Amanda French

 

In 1989, I went to Greece and began my career in English language teaching. I started off as the dictation teacher for a (seemingly) huge class of eight-year-olds and left three years later - with the DTEFLA (Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults) and the (now broken) resolution never to dictate again.

 

I then worked at St Giles College in Highgate, London for the next 10 years. My responsibilities here included an ADOS role and being a CELTA tutor and trainer on INSET and TESOL courses. I also happily volunteered to teach Cambridge examination courses (motivated students!) and began writing materials to supplement those classes. I became a Cambridge ESOL writer and examiner for CAE, BEC and IELTS papers and the training/experience gave me a much better understanding of constructive testing.

 

In 2002, I moved to Auckland where I continued to teach and work on teaching-training courses at Languages International. I'm also an assessor for CELTA courses and it's always good to meet other teacher trainers and exchange ideas. Apart from focusing on teacher development and materials writing, I'm currently interested in discourse analysis of spoken English and how we can get learners to recognize and comfortably use natural discourse patterns. And sometimes I also use dictation in the classroom!

 

I am a CELTA assessor and I have written CAE, BEC and IELTS papers for Cambridge ESOL. I wrote CAE Testbuilder and contributed to the Ready for CAE Workbook and KET Testbuilder.