English as a Second Language

English isn’t just the most-studied language in the world, it’s also one of the most difficult to learn. From its confusing idiom to its sometimes bizarre pronunciation (there are no less than eight different ways to pronounce “-ough”), learning English as a second language is as challenging as it is essential.  

That’s where Cambridge Coaching comes in.  Our trained ESL instructors love working with students who are beginners in the language, as well as those who are further along. We draw our ESL tutors from Harvard’s School of Education, NYU’s language programs, as well as the Columbia Teacher’s College. Most of our tutors speak multiple languages, so they know what’s like to learn a new language, and they are realistic (yet optimistic!) about helping you meet your English speaking goals.

We offer ESL tutoring at all levels, from beginners who need grounding in grammar, to professionals who are looking to improve their spoken and business English.  Working with our tutors is far more efficient than attending a class, because our tutors will work with you to craft a unique curriculum that focuses on the things that you want to learn.  Our goal is to give you the skill and confidence you need, whether it’s for work, school, or travel.

Select the focus that is right for you to learn more about how we can help you improve your English.

Academic   Business    Enrichment    Test Preparation   Cultural Exploration

Suggested Approaches

We have 5 approaches to teaching ESL, and they encompass all linguistic goals from grammar heavy test preparation and translation to conversational enrichment and business packages. While each of the methods below can be effective, your specific goals will impact which method we select for your tutoring.  

Resources

Because we are not invested in selling proprietary materials, we’re able to pick and choose the best textbooks. Here are some of our favorites:

Daily Immersion: Newspapers & Music

In addition to what you study during your tutoring session, one of the most fun aspects of learning a new language is exploring the culture that it comes from! Podcasts are a great way to supplement your language classes. Immerse yourself as you stroll through Harvard Square, or as you walk down Lexington Avenue.

  • BBC Podcasts 
  • NPR Podcasts 
  • English Class 101 
  • All Ears Podcast 

Local & regional newspapers are a great way to follow current events in your new language, while advancing your reading comprehension. We’ve listed out some of our favorite news sources below, but since you’re in the States, just read whatever you can get your hands on!

  • New York Times 
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Wall Street Journal 
  • Huffington Post
  • The Guardian 

There are also tons of newspapers published in the United States that cater to bilingual populations. Find these daily publications  around NYC or Boston to get local news in your target language.

Tip: Highlight or make a list of the words you do not recognize as you read. Don’t stop to look them up immediately. Finish the article and see how much you can understand without the dictionary. Then, look up the words, and re-read. This process may seem repetitive, but it asks your brain to work a bit more actively, and will yield results!

Don’t miss out on English music! Some musicians are particularly easy to listen to in their native tongue. Listening to music will get you comfortable hearing your target language and help your comprehension. While you’re at it, you’ll expand your knowledge of colloquial vernacular and regional slang.

  • Chuck Berry
  • Maroon 5
  • Taylor Swift
  • The Lumineers
  • Edward Sharpe
  • Van Morrison
  • Vampire Weekend
  • Or, just turn on the radio!
Contact Us

English as a Second Language Tutors

Jeb

Jeb grew up on a beautiful, bucolic island near Seattle. Long commutes into the city to attend school gave him ample time to read and write, and he became a lover of books and developed an interest in English grammar and language at an early age. He received his B.A. in international relations...

Emily Mc.

Emily was born in Louisiana, and raised in Mississippi and Pennsylvania. She attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where she triple-majored in philosophy, psychology, and linguistics, and double-minored in English and French. In her senior year, Emily served as president of her college's...

Clayton

Having grown up in Houston and Ankara, Turkey, Clayton returned stateside to study English and religion at Dartmouth. He also tutored other college students as a Writing Assistant at the Dartmouth Composition Center. After college, he moved to Beijing, China, where, in addition to teaching high...

Christine

Christine was born and raised in central Jersey, with plenty of fruit trees and lots of open fields to dream in. At Rutgers University, she double-majored in Physics and Cell Biology & Neuroscience and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. Her propensity for deep reflection,...

Matt

Matt was born in Boston and grew up in the nearby suburbs. Matt loved the Boston area so much he decided to stay in the area for college and attend Harvard. He's been on an artistic path since he was young, and he continued to develop his creative abilities at Harvard, balancing
pursuits...

Eric I.

Eric grew up in Wisconsin, and double majored in history and English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where occasional rumors that the school had a football team (“Badgers?”) reached him while he was getting hooked on the writing of Joyce, Faulkner, Eliot and Woolf. He...

