Looking for an English tutor for our son, aged 4

[Abbey]

Hello,
we are looking for an English tutor to help our son with his English skills. He attends an "English" nursery but as the level of English at the nursery is rather poor we are looking for some additional help. He understands English at basic level and is able to hold a simple conversation in English. Our goal is to help him pass entrance exams to attend an English speaking school within a year.
We are looking for someone who ideally would be a native speaker but someone with proven excellent skills can be considered as well (just studying in English is unfortunately not enough unless the studying has been conducted in an English speaking school/ country). We are flexible with the hours and arrangements. We live in Espoo but could also drive him to tutoring sessions.

If you have any questions please send an e-mail!

[JobSeeker]

Hi,

Already PM you.


Waiting for Your Response.

Regards,

J.S.

[Rosamunda]

Our goal is to help him pass entrance exams to attend an English speaking school within a year.

Which English-speaking school holds an entrance exam for 5 year old kids?

I don't know of any in Finland.

[paulrenn]

Hi,

Already PM you.


Waiting for Your Response.

Regards,

J.S.

Blimey, not sure you could teach "proper" English, judging by your post here...

[Amandine.K]

Our goal is to help him pass entrance exams to attend an English speaking school within a year.

Which English-speaking school holds an entrance exam for 5 year old kids?

I don't know of any in Finland.

The English school does, so does the European school.

[Rosamunda]

...for 5 year olds???

I know nothing about the European school since it only just opened to the general public and I don't know anyone with kids there. But I'm surprised the English school tests the tiny tots: it targets mostly Finns being an immersion school rather than an international school. I knew a teacher there who told me that relatively few of the pre-schoolers were fluent in English. In fact she said that many of the smaller children couldn't understand simple commands like "where is the green paint?"

But in any case, to get into first grade you also need to pass the school readiness test, which is unlikely at 5 yrs of age.

[Amandine.K]

http://www.eschool.edu.hel.fi/2_primary ... ome_1.html

Tests are performed around April. It's been that way for years.

[Rosamunda]

http://www.eschool.edu.hel.fi/2_primary ... ome_1.html

Tests are performed around April. It's been that way for years.

OK, but presumably they don't expect fluency? I thought the whole idea of the English school was to put Finnish kids through immersion training so they become bilingual.... no?

They were one of the schools who refused my kids back in 2001 (the other was the lycée franco-finlandais) because they didn't speak Finnish

[Abbey]

http://www.eschool.edu.hel.fi/2_primary ... ome_1.html

Tests are performed around April. It's been that way for years.

OK, but presumably they don't expect fluency? I thought the whole idea of the English school was to put Finnish kids through immersion training so they become bilingual.... no?

They were one of the schools who refused my kids back in 2001 (the other was the lycée franco-finlandais) because they didn't speak Finnish

The European school expects fluency and is not an immersion or bilingual school in that sense, they test even 3 year olds for nursery. More so we expect to relocate to an English speaking country within a couple of years and therefore I wish our son would be rather fluent by that time. Unfortunately no luck in finding a tutor yet

[Abbey]

Thank you for your tips! A playmate from the English school sounds like a wonderful idea, I'll keep that one in mind.
However the school testing will require a bit more formal training than just playing around as 5-year olds are expected to know numbers, colors, shapes and some letters at entrance testing.

We are not a Finnish speaking nor mono-lingual family and therefore a tutor would be greatly appreciated as I do not want to speak English myself to the children.
A tutor might sound a bit ambitious but my experience has been that a lot of non-native speakers that have no formal teaching training actually teach English in Finland with very heavy accents combined with horrible grammar. It's much more difficult to "re-teach" or correct than to learn something properly the first time.
If we were not to relocate I wouldn't mind but as we do I want to prepare our son to my best knowledge to enter an English speaking school. I am confident in finding a good solution


Regina, I could not reply to you so please e-mail me at abbey.mews@yahoo.com!

[Rosamunda]

Just for info...

I don't know if you have ever been into a primary school in the UK but believe me, they are full of kids who don't speak fluent English! And I know Brits with Masters and even PhDs who speak with funny accents, can't spell or punctuate... Don't assume all native speakers are perfect tutors either. Just because a "tutor" says s/he is a native speaker does not mean he or she can teach your son the Queen's English.

