​​​Approach and Methods:

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• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): The tutor flexibly customizes and integrates several approaches that are unique to teaching ESL, which may be adjusted based on the student's progress and needs. These approaches may include the following: 

  • Direct approach: Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are sequenced, based on the order in which people learn their first language. Grammar rules are taught inductively, which means that the student first practices English with examples, and then the student learns general rules for grammar.

  • Audiolingual approach: Like the direct approach, listening, speaking, reading, and writing are sequenced, and the student learns grammar rules inductively. The student begins learning with dialogues and by imitating the tutor's model.

  • Reading approach: The focus is on reading comprehension and increasing the student's vocabulary based on words that are useful to each student.

  • Humanistic approach: The tutor focuses on respect for the student's feelings, creating a comfortable and enjoyable learning environment, and communication that is personally meaningful for each student.

  • Communicative approach: The focus is on facilitating communication and social aspects of language, using role plays for real-life situations. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are integrated from the beginning.

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• Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): Tutoring incorporates aspects of ABA, in which motivation and positive reinforcement are based on the student's preferences and choices, and all lessons are tailored to the student's unique needs.

  • Verbal Behavior: Tutoring focuses on communication that is reinforced by other people in your community. In the verbal behavior approach, the most important part of language is its function, which means your reasons for using language and the consequences that you get from it. The tutor focuses on the student's unique reasons for using English. The form of language refers to what it looks and sounds like, such as where you place the subject, verb, and object in your sentences and your pronunciation. The tutor may also focus on the student's form for mastery of grammar and pronunciation. A formal approach is combined with a functional approach to ensure that new skills are practical and relevant, leading to improvements in your life!

  • Phases of Learning: Your tutoring experience may progress from assessment to mastery and beyond. 

    • Assessment: The tutor identifies baseline skills, i.e., the student's current strengths and areas of need.

    • ​Goals: The tutor and student or student's parents collaborate to set unique goals with mastery criteria.

    • Mastery: Every session, the student practices English, taking a step closer to mastering goals. The tutor records the student's progress, which may include graphs. 

    • Generalization: The tutor guides the student toward generalization of newly mastered skills, i.e., practicing them across varied and new settings, people, instructions, and materials, as well as generating varied and new responses. The purpose is to make new skills practical, relevant and meaningful in each student's life. If you are seeking tutoring for your child, you and other family members or a caregiver may participate in sessions. The student may also generalize skills in outings to parks, stores, or other relevant locations. 

    • Maintenance: The tutor also checks maintenance, which is the persistence of skills over time. This is important, considering that new skills build upon each other. The true test of learning is the independent demonstration of generalization and maintenance! 

    • Independence: At Inspire, the ultimate goal is the student's independence in using English throughout life. Tutoring can help the student increase self-confidence and socialization with other English speakers, as well as develop new skills for practicing English on the student's own. The tutor's job is to work herself out of a job, as the student becomes more and more independent.