Sam R.

Sam grew up in central Connecticut and attended Columbia University, where he majored in sociology. During his time at Columbia, he took a wide range of courses, with a special focus in urban sociology, creative writing, and music theory.

Since graduating, Sam has spent time both in the...

Zuzanna

Born in Poland and having attended high school and college in the United States, Zuzanna has spent most of her life with a foot in each country. She graduated from Columbia University in 2013 with degrees in statistics and linguistics; she is now a 5th year PhD student in linguistics at Harvard...

Kyle

Kyle is female, despite her name. She grew up in Virginia, near Washington, DC, and has wanted to teach as long as she has been a student. When she was in high school, she began teaching about birds and trees and bees at the Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies, a summer camp in West Virginia....

Erica F

Born and raised in Washington, DC, Erica also lived in Brussels, Paris, and Massachusetts before coming to New York in 2005. Salutatorian of her high school class, she graduated a year early from Smith College, with high honors and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. During her time at Smith, Erica...

Emily G

Emily was born and raised in Indianola, Iowa, home of the National Balloon Classic. After graduating first in her high school class, she attended the University of Iowa as a National Merit Scholar and recipient of the full-ride Presidential Scholarship. While at U of I, Emily majored in...

Rebeca

Rebeca grew up in a fully bilingual household (Spanish/English) in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. She moved to the United States to attend Haverford College, majoring in Comparative Literature. Her junior year was spent studying at Oxford University, where she fell in love with the tutorial system, thus...

Eric L

Eric's first book, La Far, won the Iowa Poetry Prize and will be published by the University of Iowa Press in the spring. The book collects poems Eric wrote at Harvard (BA), the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (MFA), and Teachers College (MA in Elementary Inclusive Education expected 2014). Eight years...

Aleks

Aleks was born in Poland and grew up all over the Midwest –Chicago, Detroit, and southern Wisconsin. She went on to be a proud Badger at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she continued playing club volleyball and writing. She majored in biology and did research in laryngology. She was...

Erica Z

Born, bred, and educated in New Jersey, Erica graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 2012. A Comparative Literature major and true language nerd, during her time at Princeton, she studied seven different languages, including Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic). She...

David L

David grew up in the part of Houston near the NASA Space Center and, in this environment filled with engineers from all over the world, developed an appreciation for different languages and cultures, as well as an appreciation for science and the spirit of exploration, discovery, and new...

Danielle

After growing up on a farm in Iowa, Danielle moved to Massachusetts, where she studied English with a citation (minor) in Spanish at Harvard University. At Harvard, Danielle was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and graduated summa cum laude a year later. She spent most of her free time in...

Charlotte

Charlotte was born in Utah, grew up in England, and has lived in Mexico, Peru, and Chile. She holds a B.A. with first class honors and distinction in English and Spanish from Oxford University, an M.A. in Hispanic Studies from Brown, and a postgraduate certificate in translation from the...

Ryan

Ryan P. was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and so remains—in accordance with the unwritten law of that city—a bantam of a Pittsburgh sports fan, even as he’s lived and worked in other places. In 2013, he graduated with a B.A., magna cum laude, in English Language and Literature from Yale...

Brent

In 2008, Brent graduated from NYU, double-majoring in Literature and Music. He made the Dean’s List and was awarded the Dean’s Grant for Creative Writing. After graduating, and living briefly in France, he became an English and History tutor, helping students improve their grades and craft...

Spenser

Spenser grew up in the suburbs of LA. He attended Purdue University and graduated in 3 years with a degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering with distinction for having a 3.86/4.0 GPA. In his undergraduate career, he had two summer internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory....

Jedd

Jedd grew up in the college town of Ann Arbor, MI, making theater with his grade school classmates and swimming in the great lakes. He earned his BA in philosophy and education at Swarthmore College, where he was a Lang Scholar for civic engagement. He then went on to his Masters of Education at...

Tarek

    Tarek is originally from Beirut, Lebanon and spent most of his formative years in his hometown. He completed his degree in Political Studies, with an emphasis on International Relations and a minor in History, before moving to Sabancı University (Istanbul) for his Masters degree in Ottoman...

Nora I.

Nora Isacoff, PhD, is a professor in the Psychology departments at both Columbia University and New York University, and a former National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow. She has many years of experience working directly with students of all ages, from elementary school through adults. Her...

