Catron ESL And French Language Coaching

Hi there! I'm Amanda!

Congratulations on starting/continuing your language journey in ESL or French! I would love to join you! I'm an Assistant Professor ESL at Santa Fe College and a PhD student at the University of Florida studying Linguistics with a specialization in Second Language Acquisition! That means I study aka the best ways to learn languages!!! Different, from the other individuals listed here, I am not a language teacher, I am a language COACH. It's time to learn a language like it's the 21st century! Let's work together to reach your goals!

What is a language coach?

As a language coach, I enable students to focus on their goals and hold them accountable for accomplishing them. I promote student agency and allow students to make choices about their own learning; this way each lesson fits their individual needs and differences. As your own language and success coach, we will not only work together to understand the target language vocabulary and grammar, but we will also delve into the metacognitive and self-regulatory skills necessary to study quickly and efficiently, feel comfortable speaking the language, and get ahead in other areas of your life as well!

My mission for each lesson is to provide a language learning experience unique in its approach to incorporate strategy instruction including reducing foreign language anxiety, building agency, and developing self-regulated learning skills. My coaching objective is to help learners reach their second language goals through not only language teaching, but student empowerment as well. I aim to help students realize and build their own agency, resulting in a self-actualized, relaxed, and engaged learning environment. Through this one-of-a-kind coaching method, success is having my students end each tutoring session feeling positive, and eventually ending tutoring sessions all together knowing that they are competent, intelligible, and composed speakers of the target language.

I have been a language instructor and coach since 2009 teaching children English in France through the TAPIF program. I have taught/coached undergraduates French at both the Ohio University (where I earned my BA and MA in French) and the University of Florida (where I am earning my PhD in Linguistics). Further, I have taught English as a Second Language at the University of Florida as well as Santa Fe College.

As a researcher, I have focused my life's work and dissertation on the topic of lowering Foreign Language Anxiety in foreign language learners. Foreign Language Anxiety is often cited as the number 1 correlation to achievement in acquiring the target language. Do you get nervous when you attempt to speak the language that you've learned? Are you scared what others are going to think of you? Do you have perfectionist tendencies? Well, helping you manage Foreign Language Anxiety while learning French would be exactly my skill set!

While I am a seasoned, SLAT (Second Language Acquisition and Teaching) certified instructor and am able to teach at the university level, tutoring is my true passion. I began tutoring in 2006 at Ohio University and I have not stopped since. My youngest tutee was 4 years old and my oldest tutee, who is still working with me, is 72 years old. I can cater to all ages, language levels, individual differences, objectives and goals, attitudes, and motivation levels. Send me a message with any questions that you have, and we can chat and set some goals for your language learning journey.

I look forward to meeting you and helping you in any way possible in the world of French or ESL! Talk to you soon! :)

In ESL or French lessons, I love making personal connections with my students and watching them succeed. Seeing a student speaking with confidence and ease after lessons is my favorite teaching moment!