Victor Dzierzynski

Bonjour ! Je m'appelle Victor :) I'm a language teacher, I'm a Frenchman living in Norwich, UK.  I've been teaching French and English for six years now. I focus on Adult Education, and I have taught in University, in private language schools, one-to-one, in state-run lifelong learning centres, language camps, online, ... and I might add Spanish to the list of languages I teach fairly soon - stay tuned. :) 

PSA Do not hesitate to contact me for additional availability.

I first went into IT after high school, but I quickly realised I would not enjoy it for very long and I switched to languages. I completed a BA in English Literature, and I followed up with an MSc Language Teaching in English, and eventually I doubled up and passed an MSc Language Teaching in French. 

I have worked in a variety of teaching environment: language immersion camps, public school system in France and in the UK, university, language schools. I currently work in the Adult Education branch of the Norfolk County Council in the UK, where I teach French at all levels.  All my learners have been progressing steadily, and we have been able to increase our language offer thanks to a good retention rate and thanks to my suggesting different activities, such as cooking workshops in French. 

Adult Education is where I am happiest: I learn from my learners as much as they learn from me, and we always manage to cover subjects - music, food, politics, you name it - in depth.  I choose the topics according to my students' interests and goals, but my favourite subject matters are art, especially photography and literature, and food. I guess I am definitely French ...

My teaching style is based on inductive reasoning. I introduce language items via authentic material, we then focus on a specific extract and analyse it. When we understand what is going on and why it happens, we put it into practice. This is a very global vision, but it tells you quite a lot already. I like students to be quite autonomous in their learning: it helps understanding and memorising.

To be more specific, I use theory from task-based teaching  - where students use language to communicate as if in the real world eg. writing a letter using passé composé - and from PPP - present, practice, produce, eg. this is passé composé, drill it, and then we wil write a letter. 

You can see that I mix different methods, that I have preferences. My style comes from my educational and professional background, where I covered pedagogy (teaching kids/teenagers) and andragogy (teaching adults),  where I used methods that are prominent in France (TBT) and in the UK (PPP), and during which I have taught different students, who have different preferences.

The student and his/her goals are the only important thing. I use less authentic material with beginners; I don't use written documents if a student wants to improve speaking; I don't use Belgian pop music if I am teaching someone who abhors music.