My Services

These are brief descriptions of the services I offer.  All my work is customised so please get in touch if you want to know about how I work with clients.

Teacher Development

Teacher development is at the centre of many of my projects, with delivery ranging from seminars to ten-day full-time courses. The use of the word ‘development’ and not ‘training’ is deliberate. The majority of teachers I work with are highly experienced primary and secondary English language teachers working in their home countries. Typically, my role is to help them sharpen their existing classroom tools and add some extra ones to support them in the creation of the best possible learning environment. All my teacher development work revolves around the principle that the teachers I work with know their context far better than I ever will and that a set of eyes and ears from outside can be an excellent way of ensuring the students get the best possible support from these teachers.

I also work extensively on train-the-trainer programmes, with teachers who are becoming supervisors or teacher trainers or inspectors needing support with the coaching element of their job.  These programmes are often structured around a master training course that will then be cascaded across the country, especially in fragile or hostile environments.

Materials Writing and Orientation

I have ELT materials writing expertise in two areas. I work with international publishers to help them to re-version existing course books for specific markets. I have wide experience of, and interest in, ELT in the Middle East and North Africa and much of my course book adaption work is for these markets. My second area of writing expertise is the production of material for teacher development programmes. I have written workshop and seminar content for delivery in a range of teaching contexts and settings.

The need to write for very specific, sometimes challenging, settings requires a degree of creativity and ingenuity and I work hand-in-hand with the client at all stages of the writing progress, from conception to delivery. This high level of ongoing consultation helps to ensure the final set of materials meets the needs of the client as accurately as possible.

Conference Speaking

I have been a regular speaker at many international and local ELT conferences. I have delivered keynotes and plenaries but have also tried to deliver at least one hands-on workshop with a small group of teachers at every conference, whenever I could.

I believe that teachers can benefit from conferences in two ways. Conferences can be an immense confidence and esteem-booster for teachers, a way to know that we are all part of the same community. Equally, conferences should also serve to equip teachers with ideas that they take to class, adapt and try out immediately. This combination of morale-raising and practical idea factory is what makes conferences worthwhile.

Amongst the conferences I have spoken at are:

Africa ELTA, 2021.

AISLi, 2021.

British Council, Algeria, 2015 and 2016.

British Council Going Global HE event, 2021.

British Council New Directions, 2021.

Cambridge University Press and Assessment Brighter Futures LIVE, 2022.

EAQUALS online, 2021 and  2022.

ELTAM Northern Macedonia, 2021.

English UK 2021, closing plenary.

IATEFL, UK (several).

Ibri College of Technology Oman, 2020.

ICEL, Ministry of Education Malaysia 2021, plenary.

InnovateELT Barcelona, 2019, 2020 (opening plenary) and 2021.

International House directors’ conference, 2021.

Jubail Industrial College annual conference Saudi Arabia, 2018.

KazTEA Kazakhstan, 2016.

KSAALT Saudi Arabia, 2013 and 2018.

Kuwait TESOL, 2021 and 2022 (2022, keynote).

MATE Morocco, 2017, (keynote).

META Moldova, 2019 and 2021.

Oxford University Press ELTOC, 2022.

PASE Poland, 2015.

Pavilion ELT Live, London, 2019.

Qatar University Foundation Programme, 2019.

TEDx Countdown, 2020.

Trinity College Future of ELT Conference, 2021.