Best Methods in Teaching Speaking Skills

Christina Andrade is a California-born educator who has taught English as a second language around the world. She is a passionate action researcher dedicated to the constant learning that comes from the teaching process. Andrade graduated with highest honors from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2003. Following the completion of her bachelor's in communication, she earned her CELTA teaching certificate from Cambridge and taught in Australia. After years of living and teaching abroad, from Micronesia to Australia, she moved to San Diego to continue her education earning a Master of Education in TESOL, Culture and Literacy from the University of San Diego, where she received the School of Leadership and Education Award of Distinction. Andrade loves to share her passion of teaching as a teacher-trainer in the UC San Diego Extension TEFL program and the TESOL program at the University of San Diego. Andrade created the curriculum for the University of San Diego’s TEFL Certificate program and also instructs full-time at UC San Diego’s English Language Institute.

After completing her studies in England, Nicola Teague spent four years teaching ESL in Switzerland. She has since taught ESL in San Diego for over twenty years, specializing in designing and delivering interactive communication classes. Teague joined the American Language Institute at SDSU where she taught in both the academic and communicative programs. She taught a range of levels from beginner to advanced in reading, writing, listening, speaking, presentation skills and TOEFL. Not only did she teach in the two primary programs but also in short term programs that included business and teacher training programs.

In 1991 Teague moved to the English Language Program at UC San Diego, where she started in the 10-week program, again teaching a range of skills and levels. She also worked in the short term customized programs which included Korean and Brazilian teacher training. For the last eight years she has taught in the TEFL program instructing core classes of reading, writing, listening and speaking. In addition, she instructs a teacher-trainer workshop that teaches students how to teach the TOEFL. Teague is also a private tutor both in San Diego and to online students in Taiwan, Korea and Japan.