Train the trainer

 

In 2003 Longman approached me and asked me to write a methodology book for business English teachers - the result was How to Teach Business English, published in 2005, shortlisted for a Ben Warren Trust Prize, and which is used as a course book in train-the-trainer courses all over the world. More recently I co-authored New Ways in Teaching Business English (TESOL, 2014) (nominated for an ELTon award), How to Write Corporate Training Materials (ELT T2W, 2014), and The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners®: Academic and Specific Purposes (TESOL, 2020).

 


As a teacher trainer I have trained hundreds of teachers in Europe and Asia. Some of this training has been organised in-house for corporations, others for language schools chains, and some for universities. I have run many FTBE
preparation courses in different parts of the world, either online or face-to-face. I am currently a visiting professor at Hanshan Normal University in Chaozhou, and the School of Foreign Studies at Xi'an University, both in China. I have also taught on masters courses at the New School in New York and the University of Malta. You can see some examples of my training videos here.

Over the years I have also been active in various professional organisations. For example, I was Chair of the English Language Teachers Association Berlin-Brandenburg from 1999 - 2001, Coordinator of the IATEFL Business English Special Interest Group BESIG) from 2002 - 2005, Honorary Secretary of IATEFL from 2004 - 2006, and 
ESP in Occupational Settings Representative on the TESOL ESP Interest Section Steering Committee from 2012 - 2014.  In November 2017 I rejoined the IATEFL BESIG committee, and was elected as Joint Coordinator, a position I shared with Dana Poklepovic until the end of our term in 2020. In 2022 IATEFL asked me to become an IATEFL ambassador, a role which I proudly accepted. I am currently a member of ABC (Association for Business Communication) and IMLA-IMEC. I regularly speak at conferences and professional events in different parts of the world. 

My blog, English for the Workplace,
is aimed at teachers of business English and ESP. Although I haven't added many posts in recent years the blog still attracts visitors from all over the world.