Анастасия Александровна Рассадина

I am a professional online English and Spanish teacher with an MA degree in English linguistics (University of Barcelona) and a TESOL certification. I specialize in General English and Spanish, but also help with preparation for standardized exams (PET, FCE, TOEFL, ОГЭ/ЕГЭ)
My main purpose as a language instructor is to invite my students to a completely unique world, as any foreign language is much more than just a set of rules and vocabulary to learn. Of course, my short-term teaching goals are aimed mainly at the students’ current educational needs; however, my everlasting long-term goal is to help learners feel comfortable with the language, to inspire them to strive for communication and to perceive language learning as an exciting journey rather than a tedious necessity. I would associate my teaching style mainly with the Communicative approach, though certain aspects of other teaching approaches also appeal to me. The long-term goal of most of my students is often not only to pass tests, but rather to converse with their foreign friends, travel around the world, study in international colleges and in general be prepared to communicate in the target language in the real world. To achieve these goals, language acquisition should not be detached from learning about culture and lifestyle of the people learners will be connecting with through language. Keeping my class interactive, engaging the students in communication, encouraging risk-taking, always seeking for new authentic sources and technologies, and creating atmosphere of creativity and limitless opportunities are the pillars of my teaching style. The techniques I apply are rather diverse and taken from different teaching methodologies. The use of authentic materials is one of key principles I rely on when working on my lesson plans, as it makes the learning process much more meaningful than just doing repetitive, detached from real life exercises. I also call myself an adherent of the student self-correction technique, as I believe that putting responsibility for errors on the learner makes the material more “sticky”. I try to dedicate only a small (not more than 20%) part of the lesson to new material explanation, with the rest of the time spent on modeling and elaboration.