Naamah

Naamah clearly remembers her first tutoring gig - which involved teaching her younger brother to read the words of a Dr. Seuss book. Naamah grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City. She started off at the Heschel School, a Jewish private school, and then went on to Stuyvesant High School...

Alison

Alison grew up in Concord, MA, known for its literary and revolutionary history (Henry David Thoreau inspired the name of her first dog Walden). Alison has always loved reading and writing; at Brown University, she studied Comparative Literature and Italian Studies. While studying abroad for a...

Hannah Y.

Hannah is a recent graduate of the Wharton School, where she completed an MBA and an MA in International Studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. As a student at Wharton, Hannah spent her extracurricular time as an admissions reader for the MBA program and was able...

Andrew Sh.

Andrew loves traveling, teaching, and learning. He has visited 16 countries to date, which includes semesters abroad in Germany, Australia, and Scotland. He graduated summa cum laude from Clark University, with a BA in psychology and accelerated MS in professional communication. After a...

Colin

Born and raised in South Texas, Colin was set free to explore the garden that is New Jersey at 18. He wound up at Princeton University, where he graduated with honors in shapes, colors and feelings (Anthropology) and learned a lot of languages (French, Greek, Arabic, and Chinese), many of which...

Johnathan A.

A graduate of Amherst College, Johnathan has worked as a private tutor, classroom teacher, editor, and writer since his junior year of high school. He has worked with students of vastly different ages in several schools around New York City, a university in China, two public schools in Taiwan,...

Alex K.

Alex was born and raised in a small rural town in northwestern Connecticut, where he developed a deep appreciation for math and science, eventually acing his SAT subject test in math. An aspiring math major at Columbia, he took a linguistics class on the recommendation of a friend, and ended up...

Karen B.

Born and raised in England, Karen went globe-trotting in her late teens through her early twenties, working at a variety of jobs (chambermaid, waitress, camp site assistant, flight attendant, van driver) in settings as far afield as Wales, Italy, Israel, Spain, Greece, and the United States. ...

Max P.

Max is originally from Steamboat Springs, CO where he grew up skiing, hiking, biking, and climbing in the Rocky Mountains. He graduated Valedictorian of his high school class, and moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he majored in Philosophy. After graduating, he spent...

Alexander C.

Alex attended Colby College, where he studied Chinese, graduating with distinction in the major. He then spent five years studying and working in China, first as an English-Chinese interpreter for the president of a major multinational corporation, and then for the cast and crew of a 52-episode...

Emily E.

A Midwest transplant, before coming to Cambridge, Emily attended Carleton College where she spent many hours exploring the college’s arboretum and majored in French and Francophone Studies. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and with distinction in her major and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Having...

Tess

Tess grew up “near Philly”—also known as the New Jersey suburbs. Prior to her Fulbright scholarship, she graduated summa cum laude and in the top 1% of her class year (Matthew Leydt Society) from Rutgers University’s Honors Program, majoring in political science and literature. During her junior...

Carrie

After a rather nomadic childhood spent in 3 different countries and a handful of different cities, Carrie moved to the East Coast for the first time in 2013 to attend Harvard University. She graduated magna cum laude, majoring in molecular and cellular biology and minoring in social anthropology...

Erin B.

Erin Bartnett received her Masters in Modern & Contemporary Literature from the University of Virginia, and her Bachelors in English Literature with a concentration in Women's Literature from Rutgers University, summa cum laude.  She has taught and supported writing programs for students...

Nate

As a student at Yale, Nate spent a disproportionate amount of time playing with dogs. Well, technically it was his job. Nate studied Cognitive Science as an undergrad, focusing on how non-human animals process information without grammatical language. One summer, Nate took a break from dogs,...

Nell

Nell is a born and bred New Yorker who spent her formative years in Prospect Park. She attended Wesleyan University where she double-majored in Art History and English (Creative Writing). While at Wesleyan, Nell was a member of the Women’s Varsity Squash Team, elected Captain her Senior year,...

Julia S.

Julia grew up in Northern Virginia, and attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD (the ‘great books’ school), where she fell in love with classical languages. After spending a year baking bread in Antarctica, she went back to school for historical linguistics, and is now pursuing a PhD in the...

Catherine J.

Catherine grew up in the greater Boston area but her passion for challenges and the international community led her to Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany for her Bachelor’s. In the very first semester of her three years in Bremen, Catherine plunged headfirst into the world of research....

