"Hi. I'm Diane. I am originally from Michigan and have a Master's degree in Education specializing in English as a Second Language and a Bachelor's degree in Spanish from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Upon graduating, I moved to Venezuela and taught ESL to children, adolescents, and adults there for 30 years. Since returning to the U.S. three years ago, I have been an ESOL Reading Instructor at Lone Star College, I have also taught beginner to advanced level ESL courses and Accent Reduction for several language companies, and tutored Spanish and English Language Arts Reading Courses.

I have an extensive background in Accent Reduction, having studied Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Linguistics while at the University of Michigan and achieving bilingual fluency in Spanish. Because of this experience, I can easily diagnose the reason for a particular student's difficulties in pronunciation and devise strategies for solving them. Many of these difficulties are the result of a lack of information about how the native speaker links words in the stream of speech and how to decipher the confusing spelling of English. As a result the student acquires many learned errors in pronunciation. Once these things are explained, a student's pronunciation can improve dramatically.

I am a qualified Spanish tutor since I have bilingual fluency as well as a degree in the language. If the source of a Spanish-speaking student's grammar or pronunciation errors in English are due to a "transfer" from their native language, my knowledge of Spanish is extremely helpful in identifying and correcting them.

There is nothing more rewarding than seeing one's students improve and excel, and having been a part of it. I believe good teachers are born, not made. The ability to connect with and inspire one's students, a sincere belief in their abilities, dynamic classes and enthusiasm are key to becoming an outstanding teacher. This is the teacher I strive to be. My students are the highlight of my day; they truly inspi" less...