María Nogueira

Who I am:
I am very curious, self-taught and creative person. I love learning and I love teaching, and I am passionate about my work. Check out my website to know more about me and my work. I speak Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.

In my free time, I love travelling, reading good books, watching movies, making picnics, cooking, hiking and playing table games with my family and friends. I was born in Málaga, but I’ve lived in Madrid for many years. I have travelled a lot, but not as much as I’d liked to, and I have also lived in the Netherlands and in the US. I speak Spanish (my mother tongue) and fluent English, French and Portuguese.

How I came here:
I have a bachelor degree on Spanish Philology (that is Linguistics and Spanish and Latin American Literature), and two masters degrees on Education and on Spanish as a Second Language (ELE). I studied in Madrid, at the University Complutense and University Autónoma.

I have worked for many years as a language teacher (for different companies and schools, in private lessons and also via Skype). As part of my job, I also write for several blogs and language magazines and publishers and sometimes I do proofreading in Spanish as well.

How I work:
My lessons are based on the communicative approach, fully adapted to online learning. I normally use Spanish in my classes, with a very rare use of the students’ mother tongue (except for practical issues).

I try to emphasize the importance of communication (which must be our goal when leaning a foreign language), and that is why I do a lot of practise on oral skills. However, I am also aware of the different objectives people have when learning a language (work, travelling, academic language, university), so I always try to adapt myself to every student’s pace and need. I always offer a level test and a need analysis to my new students (though both of them are optional).

I have worked a lot to create my own materials, fully adapted to online learning, and I like to use them in my lessons, as well as some other materials and resources that I take from different books and sites. Spanish might be difficult language to learn but, if you are truly willing to learn, you will get to speak better than Spaniards do!