I am a DELTA qualified English as a foreign language teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer currently based in Brazil. I have taught English to adults and teenagers in Brazil, South Korea, Belgium and Costa Rica since 2007. I specialise in bespoke one-to-one lessons for business and exam students.
Along with Ilá Coimbra, I run the Raise Up! Project, arguing that ELT needs to stop excluding a wide range of social groups in coursebooks and materials. In this project, so far we have published two coursebooks and have more planned in the next few years.
In August 2018, I self-published my first ebook, entitled “How Was Your Weekend? 1001 Discussion Questions To Use With Your EFL/ESL Students” and my first coursebook series for FTD Education in Brazil, 'Our Languages', was published in 2021.
I am also a podcast consultant, including the ELTON nominated TEFL Commute podcast, IATEFL TDSIG’s Developod, and Seven Skills For The Future.
I am a former President and a co-founder of BELTA, the Belgian English Language Teachers Association, and I am Second-Vice President of BRAZ-TESOL and BRAZ-TESOL BrasĂlia, and a committee member of IATEFL TDSIG.
In 2010, I started my blog, theteacherjames.com, on which I have continued to share lesson materials and opinion pieces. I am a very active member of the ELT community and regular present at conferences, both online and offline.
Great post! It does mean a lot to me! I love starting my classes with a quote. It helps student think and express themselves better. These two are great, they remind me of how important it is to listen to our intuition. Thanks 4 sharin!
Thanks Simone. I think you're onto something there with intuition, we should trust our instincts, based on our knowledge and experience, and sometimes we give too much weight to the beliefs of external influences.
Then you will love the epigraph to Widdowson's “Explorations in Applied Linguistics”
We shall not cease from exploration
And at the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
T.S. Eliot Little Gidding
(remebered because I used it in epigraph to my thesis 🙂
You're right Elizabeth, I do love it! Never underestimate the power of the journey.