Luke Cheveralls

Hallo and Bonjour!

I am a passionate and knowledgable qualified language teacher from England. I have worked as a classroom teacher, head of German, and head of year. As a form tutor I oversaw UCAS applicaitons and advised on personal statements and Oxbridge interviews. I am currently training as an interpreter and translator in Germany, working with English, German and French.

Before retraining as an interpreter, I worked as KS3 coordinator for languages as well as head of German in two London schools. During this time I have also worked as a head of year. I am currently an examiner for AQA at A-level for German.

As a native English speaker, and with sadly no multilingual family, I know how difficult it can be to learn a language in and outsidue of school and have seen why the motivation to do so is often difficult to find.

My approach to teaching aims to address these two difficulties. Firstly my lessons will focus on grammar and speaking. I know that often pupils think grammar must be boring, but we will focus on this topic so that you can leave my lessons being able to express yourself and not have to recite chunks of sentences from memory that you do not really understand. In this way, the language will become personal to you.

Secondly, we will speak. A lot. And you will make mistakes but this is ok and if you didn’t, you wouldn’t need me anyway! Whilst talking about topics personal to you, we will develop fluency and communication and any mistakes I hear, we can address later on in the lesson. Unless I cannot understand you, I will not interrupt you. I firmly believe that if you wait to speak until you know the language flawlessly, you’ll never speak.

Finally, we will find motivation for you to continue learning outside of school and our lessons. I have many resources that can be used independently and once I know your strengths, weaknesses and interests, I can point you in the right direction!

The key to learning a language is to understand that the process doesn’t stop. I am also still learning. To conference interpret I must have exceptional fluency, excellent pronunciation and extensive cultural knowledge, all of which needs constant refreshing. I would be delighted to share what I've learned, and how I keep it up to date, with you!