Pablo Acosta-García
Dr. Pablo Acosta-García is a teacher of Spanish at UAB Idiomes Barcelona, a professor of Literature at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, a member of the advisory board of the Bibliotheca Mystica et Philosophica Alois M. Haas’ (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and of the research group ‘La conformación de la autoridad femenina en Castilla’. He holds a PhD in Late Medieval Literature, he has studied mystic women from a interdisciplinary point of view. In his PhD thesis he analyzes the visuality of Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls.
Pam Borg
Pam Borg is a Freelance Academic Consultant, Teacher Trainer and Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Trainer, and has spoken at International EFL Conferences.She is an experienced TEFL Teacher. She has worked as an English Language Course Director and Online Lecturer for ISEG and UNIDAF in Senegal, West Africa; as well as having taught in mainstream education in the UK. Currently working with ACE English Malta on Teacher Training, IWB Training and the school’s Academic Digital Teaching Resource Programme. She has a particular interest in visual learning techniques and the use of modern technology in the EFL classroom.
Paola Giorgis
Paola Giorgis teaches English Language, Literature and Visual Arts in Italian high schools and holds a PhD in Anthropology of Education and Intercultural Education. Her main interest regards a critical, intercultural and interdisciplinary approach to foreign languages, Foreign Language Education and Visuals Arts able to develop an awareness on languages and images in the direction of transformation and change. She has published two monographs, several articles, chapters in collective works, and has participated to many international conferences. She is co-founder and member of the collective wom.an.ed – women’s studies in anthropology and education (www.womaned.org), and is affiliated to several international associations of Linguistics and Intercultural Studies. More info can be found at:
https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/?s=giorgis
https://researching-multilingually-at-borders.com/?page_id=1818
Patricia Black
Paul Braddock
Paul Braddock has worked in several countries, including Japan, Hungary, Portugal and the UK. He is currently the manager of the British Council’s TeachingEnglish website, which attracts more than one million users per month from all over the world. He currently lives in Barcelona and has worked in English Language Teaching for over 18 years.
Paul Driver
Paul Driver is a language teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and learning technologist at British Study Centres, Oxford. He has an MA in Creative Media Practice in TESOL and over twenty years of international teaching experience. His research interests span across many fields, exploring the roles of technology, media, game design and embodied cognition in the process of language learning. He has developed projects that examine the role of spatial architecture in the design of learning environments and the use of mobile devices to blend language learning and community building through tactical urbanism. He is a regular speaker at national and international ELT events and the co-author of Language Learning with Digital Video Cambridge) which won an English-Speaking Award in 2016. Paul has been nominated for 5 consecutive ELTons in the categories of Digital Innovation and Innovation in Teacher Resources.
Paul Trollope
Paul Trollope is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer and translator, working in and designing in-company courses in various organisations in and around Bilbao, Spain, and at the University of Deusto, Bilbao. In this latter post, Paul works as a lecturer and tutor and also coordinates a team of teacher trainers on a Postgraduate Master’s degree for future Secondary School teachers of English. He holds an MA in Russian and Linguistics. When not involved in teaching, Paul also works as a business Excellence assessor and consultant.
Peter Laszlo
Peter Laszlo is an ESL teacher and a co-founder of iSLCollective.com, a teaching material sharing platform used by over 2 million second / foreign language teachers. He is also the creator behind the web-based iSLCollective video quiz maker and lesson library (https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/), a free web-based tool that allows teachers to create and publish interactive video quizzes around YouTube and Vimeo videos, and to search for ready-made video quizzes in the lesson library. He is enthusiastic about practising capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, and learning Portuguese to get more deeply involved with its culture.
Peter Sansom
Peter Sansom is an artist and art teacher working in bilingual education. After completing a Fine Art BA at Wimbledon School of Art and an MA from Birmingham City University he relocated to the Netherlands where he is active in the growing Primary and Secondary bilingual education scene. Here he teachers and provides CLIL (content and language integrated learning) workshops for both pupils and teachers, as well as being an active blogger on the crossover between language and visual art.
Phil Wade
Phil Wade has worked in ELT as a teacher, course designer and manager, examiner, materials and elearning creator and an ebook writer for 17 years. He is very interested in multimodality and how visuals are created, presented and utilised in learning and teaching. This led him to combine his interests and work in ELT social media for several years and eventually to a PhD in Higher Education in which he is currently focussing on analysing images and videos in educational contexts.
