I am an award-winning ELT Teacher, materials writer, teacher trainer and conference speaker based in Brasília, Brazil. In 2021, my coursebook series Our Languages, published by FTD Educaçao, was awarded an ELTon Award for Excellence In Course Innovation.
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 three coursebooks and have more planned in the next few years.
I am also a podcast consultant, including the ELTON nominated TEFL Commute podcast, IATEFL TDSIG’s Developod, and Seven Skills For The Future, and in August 2018, I self-published my first ebook, entitled “How Was Your Weekend? 1001 Discussion Questions To Use With Your EFL/ESL Students”.
I am the joint coordinator of IATEFL TDSIG, the leader of BRAZ-TESOL Materials Writing SIG, and a former President and a co-founder of BELTA, the Belgian English Language Teachers Association
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.