English teacher · Mazamet
Helen Phillips
01Hello
I teach English in Mazamet. Native speaker, trained at TEFL Toulouse, and convinced for a long time now that you only learn a language by speaking it, without being afraid of getting it wrong.
I have lived in the Montagne Noire since 2014, with a blended family of four boys, one cat and one dog. I love being outdoors, cooking, gardening, making things. Creating, really.
02The path
Where I come from
The north of England
I was born and grew up there. It is the English I speak: everyday English, with its expressions, its shortcuts and its humour, not textbook English.
TEFL Toulouse
That is where I qualified to teach English as a foreign language. It is also where I learned to build a lesson for the person in front of me rather than work through a method.
The Montagne Noire, since 2014
I first found the region in 2006. After years of coming back, I moved here in 2014. I teach in Mazamet, at 4 Boulevard Soult, and I host the language retreat in Mas-Cabardès.
03The method
Individual attention, even in a group
It is the phrase that sums up how I teach, and here is what it means.
One-to-one or in a small group, I don’t prepare a lesson for “adults” or for “9 to 12 year olds”. I prepare a lesson for you, or for your child: the real level, the reasons for learning, what gets in the way, what is fun. The programme is written after the first lesson, never before, and it changes as you do.
Every lesson is built around speaking. We read, we write, we listen, but the aim is always the same: that you answer without having translated in your head. Digital tools have their place when they serve that, not for the sake of looking modern.
Progress is measured against the CEFR, the Common European Framework, from A1 to C2. I tell you where you are at the start, and I tell you when you cross a level. For companies, that follow-up is written down and sent to the training manager.
And we laugh. Often. Nobody speaks a foreign language while they are frightened.
Language is life!
Photo to come: Béatrice in the window
04In the window
Béatrice
Béatrice is a mannequin, and she is moving into the window at 4 Boulevard Soult. She will live out little stories in English there, which you can follow from the pavement, and anyone will be able to suggest what happens next. You will also run into her elsewhere in Mazamet: at the market, out shopping, at shops in the town centre. Béatrice isn’t only there for children: she is there for anyone who feels like speaking English.