Keith

School:

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School

A-Levels: Maths (A), French (A), Spanish (A), General Studies (A)

AS-Level: Russian (A)

University:

University of Oxford

BA French and Russian, 2:1

University of St Andrews

MLitt Russian Studies (Distinction)

PhD Russian Literature

Teaching and tutoring experience:

Current Employment
Sep 2019 to present: Akademeia High School, Warsaw Head of MFL Department and Teacher of French and Russian
• As well as fulfilling the role of Head of Department, I currently teach French A-Level following the AQA syllabus, and French IGCSE, Russian A-Level and Russian GCSE following the Edexcel syllabi.

Recent Employment History

• Sep 2018 to Aug 2019: Akademeia High School, Warsaw
Teacher of French and Russian
I taught French A-level and IGCSE following the Edexcel program, as well as offering Russian extra-curricular courses outside of normal school hours.

• August 2015 to June 2018: UWC Dilijan, Armenia
Teacher of French and Russian
I taught French Ab Initio language, Russian Ab Initio language and Russian Literature A as part of the IBDP program

• March 2017 to June 2018: UWC Dilijan, Armenia
Self-Taught Literature Coordinator
Acted as coordinator of the Self-Taught Literature Program, designing an ‘Introduction to Literary Analysis’ course, implementing structural changes and overseeing student development

• Sep 2015 to Aug 2017 : UWC Dilijan, Armenia
Teacher of Theory of Knowledge
Taught the fundamental skills and concepts required by the Theory of Knowledge course, with a specialization in History as an area of knowledge

• Feb 2011 to Jan 2014: University of St Andrews, Scotland

Tutor of Russian
Taught first year translation and literature, designed and ran extra grammar workshops to supplement the main curriculum and oversaw creation of a language-based internet program, which functioned as a self-assessment tool for prospective students

Teaching style and philosophy:

Whilst I do not subscribe to any single philosophy of language teaching, in my role as a teacher and head of department I have developed various principles on which I base my practice and which inform my course and lesson design. Fundamentally, the most important aspect of a lesson is student engagement, and to achieve this I look for logical development, variety of exercises employed and skills addressed, a good pace, and plenty of interaction between student and teacher. I aim to ensure that embedding through comprehensible input always precedes analytical study and acts as a gateway to reflection and grammatical practice. In planning longer units or schemes of work I endeavour to make as much room as possible for effective evidence-based strategies such as retrieval practice, interleaving and spacing. It is impossible, too, to overstate the importance of cultural discovery to give a practical context to language learning and I endeavour to incorporate this as much as possible. At the same time, what interests me most in learning languages is discovering the etymological links between words, and I endeavour to incorporate this into my lessons both as an aid to memorisation (concept-mapping) and to demonstrate how language functions as a mirror of human interaction and development.
With these principles in mind I can cite various courses and professional development workshops in which I have participated. In 2017-2018 I sponsored myself through an IPGCE qualification at the University of Sheffield, where I undertook research into different aspects of language learning, including vocabulary acquisition and increasing student independence in the learning of foreign languages. The culmination of this was a questionnaire that I designed regarding students’ vocabulary learning techniques, which I now employ as a metacognitive tool. I feel it worthy to mention, too, a course I undertook in 2018 on the ‘Neuro-Linguistic Approach to Language Teaching’ under the aegis of the ‘Centre International de Formation et de Recherche en Approche Neurolingistique et en Neuroéducation’ that dramatically changed my approach to L2 education, and that remains a cornerstone of my pedagogical practice. With the aim of making my lessons more fun and interactive I participated in a workshop on gamification in June 2023 with the Institut Français in Warsaw.

Additional information:

I will be moving to London from September 2025 to undertake a PGCE at King's College London, based in Southwark. I can tutor in London or on online.