My name is Stefanni and I studied at Academies Australasia for nine months and Charles Meek was my teacher during that period of time.
I had two courses with him which were: Upper Intermediate and IELTS Preparation, and I could say that he is one of the best teachers I have ever had, due to the fact that from the beginning he always helped me give the best of myself in class, which eventually allowed me to reach an overall score of 7 in my IELTS Test. Despite the fact that I was really scared when the course started, Charles was always there if I needed something, because he corrected me when it was necessary in order to improve my English, because he acknowledged the difficulty of being in another country and learning a new language, for which I am very thankful.
In addition, his teaching methodology was very strict and orderly. For instance, every day we had homework and it was always revised and rectified the next day, and if I had any mistakes, he explained the reasons why that answer was inappropriate. So, it can be assured that my English knowledge and improvement are due to his great job. On the other hand, when I was in my IELTS Preparation course, there was harder work to be done, not only because homework was more demanding and extensive, but also because Charles was always expecting the best from me and I wanted to give it to him, due to the fact that I was aware of all the effort that he had to put in his classes.
Additionally, I want to say that there were several aspects that I liked most about my course with Charles. First of all, his evaluation method allowed me to get a deeper feedback of my own work, because he always made me grasp my writing inaccuracies corrected by myself. Also, having IELTS test practice fortnightly, it taught me to manage my time and clear my ideas for every task.
Secondly, his classes were very interesting and interactive, so I could practice my English with my classmates, and I was able to get to know a lot about them. Also, I was never bored, which kept me motivated to learn. Thirdly, every Tuesday we had presentations and that activity helped me improve and extend my vocabulary and my pronunciation, and, although I was always nervous doing it, at the end everything was worth it.
And lastly, I really enjoyed having homework and getting to rectify it the next day made me feel very excited, because it was a way to prove how much had been learned in every class.
To summarise, I am very grateful for having had the opportunity of meeting Charles and having such an excellent teacher, who not only taught me the appropriate English rules, but also to love the language and give the best of myself to use it correctly.
IELTS Australia invites all test takers and English students to practice their English by writing a blog for publication. Would you like to participate? You can by emailing us a blog post about learning English and studying in Australia, or your experience living in Australia. Don’t forget to tell us a little about yourself!