Emmy

Emmy did not learn how to read until third grade, many long months after her twin sister; and she has been making up for lost time ever since. An avid reader and book-worm (more like the Hungry Caterpillar of books), Emmy studied literature and the visual arts at Yale College, where she...

Alyssa

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Alyssa is happy to once again call Brooklyn home.  Alyssa attended Saint Ann’s in Brooklyn Heights and then Williams College, where she majored in English and wrote a collection of short stories for her Honors Thesis, one of which won the Wainwright Award for best...

Milena

Milena grew up in Vienna, Austria, which may lead you to believe that she loves classical music and winter sports. Though this is true, it was her weak spot for grammar and languages that brought her to the US and convinced her to pursue a PhD at MIT’s renowned Linguistics Department, famously...

Audrey P

Audrey was raised in Arlington, VA and graduated from Northeastern University with a major in international affairs and a minor in Arabic. During her time at Northeastern, she studied Arabic in Jordan and conflict resolution in the Balkans. She also spent six months working with a freelance...

Songhoon

Samuel is a JD candidate at Harvard Law School. He received his BA in East Asian Studies magna cum laude from New York University.

Samuel has over 10 years of experience tutoring and teaching. He taught the SAT, LSAT, GRE, GMAT and GRE at Pagoda Academy, one of the largest test-prep...

Benjamin

Benjamin graduated summa cum laude with a 3.95 GPA from NYU, where his senior thesis earned him the Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Academic Achievement Award. Benjamin was also student editor of Mercer Street, a collection of NYU’s best undergraduate writing, and a writing tutor at NYU...

Olivia

Olivia graduated from Princeton University with a BA in chemistry and a minor in Mandarin (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and she earned first prize in a nationwide Mandarin speech and talent competition with an oration about her villainous washing machine. She went on to earn a...

Amelia

Born and raised in Hawaii, Amelia was excited to experience the snowy winters of rural Vermont when she started her undergrad degree at Middlebury College. Along with gradually figuring out how to layer, she fell in love with the Italian language. After spending a year abroad at the Università...

Allison H.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Allison spent her primary and secondary education studying Japanese until her Japanese teacher, who happened to be enrolled in Arabic classes, inspired her to do the same! She graduated from Williams College cum laude with a BA in Arabic Studies, was awarded a...

QueYun X.

Chewy got her nickname, a harbinger of her future career path, in the sixth grade when a classmate noticed how similar it sounded to her Chinese name (QueYun). Chewy attended Washington University in St. Louis, where she double majored in chemistry and Spanish and was a repeated Dean’s Lister....

Jingyu L.

Jingyu completed her undergraduate work in mainland China in Chinese language and literature. She holds an MA from Harvard University in Regional Studies of East Asia and an MPhil from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Chinese Studies. She is currently a PhD candidate at Harvard University...

Erin K.

Originally from the Washington DC area, Erin has lived in four states and three countries! Erin attended the University of Michigan, where she majored in Environmental Studies. In 2014, Erin was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach English in Rwanda, and had the pleasure of teaching English...

Kristen B.

Kristen is originally from the Virginia side of the D.C. metro area.  She received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry, with a focus in biochemistry, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she spent much of her time feeding cells while working in a biochemistry laboratory. ...

Quinn C.

When John Mellencamp sang that he was from a small town, Quinn understands: he hails from that very small town. Born and raised in Indiana by a family of elementary and high school educators, Quinn studied Philosophy and International Affairs at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN. He promptly...

Laura D.

Originally from New Jersey, Laura moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University where she studied Public Health and International Development. Upon graduating, Laura joined Teach for America (TFA) and moved to Oahu.  During her two year commitment with TFA, Laura taught 7th grade Special...

Priyanka N.

Priyanka grew up in Plymouth, Minnesota and spent a majority of her time in high school honing her classical Indian dance and debate skills (though never at the same time).  She competed extensively and achieved success on a national level. After graduating from high school, she moved to...

Vidya R.

Vidya grew up bouncing between India and the US, and has seen her fair share of small towns and sprawling cities.  After graduating from the University of Bombay in India, she went on to receive her MA and MPhil from Columbia in English Literature.  After graduating with two degrees, she decided...

Samuel D.

Samuel began his college career when most people finish theirs, at 22, when he started taking classes at Shasta College before his evening shifts as a line cook and kitchen manager in the small city of Redding, California. He enjoyed his English class so much that first semester that one day he...