When we moved to Hungary in 1999 our kids could not speak any English (they had some passive vocabulary but not much). We put them in the French lycee but then after one year switched them into the American International School Budapest (AISB). They struggled for several months but were speaking fairly fluently by the end of the school year.

So, I don't think you should worry too much about your child integrating into school in a foreign country. In fact some psychologists might even argue that "forcing" your son to learn English (when it is not a home language) could be damaging if he does not fully understand the reasons why. He might, for example, feel that you are rejecting him.

Maybe you should talk to a child psychologist and get a professional point of view.

[Abbey]

Interesting points and a few things to consider.

Of course accents are a part of the English language as they are for most languages. I just think it is easier to learn a relatively "accentless " language as a non-native speaker than learn to speak English with a very heavy Russian or French accent and intonation (just as examples). I have lived in Glasgow myself so I fully agree that accents can be quite daunting from native speakers themselves

I do not quite understand however why apparently some people find my search for a tutor as such an offensive task as Penelope here thinks I should search for professional help so I'm not forcing my son a language and he that would feel rejected for learning something? I do not quite get the point as my son was born in the US and have therefore always known a bit of English and my concern here has been the level of the language at his nursery as he has begun to mimic the Finnish kids in using the wrong tense, first syllable intonation and wrong word order (we do not speak Finnish at home).
I have never been looking for someone with the Queens English as someone obviously thought but I do still believe that either a native speaking adult or someone with teaching skills would benefit us the most.

Apparently not many here has gone through entrance testing for a primary school in the UK as a foreigner as they really do expect the child to know colors, shapes, numbers, letters etc. even for the 5-6 year olds. I also think it is much easier for a child to know the language from the start at his new school even though he would naturally learn it later on as well. But as it is something I can help him with already now I think it might be beneficial. The European School in Helsinki also expects fluency and does not accept children who only "knows a little English".

Maybe I have too high hopes and there simply are no English teachers or native speakers interested in teaching around but it was worth a try in any case Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and ideas!

[Rosamunda]

I do not quite understand however why apparently some people find my search for a tutor as such an offensive task as Penelope here thinks I should search for professional help so I'm not forcing my son a language and he that would feel rejected for learning something?

Sorry if I offended you; that was not my intention. However, I stand by what I said that putting pressure on a 4 year old to learn a language which is not used in the home is in many ways unnatural and it may have an impact on the child's psychological development. I am not qualified to comment but felt the point should be made. Tons and tons of research has been done on language acquisition and you can find interesting articles on the internet or join a group such as multilingual matters http://www.bilingualfamilynewsletter.com/ Marjukka Grover (the editor) is a Finn who moved to the UK over 20 years ago and raised her children bilingually. I used to subscribe to the newsletter (in the days before internet) and I found it very interesting (I knew no other bilingual families in the town where I was living at the time). No one has all the answers because each family is in a unique situation. But I certainly don't think that getting advice from a professional educational psychologist is a loony idea. We couldn't find the help we needed when living in France and I am pretty sure we made some major blunders muddling through as best we could. Fortunately the American school in Hungary had some very experienced members of staff who gave us a lot of support.

I mentioned the school readiness test on my second post in this thread. I don't think it would be required to enter the European School pre-school section but my understanding is that ESH is required to meet Finnish standards on the basic core curriculum so the test might be a requirement for Grade One.

Only private schools in the UK are allowed to select children for entrance. State schools operate on a "postcode" catchment area basis (or by lottery) and although they might test a 5 year old's fluency this is usually for educational purposes (getting them the right support). The private schools select children based on a multitude of criteria - including the academic backgrounds of the parents and which sailing club they belong to - but that's fair enough, it's the UK after all. A good international school (in the UK or elsewhere) would provide intensive EFL tutoring probably on a one-to-one basis. My kids had this in Budapest and also in ISH the first year we were in Finland.

FinnBrit http://www.finnbrit.fi used to run an English drama club for small children, you could call/email them and ask if they are doing anything for young children this year.

But (for what it's worth) I agree with Cory that interaction with English-speaking children his own age would be more stimulating than getting an adult in to tutor him. Or.... look for an English-speaking granny to sit and read him stories a couple of times a week. The BWA (British Women's Association in Helsinki - on Facebook) might be a good place to start.