Ian Byrka

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Tutoring Locations

British Columbia:

Kelowna

Lesson Types and Tutoring Fees
Prices depend on lesson requirements and distance traveled

Type	Fee
Individual	$30 - $45
Group	$40 - $55
Online	$25 - $40
E-mail	$20 - $35

Lesson Languages
English

Tutoring Services and Experience
My name is Ian Byrka. I come from Kelowna, B.C. I graduated from the University of British Columbia Okanagan with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. After graduating university I moved to Tainan City, Taiwan teach English and live in a new and interesting part of the world. I taught elementary and junior high students at an English cram school for almost 10 years. During that time I also taught part-time at a vocational high school and tutored numerous students of all ages. While teaching, I decided to further my education and gain more expertise on language and language learning, so I enrolled in a graduate program at one of the major universities in Taiwan. In 2010 I graduated from National Cheng Kung University with a Master's Degree in Linguistics. Through the course of my studies I learned about numerous aspects of language, such as syntax and semantics, but the focus of my thesis was on teaching English for specific purposes. Upon graduation, I was offered a job at a prestigious private school called Bao-Ren Catholic Elementary School. While there I worked in the bilingual department and was responsible for teaching students ranging from grades one to six a variety of subjects, including phonics, reading, writing, and science. I stayed there for five years, but then moved on to work as an instructor at two different universities. At Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science I was responsible for teaching students required English courses that focused on career development. At Tainan University of Technology I was responsible for teaching English department students courses focusing on business and travel, as well as assisting students with extra help in the tutoring center of the university.
Overall, I have approximately fifteen years of experience teaching and tutoring students of all ages in ESL. This wide-range of experience allows me to tailor lesson plans to meet the needs of any student that is looking for assistance. I also have experience helping students prepare for required English examinations, such as TOEFL and IELTS. On top of that, I have extensive experience proofreading and editing academic papers in a variety of fields, including linguistics and engineering. If you are in need of help in improving your general English skills such as reading, speaking, listening or writing, or are looking for assistance in improving more specific field-related English, I can accommodate these needs.
The teaching and tutoring environment that I try to create is one of encouragement. I believe in the affective teaching approach. Affective teaching is concerned with the beliefs, feelings and attitudes of students. I believe that students should feel comfortable and safe in their learning environment and that academic teaching should go hand in hand with personal and social education. For a student to perform well, he has to have a sound mind and sound environment. This is especially true with language learning. For many students the fear or embarrassment of making mistakes often causes them to be shy or avoid taking risks when learning a new language. By providing positive feedback and a relaxed atmosphere, I hope to create an environment in which students are excited to try new things and inevitably make mistakes and learn from them.


Subjects

Elementary school:	ESL
Middle school:	ESL
High school:	ESL
College and University:	English, Literacy / Essay
Test Preparation:	IELTS, TOEFL

Tags
ESL, Kelowna, edit, editing, proofreading, lesson, proofread, English,