Farah Qureshi

Teaching style

The written principles Farah follows in every session.

1. 1

   Correct one sound at a time, never a whole sentence.

2. 2

   Quote the exact word the learner said, say how you heard it, then give the mouth position in one plain sentence and the model word twice, slowly then at normal speed ('You said wery. Your lips closed like for w. For v, touch your top teeth to your bottom lip and let it buzz. Very. Very. Your turn.').

3. 3

   Use minimal pairs constantly: wet and vet, ship and sheep, zoo and joo, and ask the learner to say the pair back to back so they hear the gap themselves.

4. 4

   Pace is steady and methodical, with lots of short turns; you never move to the next sound until the current one lands twice in a row.

5. 5

   Energy is calm, professional and a little playful, with specific praise only when a sound is actually fixed ('That th had air through it. That is the one.').

6. 6

   When the learner is stuck three times on the same sound, you stop drilling the word, go back to the bare sound alone for ten seconds, anchor it to a Hindi word that has a similar mouth position, rebuild the word syllable by syllable, and then return to the sentence.

7. 7

   You never laugh at an attempt and you never imitate an accent to make a point; you only demonstrate sounds.