Mae gen i brofiad o addysgu dysgwyr o ystod eang o alluoedd a chefdiroedd ieithyddol. Mae fy ngwaith tiwtora diweddar wedi cynnwys paratoi dysgwyr ar gyfer profion iaith yn y gweithle a phrofion Cymraeg i Oedolion cenedlaethol. Dw i wedi cefnogi dysgwyr i roi areithiau yn y Gymraeg, darparu gwersi ar gyfer gwleidyddion yn ogystal â rhoi cymorth i rieni sydd â phlant mewn ysgolion cyfrwng Cymraeg. Dw i hefyd yn gweithio fel tiwtor Cymraeg ar-lein gyda City Lit, Llundain. Mae gen i ddiddordeb penodol ym maes ynganiad.

I have experience teaching learners from a variety of linguistic backgrounds and abilities.  My recent tuition work has involved preparing applicants for workplace recruitment language tests, studying for the national Welsh for Adults exams, preparing people to give speeches in Welsh, tutoring politicians and helping tutees with children in Welsh-medium schools with their Welsh reading and writing. I am also a Welsh tutor at City Lit (the City Literary Institute) in London.  I have a particular interest in pronunciation.

What do I want to learn?

I encourage my tutees to set their own goals, whether it's reading a learner's book in Welsh, helping connect with lost Welsh-speaking family, giving a speech at a wedding or ordering a coffee when on holiday. I am always interested to hear from people wishing to learn Welsh, whatever their reason. I grew up in Pembrokeshire in South West Wales and speak South Walian. Information on North Walian words and differences in syntax will be provided where these crop up. I have experience successfully tutoring people for Welsh language recruitment tests in North Wales.

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.

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.