Rachel Appleby
Rachel Appleby is a freelance teacher, trainer and materials writer, and has taught in Spain, Portugal, the UK, Slovakia and Hungary, where she now lives. She trains on CELTA and LCCI Business English courses, as well as the British Council ATE EMI course (Academic Teaching Excellence for English Medium of Instruction) at tertiary level. She has taught on the BA and MA programmes at ELTE University (Budapest), and is co-author of OUP’s Business one:one series, and International Express 3.0. Rachel stores past conference talk slides etc. in a blog space here: Along these lines.
Rakesh Bhanot
Rakesh Bhanot has been involved in ELT since 1972 and has presented at seminars and conferences in many parts of the world. He is the founder editor of the UK based journal Language Issues. He was the winner of the Failure Fest at a recent IATEFL conference. Rakesh writes (what purport to be) haikus which are elegantly illustrated by Magdolna Luna.
Rebecca Robb Benne
Rebecca Robb Benne has been involved in foreign language teaching for over twenty-five years as a teacher, editor and writer and has an MSc in applied linguistics. She has taught in the UK and Germany, as well as Denmark where she now lives. Rebecca has written many coursebooks for teenagers and adults and regards stimulating visuals and engaging video material as an essential component of a motivating course. Her most recent course (with Robert Campbell and Rob Metcalf for Macmillan) is the six-level Beyond series for teenagers, which includes 120 custom videos. Her main interests are motivation and life skills, in particular the development of confidence and empathy in young people.
Renske Oort
Renske Oort is an elementary school teacher currently teaching Dutch for native speakers in Frankfurt International School Wiesbaden Campus, Germany. In addition, she is studying for an Educational Needs Master’s degree and collaborates intensively with homeroom teachers. She strongly believes that the use of images does not need to be restricted to ELT classrooms. All learning environments and all learners benefit tremendously from looking at, exploring and discussing images such as photos, videos and picture books, followed by taking action such as writing or producing a digital story. The school where she works is an international, inclusive school with many English language learners in mainstream classes and inquiry-based learning. She is convinced that it is an excellent environment to promote and expand the use of all kinds of images in learning throughout all grades.
Richard Jervis
Richard Jervis is a designer specialising in educational textbooks, working with leading publishers in Education and ELT, including adult, secondary and primary markets, English for Academic Purposes, Business English and journals, dictionary and reference. Additionally, he has experience with trade children’s picture books, pre-school and non-fiction, co-edition publishing and EMEA tender publishing. He is based in the UK but works globally.
Rob Howard
Rob Howard is the owner of Online Language Center. He is a teacher and writer for EFL and a consultant and speaker regarding online retention, using technology in and out of the classroom and the importance of the proper usage of images and film for learning. He is the founder of EFLtalks, building an online worldwide PLN+ for teachers, nominated for the 2016 British Council’s ELTon Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources.
Ros Cantalamessa
Ros Cantalamessa is the publishing manager for Helbling Languages. She started her publishing career with Oxford University Press after teaching English in Italy. She has worked for Helbling Languages for the past ten years and shares her time between Oxford, UK and Ancona, Italy. She has a keen interest in visual arts and would rather have been a photographer than a publisher.
Roseli Serra
Roseli Serra is an enthusiastic educator in Brazil. Graduated in English and Portuguese, she works as an ELT consultant, teacher trainer, materials writer, Cambridge examiner and e-moderator. She’s also a psychologist, a mentor and has a post-graduate degree in Applied Linguistics. At the moment she is a Regional Supervisor of International School being in charge of implementing a bilingual program and training teachers. She truly believes in life-long learning, teacher development and mentoring. She also loves all sort of images and moving images such as paintings, photogaphs, videos, films, and all sort of visual arts. She blogs at http://roseliserra.blogspot.com.br and tweets as @SerraRoseli
Ruby Bogaard
Ruby Bogaard is a Visual Arts and Design secondary school teacher. She follows her own art-making process, and holds a Magister Technologiae (MTech/Masters) Degree in Fine Art and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Originally from South Africa, Ruby has recently relocated to Malta and is embarking on a TEFL course to broaden her horizons. She has a keen interest in developing the communicative aspect of Visual Arts and how it pertains to cross-cultural engagement.
