About

I’m a  writer, conference speaker and trainer with almost 30 years’ experience in English language teaching.
I’m originally from Birmingham, England. After finishing my studies at the University of Nottingham and getting my teaching certificate I began my language teaching career. Throughout my career I have kept up with the latest developments in the field of language teaching. I hold an M.A.Ed. in English Language Teaching from Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, and an M.A. in Business Communication from Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.

My experience includes teaching, teacher training and academic management posts in the UK, Italy, Portugal and Spain. My special interests include the use of images, film and video in ELT, extensive watching, extensive reading, creativity, empathy, values, older learners, and vocabulary learning.

I write books for both students and teachers of English as a foreign language. My publications for teachers include Films in Health Sciences Education (University of Barcelona), How to Write Activities for Film and Video (ELT Teacher2Writer), the methodology book Film in Action (DELTA Publishing) which was shortlisted for an English Speaking Union award in 2016, and The Image in English Language Teaching (ELT Council). My books for students include the Video Book for Language Hub (Macmillan) for Beginner, Upper Intermediate and Advanced. 

I train teachers at The School for Training, my small specialist teacher development institute in Barcelona.

My resource website on the use of film for teachers and students of English, Film English, has won a British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources, the most prestigious European media in education prize, the MEDEA Award, and an English Speaking Union Award.

I am the founder of the only conference exclusively on the use of images in language teaching, The Image Conference and the co-founder with Anna Whitcher of the Visual Arts Circle, a community of professional practice for language education professionals interested in the use of the visual arts in language education. I  belong to the Manchester Metropolitan University Film Language and Media in Education Research Group

I currently work as a freelance writer, international conference speaker and teacher trainer.

I have been based in the beautiful city of Barcelona since 1996 and live with my wife, Noemí, and our two daughters, Rosa and Aina. In my freetime I love spending time with my family, reading, listening to music, and watching old films at the wonderful Phenomena cinema.

Here’s a short video about myself and my work.