The Fair List Mentors
Below some of The Fair List mentors describe their professional work and outline their plenary experience. If you want to contact any of them, please email me at info@thefairlist.org.
Penny Ur was educated at Oxford (M.A.), Cambridge (PGCE) and Reading (MATEFL) Universities and has thirty-five years’ experience as an English teacher in elementary, middle and high schools in Israel. She has taught B.A. and M.A. courses at Oranim Academic College of Education and Haifa University.
She was for ten years the Series Editor of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series. Her books include Grammar practice activities (2nd Edition) (2009), Vocabulary activities (2012), A course in English language teaching (2012), Discussions and more (2014), Penny Ur’s 100 Tips (forthcoming), all published by Cambridge University Press.
She has given keynote and plenary addresses at a number of conferences in Israel and abroad, including TESOL and IATEFL. Her main interests are practical aspects of language teaching, materials design and teacher development.
Dave Allan is the founding director of NILE, the Norwich Institute for Language Education, a specialist CPD institute for language teachers and trainers in the UK. Dave has been in ELT as a teacher, trainer, consultant and course designer for 40 years, the last 20 as NILE’s Director. Dave has worked on courses and presented at conferences in 65 countries, including plenaries at major language education conferences in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Dubai, Estonia, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia and Uzbekistan, at the invitation of national ministries, regional education authorities, teachers’ associations, the British Council, the Council of Europe and DfID. He is best known for his work in the area of testing and assessment, but has actually talked more over the years on 4 of the ‘M’s of our profession – Materials, Methodology, Motivation and Management. Dave is Chair of MATSDA, past co-ordinator and present committee member of IATEFL TEASIG and a member of the British Council’s English Language Advisory Committee (ELAG). His biggest plenary audience was c. 2000, which was terrifying, his smallest 1, which in some ways was even more challenging.
Dorothy Zemach is a teacher trainer, author, writer, and editor based in Oregon, USA. She is a prolific author and editor of ELT textbooks, and runs a micropress, Wayzgoose Press, that publishes fiction, literary non-fiction, and ELT materials. She has given plenary talks (solo and with others) in Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Libya, Malaysia, and the USA (at TESOL, several times, and many state conferences). Topics of past plenaries include teacher burnout, classroom management, materials selection and creation, metaphor, two stand-up comedy routines, one panel show, and a musical.
She would be happy to talk with interested women about how to go about securing a plenary invitation, how to assist sponsoring organizations with finding funding, and choosing a suitable topic for mixed or unknown audiences.
Caroline Collingridge is a concert flautist, music researcher and educator based in Brighton, UK. She was on the board of Women in Music for several years in the 90s and performed and lectured on Women in Music in Europe (Bilbao, Utrecht, Vienna, Bucharest) and in Alaska. . Her recitals and talks have been to both small groups (15 people) and up to 500 in the past. She facilitated in the Arts Council’s Symposium on Women in the Arts having produced the report “Women in the Arts in Europe” and “Women in Arts International Network” (ACGB/104). Her interest in the language of sound led her to study phonology and pronunciation in the teaching of EFL where she has coached many students in public speaking and communication skills. She continues to give flute recitals, is a mentor at Roehampton University and is very keen to promote women at board level.
Elka Todeva is a language educator and a teacher trainer with a doctorate in English applied linguistics. Her teaching and research are in the areas of second language acquisition, applied linguistics, pedagogical grammar, teacher cognition, scaffolded reflection, and ecological approaches to teaching. She views the students and the teacher as co-explorers and promotes socially embedded brain-friendly teaching. As a professor at the SIT Graduate Institute in the USA and an English Language Specialist with the USA State Department, she has supervised and trained teachers in over 23 countries on 5 continents. Among her publications is the co-edited book “The Multiple Realities of Multilingualism: Personal Narratives and Researchers’ Perspectives” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2009) with Jasone Cenoz. She has given plenary and keynote talks on a variety of topics in the USA, Bulgaria, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Nepal and India.
Tessa Woodward is a teacher, teacher trainer, and the Professional Development Co-ordinator at Hilderstone College, Broadstairs, Kent, UK. She also edits The Teacher Trainer journal for Pilgrims, Canterbury, UK. She is a Past President and International Ambassador of IATEFL and founded the IATEFL Special Interest Group for Teacher Trainers (now the SIG T Ed/TT). She is the author of many books and articles for language teachers and for teacher trainers. Tessa is the founder of The Fair List.