Ruth Bell-Pellegrini
Ruth Bell-Pellegrini is a Commissioning Editor in the Secondary ELT department at Cambridge University Press. After graduating in Music from the University of Reading, UK, and completing a CELTA at International House, London, she spent 3 years teaching in Italy, before returning to the UK to study for the DELTA at Bell College, Saffron Walden. After that, she worked as a Teacher and Director of Studies in the UK and France, returning to Cambridge, where she now lives with her husband and four teenage children. Ruth has been in publishing, first as a freelance picture editor, and then as an in-house editor for twenty years, working on a number of different secondary school books, including the Cambridge Discovery course Eyes Open, working very closely with Anna Whitcher on a series of documentary and vox-pop videos. She has recently been working on classroom presentational software for a large secondary course. When she isn’t at work, Ruth plays the viola in the Rose Quartet at weddings, balls and other functions around the Cambridge region.
Samantha Lewis
Samantha Lewis teaches young learners for the British Council in Somosaguas, Madrid and writes for the British Council website, LearnEnglish Teens. She is co-author of Interactive for Spanish Speakers, Cambridge’s new course for lower-secondary students. She has trained primary and secondary school teachers of English and holds an MA specializing in English Language Teaching in secondary schools.
Sandie Mourão
Dr. Sandie Mourão is a teacher educator, author and consultant specializing in early years language education and how picturebooks and free play can promote language learning opportunities. She holds an MA in TESOL from the University of Manchester and a PhD from the University of Aveiro in didactics and teacher education. She won the English-Speaking Union Award for Resources for Young Learners for the coursebook Dex in 2016. She has a website and a blog Picturebooks in ELT.
Sántipur Negrón Medina
Sántipur Negrón Medina is a trainee teacher in a Spanish Secondary Education School in Madrid, Spain. She is currently starting an action research project while working in the school as an English teacher. She has already planned didactic units following the Visual Arts Circle Approach in the past.
Sarah Dexter
Sarah Dexter is a teacher at the Refugee Council in Croydon, UK. She holds a Trinity TEFL certification, a BFA with a concentration in painting and a minor in digital media, an MA in interactive media, and a PGDip in Animation. She is particularly interested in using the practice of animation as a tool for language education.
Shay Coyne
Shay Coyne has worked internationally in ELT as a teacher, trainer, consultant and director of studies for 17 years. Her areas of interest are (very) young learners, teacher training, teacher cognition, and curriculum design. She is a member of the IATEFL YLT and TTEd SIGs and TESOL-Spain. She holds the Trinity CertTESOL, a BA in Psychology and an MA in Applied Linguistics, her thesis has been published and you can find it here. She is an active tweeter on the ELT Ireland #ELTChinwag @shaycoyne. Shay is an international conference speaker and delegate, and you can find out more about her on the Gender Equality ELT Blog.
Silvia Purpuri
Silvia Purpuri has been teaching English and Italian as foreign languages to adults and young learners since she graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures in 2002, cooperating with several schools, universities and educational organizations. She has a passion for e-learning and has been working on the main learning management systems as course developer, facilitator, etutor and instructional designer. She has also been an online moderator twice for the annual IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) Conference. She holds a Masters in Tourism Management. Silvia currently cooperates with SUNY Empire State College (New York) as a lecturer of Italian and course developer in sociolinguistics, Horizons University (Paris) as project manager, course developer and facilitator and with several Italian state secondary schools as an English teacher.
Sine Macfarlane
Sine Macfarlane has taught EFL over the past fifteen years and her experiences have consolidated her belief that word combined with image is the most effective communicator of language. That the images are meaningful and provoke a response on an emotional level while the word does so intellectually is the power behind the headline. As a BA qualified graphic designer in print, screen and motion-graphics she aims to bring this insight to her designs. Graphic design is about communication as is teaching a language.
Sole Martínez
Sole Martínez, also known as Afra, is a teacher of English, Art teacher, book illustrator, and ELT materials writer from Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has explored, practised and devised different ways of combining fields such as Visual Arts and Drama to enhance language learning and develop creativity in learners of all ages for many years.
Sophie O’Rourke
Sophie O’Rourke is the director of EMC Design, the leading design agency in the ELT publishing industry. She joined EMC in April 2011 after a career in arts management. In addition to running the company day-to-day, Sophie is responsible for ensuring the agency can best serve their clients’ needs by staying ahead of technological and creative trends. That’s why she is usually involved with new clients and new projects and is immersed in the educational publishing industry. She is also the Events Coordinator for the IATEFL Materials Writing SIG.
