David

Hi! My name is David. I’m 33 years old and originally from Florida, USA. I grew up in Spain and currently live in China, so I speak fluent Spanish and conversational Chinese. I'm currently teaching English as a first and second language within the IB curriculum at an international school to students in their first and second years of upper secondary school. I’m also a Cambridge IGCSE ESL examiner. In addition, I spent a little over two years teaching English here on Classgap during the pandemic, accumulating 2,317 teaching hours. Before the pandemic, I was teaching at a university here in China and at another international school. In terms of my qualifications, I hold a teaching license in Washington, DC, USA, allowing me to teach in both public and private schools (roughly equivalent to the teaching state exams in Spain), a Master’s Degree in Education from Anglia Ruskin University, a Level 7 Diploma (equivalent to a Master’s level qualification) in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (DELTA), awarded by the University of Cambridge, a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Literature from DGUT, a Level 5 Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CELTA) from the University of Cambridge, and a 120-hour Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language from ITTT. As for my methodology, it really depends on what you need. Many of my students appreciate my relaxed and conversational approach when their goal is to improve their general English. Many have described my lessons as “coffee with David”, where we mainly talk and focus on the mistakes that come up, rather than studying grammar or following traditional textbooks, which, as we all know, are not always the most effective way to learn how to use the language. For students preparing for exams, our main focus is the exam itself. Again, I don’t think it is practical to study an entire grammar book and then sit the exam. That’s why what we do (and what has worked for the majority of my students) is practice directly with the exam. In other words, we do it together, look at the mistakes you make, and work on specific exam strategies. Those are the areas I believe we need to focus on, saving time and effort by focusing only on the areas you need the most help with. As I mentioned earlier, I live in China and work at an international school, so I am only available on weekends and, due to the time difference, for a limited number of hours. However, if you have an urgent situation because of an exam or something similar, get in touch with me and together we can see if we can find a solution. If you have any doubts, you can take a look at the reviews left by other students on my profile. I’m proud to say that, after 2,317 teaching hours on this platform, I still haven’t received a negative review :)