She has given plenary talks in a number of countries including the UK on a variety of topics (including teacher development, creativity, lesson planning, change, trainer training and gender balance in ELT materials) to mixed audiences of between 50 and a thousand people including students, teachers, teacher trainers, publishers, and materials writers.
Catherine Walter is a teacher educator, researcher and materials developer. She was educated in the USA (BA), France (Licence-ès-lettres) and the UK (PhD, Cambridge; RSA DipTEFL) and holds a lifetime UK Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship. Catherine is perhaps best known in the EFL field as the co-author with Michael Swan of numerous English language teaching books, the latest of which is the Oxford English Grammar Course series. Catherine has recently retired as an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford, where she founded and convened the distance M. Sc in Teaching English Language in University Settings, and where she continues as an Associate of Oxford’s Centre for Research and Development in English Medium Instruction. Her research has chiefly addressed second language reading and writing. Catherine is an Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College Oxford, and continues to act as Linacre’s Welfare and Equalities Officer, pursuing a long-held interest in supporting the learning of people from diverse communities. She is the Chair of the British Council’s English Language Advisory Group, a member of the ELT Journal Advisory Board, and the Series Adviser for OUP’s new Navigate and Voyage courses. Catherine has given plenary addresses in over thirty countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the Americas and the Pacific Rim. She was the first female President of IATEFL and is a member of the IATEFL Advisory Council.
Susan Barduhn is a Professor at the School for International Training in the U.S. She has given plenaries in 18 countries, and seminars all over the world on the topics of teacher development, teacher training, teacher thinking, ELT management, research methodology, intercultural communication, the lexical approach, dialogue journals, stress management for teachers, Suggestopedia, humanist approaches, lesson planning, content and language integrated learning, online teaching and learning, and facilitating change. Susan is a Past President and now International Ambassador of IATEFL; former director of The Language Center in Nairobi, Kenya; former deputy director of International House in London; and chair of SIT’s low residency programs for 12 years. She is a consultant for the British Council, the U.S. State Department, and Fulbright. An early career in drama and a love of planning lessons and presentations provide some of the skills she would be happy to share with someone new to public speaking.
Chris Lima is an educator, researcher, and teacher trainer. Her research interests lie in the fields of teaching English literature and language and the history of English. In the area of literary studies, her interests focus on Shakespeare, the Novel, and Tolkien. She is the coordinator of the IATEFL, Literature, Media and Cultural Studies Special Interest Group, and a member of the Extensive Reading Foundation Advisory Board. She teaches at the University of Leicester. For more information and lists of her publications and presentations in conferences and events, please visit her web site.
Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology. She has been involved in language education as a language teacher and/or teacher educator since 1996. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co-editor of several books in this area and has published her research in a variety of international peer-reviewed journals. She works on the editorial board of several journals, was co-editor of the journal System for several years, is co-editor of Multilingual Matters’ Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching book series, is currently vice-president of the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning (IAPLL), and has served as a consultant on several international projects. In 2018, she was awarded the Robert C Gardner Award for excellence in second language research by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP). She has given plenary and keynote speeches in many diverse countries, including an IATEFL plenary.
Ania Kolbuszewska has been involved in language teaching and training for around 30 years, training language teachers, trainers and managers as well as providing business and academic consultancy for a range of language teaching operations and mainstream educational institutions internationally. She has also worked as a communications and conflict management consultant in corporate contexts.
A former Eaquals Board member and Director of Eaquals Accreditation and Consultancy Services, she now continues to work as an inspector for Eaquals.
Ania is a founder member of IATEFL Poland and a member of Leadership and Management SIG of IATEFL. Her interests include conflict resolution and change management. She has spoken extensively on these, as well as other language teaching management topics at international conferences. Ania says, “My experience as a conference speaker is pretty extensive – both in Poland and internationally. I’ve been invited to speak as a keynote or plenary speaker a number of times and have taken part in panels at various international conferences.”
Mercedes Viola is also a willing mentor for The Fair List. Her bio data will follow shortly.
Following co-operation between The Fair List, UK and the Women in ELT Facebook page and group, a new group of mentors has been added to our mentor list. Please see the details below.
