Swedish tuition

Hello! On this page you can find information about my work as a Swedish teacher. I have taught Swedish courses at CEFL levels A1, A2, and B1 both privately and at the City Literary Institute in London. These experiences have given me a deep understanding of how to effectively teach Swedish to adult students at various levels.

I've also led grammar revision classes for beginners, focusing on strengthening basic grammatical skills and building a strong linguistic foundation for further studies. My work also sees me holding introductory Swedish courses, known as "taster sessions," where I introduce students to the Swedish language in an engaging and inspiring way.

My teaching method is based on my own experiences of learning Swedish as an adult. I understand the challenges that can arise and use this insight to create a supportive and motivating learning environment. I strive to make each lesson interactive and relevant, so that students can feel confident and engaged in their language learning.

Hej! Här finns information om mitt arbete som svensklärare. Jag har undervisat kurser i svenska på CEFL-nivåerna A1, A2 och B1 både som privatlärare och vid City Literary Institute i London. Dessa erfarenheter har gett mig en djup förståelse för hur man effektivt lär ut svenska till vuxna elever på olika nivåer.

Utöver dessa kurser har jag också lett grammatikrevisionsklasser för nybörjare, där fokus har legat på att stärka grundläggande grammatiska färdigheter och bygga upp en stark språklig grund för vidare studier. Jag har även haft nöjet att hålla introduktionskurser i svenska, så kallade "taster sessions", där jag introducerar elever till det svenska språket och kulturen på ett engagerande och inspirerande sätt.

Min undervisningsmetod bygger på mina egna erfarenheter av att lära mig svenska som vuxen. Jag förstår de utmaningar som kan uppstå och jag använder denna insikt för att skapa en stödjande och motiverande inlärningsmiljö. Jag strävar efter att göra varje lektion interaktiv och relevant, så att eleverna kan känna sig trygga och engagerade i sin språkinlärning.

I’ve been there!

I understand the challenges of learning Swedish as an adult because I’ve been there myself. My personal experience of getting to grips with Swedish not only makes me a patient and empathetic tutor, but also means I’m able to forecast and tackle pronunciation and grammatical errors before my students even make them. I know when to encourage students to rely on their knowledge of English to help understand an aspect of the Swedish language and when direct translations and comparisons with English need to be put aside. For me, the language learning journey didn’t stop after taking my C1 Swedish exam in Gothenburg in 2023. I’m still learning things about Swedish every day and continue to be fascinated by this vibrant Scandinavian language. I consider myself both a learner and a teacher of Swedish and hope that some of my curiosity and fanaticism about Swedish will rub off you.

My approach

Like most trained language teachers, I believe in the Communicative Approach (CA) to language teaching which focuses on speaking and trying to recreate situated conversation and real interaction. CA teaching uses real texts, designed for purposes other than language teaching and tries to foster actual discussion in classes through activities like opinion-sharing on meaningful topics of interest to the learner.  I don't use or encourage drilling in any form- there's no research proving it leads to increased fluency, competency or confidence. The focus of CA-teaching is communicative competence, i.e. speaking and being understood as well as gaining sociolinguistic competence, i.e. understanding different kinds of formality and using language in a way appropriate for a given context. However, unlike lots of CA-focused teachers I do believe learners need to have their attention guided to grammar at times and I do believe pronunciation requires direct attention in second language instruction. I subscribe to a version of something called the Noticing Hypothesis. This approach targets accuracy in various aspects of language (pronunciation, grammar) by guiding learners' attention towards mistakes, gaps in knowledge or particularly tricky aspects of the target language. For pronunciation, I use phonetically-informed instruction and prompts to target errors that affect intelligibility. For grammar, I use evaluative feedback notes provided after the session to target particular errors that affect meaning.

What do I want to learn?

I encourage my tutees to set their own goals, whether it's reading a learner's book in Swedish, helping connect with lost Swedish-speaking family, giving a speech at a wedding or ordering a coffee when on holiday. I am fanatical about Swedish and am always interested to hear from people wishing to learn Swedish, whatever their reason.

I offer two types of online Swedish tuition:

  • Informal Swedish sessions using a “log in and see what happens” approach. Perfect if you want to ask your own specific grammatical questions, practise speaking or look at work from another session or class.

  • Structured 1:1 Swedish lessons for CEFR levels A1-B2

    • Conversation practice

    • Particular grammar focus

    • Access to your own personal mini-site with resources.

    • Homework tasks

    • Detailed feedback notes

Where and how?

Online via Zoom, Skype or Google Meet.   All resources are provided, though learners can be recommended a course book to work through with me should they prefer.  Tutees who book recurring formal sessions with me will have their own password-protected minisite with resources on in order to support their learning outside of tuition sessions.  
Freelance language tuition & consultant language training
I am happy to take enquiries from language tuition agencies regarding freelance work or consultant language training regarding blocks of language tuition (min 10 sessions). I have experience working as a freelancer for agencies providing language tuition to public sector staff. Please give the name of your organisation and a link to your website in the message section of the contact form.

Nu kör vi!