English Grammar & Pronunciation expert. 10 years experience teaching students from all over the world.

Experience

To date, I have over 10,000 hours classroom teaching experience, teaching students of all ages and nationalities. Over the years I have created a comprehensive set of learning materials that have been designed specifically to enable students to spend less time studying and more time out in the real world using and perfecting their English language skills.

For example, the first thing students normally learn about English grammar is the Present Simple.
The problems start when students then move on to other verb tenses, without having fully understood what the Present Simple in English is used for.

Here is my system for easily remembering and using the Present Simple:

PRESENT SIMPLE - FORIS

F - Facts:
"I'm from Spain"
"John is 28"
"The chair is blue"
"BMW cars are made in Germany"

O - Opinions:
"I love cats"
"This food is terrible"
"I think you are right"
"Claire looks unhappy"

R - Routine & Habits:
"I normally get up at six"
"Jack is always late"
"She usually finishes work at five"
"I play tennis on Saturday"

I - Information & Timetables:
"The train leaves in five minutes"
"My plane arrives in Barcelona at 10pm"
"Bus number 14 stops here"
"Breakfast is served between 7 and 9 am"

S - Special Routine (when + zero conditional):
"When I feel sad, I phone my best friend"
"When I pack my suitcases, I always forget my toothbrush"
"When Jane books a taxi, she normally sends us an SMS to confirm the time"
"When I go for a walk, I listen to music on my phone"



This system gives you the most important information about present simple, in an easy to remember and easy to use format. In my grammar lessons, I try to give my students as many 'real world' example sentences as possible. I also try to get my students to create as many examples as they can. My students create beautiful sentences!

One of my favourites this week was from one of my Japanese students, Nao, she is studying my system on using the second conditional with modal verbs.

Here is her sentence:

If I lived in Japan, I wouldn't need to learn English!

Amazing! (and true Nao).

;)