Luke K.

Luke hails from sunny, beachside South Florida, where he spent his days avoiding the beach and sun in favor of studying or performing in a theater. Luke fled Florida to attend Dartmouth College, where he graduated as a cum laude Fulbright finalist with a history and Italian with Honors modified...

Lauren D.

Lauren is a published poet and English tutor. In 2019, she graduated with distinction from the University of Oxford with a Master’s in Creative Writing, during which time she won the Grindstone International Poetry Prize and the Helen Zell and Jamaica Poet Laureate’s Young Writer’s Prize for...

Lucina S.

In third grade, Lucina taught long division crouched on the tiles of her school’s hallway; as her peers gained confidence, she sent them to teach others. She has seen teaching and learning as inextricable ever since, which is why she coaches students to become their own best teachers.

As...

Julia Cr.

As a child, Julia lived in various countries, which led her to become fascinated in other cultures and languages. Since then, Julia has traveled all over the world and has attended school in over six countries. Her deepest interest is in Asia. As an undergraduate, Julia graduated from the...

Mariam R.

Mariam is a writer, translator, and academic. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Princeton, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; an MSt in Islamic Art and Archaeology from Oxford, graduating with distinction; a PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA; and an MFA in Fiction...

David Br.

David grew up in Acton, MA, former home to Steve Carell and Big Bird (really—look it up!), where he also teaches. He’s a passionate parent, runner, musician, learner, reader, and writer. David has been a freelance writer for 15 years, interviewing people like Sia, Elvis Costello, and “Weird Al”...

Md K.

When Md was 12 years old, he and his family moved from Bangladesh and settled in New York City. Md later attended the City College of New York and graduated magna cum laude in biochemistry. In college, Md was the President of the Baskerville Chemical Society and enjoyed volunteering in...

Anthony N.

An amateur of calligraphy, Anthony has always found beauty in words. Anthony attended the University of Chicago on an Odyssey Scholarship and graduated with a BA in English Literature. Aside from focusing on 18th century English Romanticism, Anthony studied in Bologna, Italy where he taught...

Tess H.

Tess grew up on the coast of Maine and spent her childhood summers devouring as many garage sale paperbacks as she could find. These stories stoked a curiosity about the world and love of language that has stayed with Tess her whole life. In 2019, she graduated magna cum laude from...

Cassandra M.

Born and raised in South Florida, Cassie moved to Massachusetts to attend Williams College, where she braved the cold weather and received her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Art History and Spanish Literature. While at Williams, Cassie studied abroad through Colby College at the University of...

Emily Ka.

Born and raised in sunny Los Angeles, Emily has spent most of her academic career on the East Coast, earning her B.A. in Slavic Studies from Columbia University in 2013 and her M.A. in Russian Literature from Harvard University in 2019. Emily has received numerous awards for her academic work,...

Rosa S.

Rosa is a Native New Yorker, and unfortunately, a Mets fan. She was bitten by the theater bug early, and she has participated as an actor, director, playwright, and dramaturge.  She attended Reed College where she majored in English and made Dean’s list every semester. She received her Ph.D. in...

Jordan P.

Jordan grew up on the Southern California coast, where she spent most of her time on the beach with a book in her hands. She moved across the country to pursue her B.A. in English at Boston University. After graduating summa cum laude and receiving BU’s College Prize for Excellence in English,...

Elisabeth S.

Liz loves to travel and has lived on four continents and visited 43 countries. Liz received her B.A from the George Washington University in International Affairs with a minor in History, earned her M.Ed from Dominican University while serving as a Teach for America Corps member, and in high...

Emma L.

Emma has been in a classroom her whole life; when she was an infant, her father used to prop her carseat on his desk while he taught, and she fell asleep at night to early drafts of his dissertation.  She graduated from Brown University with a BA in Sociology.  She earned her MFA in fiction from...

Max No.

Max was born and raised in Northern California, near the redwood groves that perch on the Pacific Coast. He then moved east to attend Yale College, where he received his BA in Literature. At Yale, Max won the Calabresi Prize for best senior thesis in comparative literature. He continued with a...

Bryce

Before Bryce wanted to be a doctor, he was settled on becoming a bird. Yes, you read that correctly – at 4 years old he thought he could actually become an entirely different organism. Since a drastic change in ambition redirected his focus, Bryce attended Duke University and graduated summa...