Chiara Lugato : Italian

Hello! My name is Chiara Lugato, I'm 30 and I am an Italian girl.

I love to meet new people and to share my passions with them. I love travelling and living in foreign countries and I think that people who travel and see other places are more open-minded. So far I have been in Italy, France, England, Scotland, Australia and I'm in Spain now. As any good Italian girl I love cooking and eat pizza :)

I like to discover other countries' traditions and I hope I will have the opportunity to show you Italian culture by teaching you the Italian language.

I obtained a Bachelor's Degree from Milan University in Humanities and Philosophy, a Master degree in Edinburgh in Sustainable tourism and a TEFL Certificate online. I worked as translator from French to English in Edinburgh in 2012 for a local tour operator.

I have been teaching Italian language in Melbourne, Australia in 2013 for five months in a private school and then I have been an EF (Education First) course leader and English teacher for a group of Italian teenagers for 3 weeks in Hastings in 2014. I gave private classes of English and I also worked as volunteer, teaching Italian to refugees (French or English speakers) mostly coming from African and Middle-East countries.

I usually follow a precise scheme to teach a new language to my students. First I try to make them feel relax and comfortable. Then I explain one or maximum two grammar concepts for each class. After the new topic has been completely understood the student is asked to "produce" something, (e.g. completing a text, filling up blank spaces, identifying elements in the text, ect).

I like to give a lot of space to the students to make them feeling free to speak as much as possible.I think that the conversation as to cover the widest part of the lesson. I don't like to correct all the time as the student could loose his/her self-confidence. Only when they have finished speaking I list the worst mistakes they have made, making sure that they understand why they made them and be ready to avoid them the following time. I think that is very important to praise the student when he/she deserves it and to maintain a good atmosphere where the student feels encouraged to learn, and enjoys the class.

Learning a new language is not something easy and I know the feeling of frustration that new learners could feel at the beginning. I think that a good teacher has to overcome this difficulty and make the learner amused and happy to practice and learn new sounds and expressions.

In conclusion, I try not to be too focused on the grammatical items (which can look too abstract and even boring) but to always mix all the elements and help the student see what he/she has learned during the lesson.