TOEFL and IELTS teachers were asked:

"What is the biggest problem your students face in their exam preparation?"

The top answer was:

"Trying to do exam preparation when their English isn't at the right level."

Preparation for English Proficiency Exams

English proficiency exams like IELTS and TOEFL are tough. It's impossible to get high scores in these exams like unless you have very strong foundational skills in grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, listening and speaking. Many students make the mistake of trying to prepare for these exams before they have developed these strong language skills.

It's normal for adult learners to have gaps in their knowledge but it's important to identify and close those gaps before working on exam strategies. Why? Because it saves time, money and lots of frustration.

If you know you need to take an English proficiency exam, perhaps for immigration, study, or your professional licence, and you know that your language proficiency is around a B1 level, then I highly recommend that you take this course first.

A fossilized error is an error in speaking and/or writing that a language learner repeats over and over again.

It becomes part of the learner's ingrained speech pattern and they continue to make the error. Language teachers and linguists have been talking about fossilized errors and methods for correcting them for decades.

Fossilized errors:

Should not be ignored because they don't go away by themselves.

Require a focused, methodical strategy for correction.

Should be tackled early on in any phase of language instruction.

CAN be corrected with the right approach.

What about Fossilized Errors?