When someone teaches a subject does he or she teach for, at or to a level?

Factual Questions
1

Hi

When someone teaches a subject does he or she teach for, at or to a level? I have seen sentence constructions using all of these prepositions to state the same thing.

“I teach Spanish for all levels”
“I teach Spanish to all levels”
“I teach Spanish for all levels”

Which preposition is correct in the above context? If they are all correct, which preposition would you use in which circumstance?
I look forward to your feedback.

2

Sorry, the last example should read “I teach Spanish at all levels”. So once again:
“I teach Spanish for all levels”
“I teach Spanish to all levels”
“I teach Spanish at all levels”
Which of these sentences is correct?

3

How about “I teach Spanish of all levels.” ?

4

“I teach all levels of Spanish.”

5

“I teach Spanish at all levels” sounds best to me.

6

“I teach Spanish for all levels”
“I teach Spanish to all levels”
“I teach Spanish at all levels”
Which of these sentences is correct?

All of them are correct. English gives you a lot of leeway with prepositions.

7

Do you mean that you teach Spanish from level 1 all the way to mastery? Or do you mean that you are willing to teach Spanish to fast-learners and mouth breathers alike? Or is this referring to the students’ ages?

“I teach Spanish because English is too confusing.”

8

Thanks Ornery Bob. Thank you all.

9

Why do you ask?

I’m hardly a grammarian but…I would put it down to context

“I teach Spanish for all levels of expertise”
“I teach Spanish to all levels at XYZ highschool”
“I teach Spanish at all levels” - I would use this if I were a tutor or similar offering Spanish tuition

10

Thanks bengangmo. I haven’t seen the ads phrased that way…" I teach Spanish for all levels at … highschool"/“I teach Spanish for all levels of expertise”. I’m not so sure people reading these various versions will necessarily read them that way. Or would they?

11

The subtlety of the language nuances. This is my impression, as a native speaker:

“…for all levels”
-kind of implies offering multiple courses, currently, and there’s a course for any level. Or, that’s your level of expertise, and you have been doing this now or in a recent time. Or worded in response to a question about expertise.

“…to all levels”
Nuance is that you are currently engaged (or perhaps offering to be engaged “I can teach to all levels”) to teach multiple levels, as a statement also indicating expertise.
“to” in English can also imply “up to, but no higher than…” in this context.
“I teach Spanish to grade 5” - that’s the course I teach, “to” those students.
“I teach Spanish to a middle school level.” - implies “up to”, I’m not qualified to teach high school or college levels.

See, the word “level” implies an emphasis on qualification level over actual teaching.

“at” -could imply you are currently teaching, but is more a statement of your expertise level.

Again, all sentences are grammatically correct, none are really awkward phrasing, and precise meaning would be deduced from context.

12

I also prefer “at”, but I would likely say, “I teach all levels of [math]”.

13

at

14

IANA grammarian. But I have been mangling the Mother Tongue for 50+ years so I think I’ve got some minimal clues about it.

To me the preposition choice alters the sentence emphasis. It’s not as much a matter of strict correctness versus which preposition carries the emphasis the author wants.

“I teach Spanish for all levels” is an offer. The important part is the sense that the speaker is (relatively) passively holding this offer to teach out there and the would-be student is the active actor choosing to take instruction.

“I teach Spanish to all levels” is a projection. The important part is the sense that the speaker is actively pushing their teaching out to the (relatively) passive students.

“I teach Spanish at all levels” is a middle ground between the above. At that point the emphasis shifts to the “all levels” part since it’s not obviously anywhere else.
As a separate matter there’s ambiguity in the term “levels”. I originally interpreted it as meaning grade levels; IOW the age of the students. It makes more sense, as folks up-thread have suggested, to take it as meaning gradations of proficiency, ranging from rank beginner to near-native mastery. Obviously there’s some overlap between the age range of school kids and their possible levels of language mastery.

15

I appreciate what md2000 and LSLguy have said.

Here’s my actual situation (followed by how I would use the OP’s examples.)

I’m a retired chess teacher.
My students have ranged from complete beginners to Junior World Champions.
I have taught chess full-time (at a Private School.)

I teach chess for all levels: if I wanted new students (of any ability), I would use this in the ad.

I teach chess to all levels: this statement applied only when I was teaching a wide range of students.

I teach chess at all levels: in conversation, it means I have the expertise to teach at any level.

It;s a fine line between the three!

16

Thanks glee for that very practical summary. Thank you all.