...Meet some of our course tutors
Nigel Balfour
Nigel has been teaching for many years in different parts of the world, principally in Asia. For the last 3 years he ran the CELTA for the British Council in Oman where the trainees were of over 5 different nationalities. Nigel has been involved with teacher training since working in Japan, where he gave seminars to high school teachers and has given workshops to ELT professionals in a number of countries through the British Council.
''After completion of a Cambridge CELTA course, you'll feel like you have the tools to give you confidence whoever you teach and wherever you teach, '' says Nigel. That's why I enjoy running the course so much, it meets the trainees' needs so well.''
Irwin Temkin
Irwin was born in New York. After completing an M.A. in ESL at Columbia University, he moved to Barcelona, where he has lived since 1978. He taught general English courses for several years before becoming involved in teacher training in 1982. Since then, he has led many workshops and seminars for teachers in Barcelona, Madrid, Saragossa, New York, London and Cambridge. Irwin has taught courses in language teaching methodology for the Departments of Education of the autonomous Spanish communities of Catalonia and Valencia, in addition to courses at the University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma ). He began working as a tutor on RSA Certificate and Diploma courses in 1988, and has worked as a CELTA tutor in Barcelona, Seville and Poznan. Irwin's hobbies include music (especially classical), cinema and reading.
Sezgi Yalin
Sezgi was born in Cyprus. After completing an M.A. in Applied Linguistics (TESOL) at the University of Illinois, she taught general and business English courses at several different universities and language schools in Chicago and Poland for several years before becoming involved in teacher training in 1997. She moved to Cyprus in 2000 and since then, she has been working as an EFL teacher and teacher trainer at the Eastern Mediterranean University. Sezgi began working as a tutor on RSA Certificate and Diploma courses in 2001, and has worked as a CELTA tutor in Cyprus, Barcelona and USA. She also gained the status of an ICELT trainer in 2005. Sezgi has published a number of articles in different Chicago-based newspapers and magazines and has been to more than thirty countries to either travel or to present at EFL conferences. Her hobbies include travelling, reading, and writing
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Chris Bonnington
Chris was born in Luton, England. He graduated in Philosophy in the 70s but quickly found that language teaching was in greater demand. Throughout his career he has divided his time between teaching and teacher training and has worked on RSA Certificate and Diploma courses as a tutor since the 80's. Chris has taught in England, Sudan, Kuwait, Brunei, Germany, the UAE and most recently in Spain where he lives on a small olive orchard with his large and expensive family. He has published a number of children's stories as well as contributing to EFL and poetry publications.
Jane Glover
Jane was born in Christchurch, New Zealand but was educated in England and is a graduate of London University. She now lives in Cornwall and spends a lot of time painting. She has worked all over the world, both as a teacher, CELTA teacher trainer and CELTA assessor. Apart from England other countries she has worked in include: Sudan, Italy, France, Lebanon, Egypt, Japan, Poland, Brazil, Finland, Libya, the US and, of course, Spain. She has done several courses at the Lewis School, Barcelona and has very much enjoyed working in such lovely surroundings as she feels that Barcelona is definitely one of the world's most beautiful and exciting cities, " the cultural life is excellent, and the night-life is pretty good too!"
Heather Finn
Heather was born in Wellington, New Zealand and started her EFL career nine
years ago in Cambridge, England. She has since taught in London, Turkey,
Lithuania, New Zealand and Spain. She has most recently been working as a
CELTA tutor and Cert TESOL tutor in Wellington. She enjoys travelling to new
countries and learning languages. She loves water sports and snow sports and
is working on her Masters in TESOL in her spare time.
