Biography

Hello! I’m delighted to be a part of the EAL Initiatives Team with the Centre for Educational Excellence to support the teaching and learning community here at SFU. I first started working with multilingual learners in the last century, when I spent a year in Japan teaching students who ranged in age from 3 to 92. I then taught English language exam preparation courses for a year in Greece, before moving to Canada and teaching in the private and then public sectors. My non-teaching experiences have included online and f2f teacher training, program management and administration, course and workshop design and delivery, conference presentations, and language coaching.

I have an undergraduate Arts degree from the University of Glasgow (my hometown), and a Master of Education in TESL from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. Additionally, I have a Graduate Certificate in Online Education and Training from the University of London’s Institute of Education, and a Certificate in Electronic Publishing and Graphic Design from VCC. I’ve presented locally, nationally, and internationally at conferences in Canada, the US and the UK. I’ve been an active member of the BC Teachers as an Additional Language Association for many years, and was honoured with their Lifetime Contributor Award in 2015.

I generally enjoy learning and practicing new skills, as experiencing the perspective of a student informs my work in language education. I’m interested in the application of the coaching approach to language learning and teaching, and in the potential for new and emerging technologies in the field.