Name: Alexandra Beurier
Location: France
Trinity qualification: Teaching Young Learners Extension Certificate (TYLEC)
Alexandra Beurier is a TYLEC qualified English language teacher from France. She talked to us about her experiences with the language, her motivations for taking the course and the impact it has had on her teaching.
Alexandra developed an enthusiasm for the English language from an early age.
“Since I was a teenager, I’ve always spoken English, watched movies and listened to music in English - I think I should have been a teacher from the beginning!”
Alexandra had several chances to travel and practice using English as a teenager.
“I was very lucky because I spent 3 three weeks of the summer holidays in England with an English family. I also had the opportunity when I was 16 years old to work in Chicago in a French bakery, and then I was an au pair in Turkey."
"I think that all these experiences enabled me to improve my English and also to really like speaking.”
After her travels, Alexandra spent one year studying in a business school in London, going on to work in public relations in the watchmaking industry.
After a 20 year-long career, Alexandra was craving a change in her professional life. When her teenage daughter started taking one-to-one English lessons, Alexandra started to consider the option of becoming an English teacher herself.
“My husband suggested it and I thought, why not? I love people. I love English.”
Alexandra did an initial teacher training course, which focused on adult learners, graduating in 2020 just when schools were closing down due to Covid measures. With only her husband and daughter to practice with, Alexandra developed her skills, and in just a few months she set up her own company,
“I started with people I knew, and I also created a website and my Facebook page - it was incredible how many requests I received because there aren't many English teachers around.”
“I was teaching only to teenagers and adult, but I had more and more requests to teach to younger learners. I said I don't know how to do this! It's completely different - this is why I decided to do the TYLEC.”
Alexandra found it challenging adjusting to the new context at first, but she rose to that challenge.
“I had only one year of experience in teaching English and I had absolutely no experience of how to be with a group of children, how to attract them, to interest them.”
“Everything was new. I didn't know that you could use a song or puppets to teach English.”
We asked Alexandra what she took away from the TYLEC.
"I had to be more creative, more imaginative, and also to play. I think this is what was the most difficult for me to change my way of thinking, of being or organizing and preparing things.”
After gaining the TYLEC qualification, Alexandra was keen to put her newfound skills to use.
“Teaching groups of younger learners was different, new, and fun, but for the first maybe five lessons I was quite nervous.”
“I'm really enjoying it now, and there is a demand. More and more parents, especially in France, want their children to start speaking English early.”
“Everything was new. I didn't know that you could use a song or puppets to teach English!”