Stephanie Xerri Agius
Stephanie Xerri Agius teaches English at the University of Malta Junior College. Stephanie is currently in the final stages of doctoral research at the University of Leicester. Her study is concerned with writing practices and teacher feedback on students’ writing at post-16 level. She has also conducted talks, workshops, and seminars at a number of conferences in Malta, in the UK and in the US. Apart from research on feedback and writing, her research interests include learner engagement, creative practices and using technology in the ELT classroom.
Steve Muir
Steve Muir has worked in ELT for over 20 years. He has taught English to young learners and adults in the UK, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Spain. He lives in Madrid and works at the British Council in Alcalá de Henares. Things he is interested in the classroom include using clips from film and TV to work on a variety of language areas and skills, vocabulary acquisition, pronunciation, and getting students to speak more and better. He has a blog with lesson plans designed around short videos.
Steven Tolle
Steven Tolle is an audio producer, director, and engineer. After working in the recording industry for Sony Music Studios he was hired to head up the production team at CityVox, a New York City based audio production company and recording studio that has long been known for their work in ELT. They have experience working closely with clients to develop, produce, and deliver content all over the world…from voice over for animation, documentaries, and commercials, to educational audio bind-ins and children songs, to new media audio for apps, video games, and podcasts. Check out some of their work: http://www.cityvoxny.com/work/
Susan Webster
Susan Webster is a graduate of Edinburgh University where she obtained an MSc TESOL with distinction and where she completed and published research which examined communication strategy use between adult EFL learners from diverse cultural backgrounds and their teacher in virtual world of Second Life. Her career as an educator and teacher trainer has included delivering storytelling workshops, conducting and leading methodology workshops for elementary teachers, teaching English in universities, primary and secondary schools in Japan, South Korea and her native Scotland. She is currently employed at Jeonju University, South Korea. Susan is passionate about all aspects of language-teaching methodology and strives to produce meaningful, engaging and creative lessons for her learners. She is particularly interested in issues relating to educational technology, digital literacy and visual literacy. Currently, Susan co-authors an ELT blog with her husband, Andy Webster, sharing ideas that they hope can engage both teachers and students alike. https://eltsparks.wordpress.com/
Sylvia Karastathi
Dr. Sylvia Karastathi is a teacher educator and lecturer in TESOL at the Department of English Language and Language Teaching at New York College, Athens, Greece. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she wrote a thesis on contemporary literature and visual culture, and an MA in Modern Literature and Culture (University of York). She has published in the field of word and image studies in The Museal Turn (2012) and The Handbook of Intermediality (2015) and her current research focuses on visual culture and visual literacy in language education.
Teresa Carvalho
Teresa Carvalho holds a B.A. in Linguistics from USP (University of São Paulo), São Paulo, Brazil, and Delta Modules 1 and 2 Certificates. She is a teacher and mentor at an English language school in Rio de Janeiro and has presented at webinars and both at local and international Conferences, including IATEFL. She is now pursuing a Specialization degree in English Language. She has a keen interest in critical visual literacy, identity, and cross-cultural issues in EFL. She is currently conducting research on what meanings and identities are constructed when learners interact with images in the EFL classroom.
Tessa Scott
Tetiana Poklad
Tetiana Poklad is an English language teacher who lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is interested in the use of senses in the process of language teaching and learning. She believes that images are powerful in enhancing learning and motivating students. In her teaching approach she is using a range of different visual materials since they contribute greatly to better memorizing and are good for boosting discussions.
Thulasivanthana Udhayashankar
Thulasivanthana Udhayashankar is a lecturer at Swamy Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Eastern University, Sri Lanka. She holds an MA degree in Linguistics. Thulasivanthana is ardently interested in using performing arts, especially visual arts, for teaching and assessing tertiary-level students.
Tim Kelly
Tim Kelly has taught English for over 25 years and has worked in Spain, UK and Switzerland as a teacher and trainer. He has a Dip TEFLA and currently works at IH Cordoba. He has always found working with images and imagination a very powerful tool in the classroom. As a member of the iPad team project in Cordoba Tim became involved in looking at the use of new technologies in ELT. He has produced work both on using the iPad as a tool for pronunciation and for oral skills development. Tim was one of the co-ordinators of The Image Conference in Cordoba, Nov 2014.
Tyson Seburn
Tyson Seburn is an EAP instructor at the University of Toronto and author ofAcademic Reading Circles. He holds an MA Educational Technology & TESOL from the University of Manchester. His main interest focuses on public spaces for exploring teacher identity and development. These include #tleap (bit.do/tleap), 4CinELT (fourc.ca), and IATEFL TDSIG (tdsig.org).
Visual Arts Circle 