Meet Our Trainers

After landing in Madrid he got his first job in 4 days by calling around the local academies. Since then he has taught all sorts of ages, levels and interests, including business people, extensive and intensive courses. He has also taught in Great Britain and in Brazil. He ran his own academy successfully for many years, so has experience of the TEFL world from many different angles. He says with The TEFL Academy qualification under the student’s belt, the best idea is to go forth and get a job ASAP and get teaching. Aside from teaching he enjoys music, family and friends, languages and quite a few other things and says these things are always useful in class too!

From working with South African students with anxiety disorders and learning difficulties, to working in China as an ESL and kindergarten educator and volunteering as a teacher in rural areas within Malawi. Working with different students with diverse cultures, beliefs, backgrounds and physical and mental abilities enabled her to incorporate the above experiences into a holistic teaching approach. Her belief is that education is vital to bring forth positive change to the world.

René loves the creativity and fun methods of learning that the EFL world encourages. Her TEFL career started in a public school in South Korea. She followed this up with a year at a private English academy in China, before bringing her experience to learners in South Africa. She has taught three to thirteen year olds as well as adults, and enjoys finding ways to address multiple learning styles in her lessons. As a trainer, she aims to turn the abstract idea of  ‘going abroad to teach English’ into a more concrete and practical reality, so that trainees can feel better prepared for their future teaching adventures. René enjoys reading and doing anything creative.

After graduating he worked in South Korea where he started his ESL career. South Africa followed and China was next. Realising that he could offer much to learners he returned to South Africa to edutain and empower learners. He enjoys sleeping, art, coffee and of course hamburgers, and he still cant eat with chopsticks without making a mess of things.

David is currently an IELTS Coordinator based in Auckland, where he oversees exam preparation, syllabus design, and teacher development.

With over 20 years’ teaching experience in New Zealand, the UK, and Germany, David has taught learners from a wide range of cultures and proficiency levels. He holds a CELTA and DELTA Module One, and specialises in IELTS and academic English.

Outside the classroom, David enjoys hiking and trying out local restaurants.

He first worked for RMIT University, Melbourne, where he designed and delivered a range of specialist programs including English for Oil and Gas for Vietnamese engineers, and Aviation English for Chinese pilots. James became a CELTA tutor in 1998, and has taught hundreds of teacher training courses for prospective and current school teachers from Australia, China, Thailand and Vietnam. James is an IELTS examiner and has an MA in Applied Linguistics.

Dimitris has taught a wide range of ages, levels and nationalities. He has had the pleasure of training teachers as part of his various management roles, and he is always happy to offer his advice to both practicing and prospective EFL teachers. In his free time, he enjoys learning new languages, listening to music and reading psychology books.

When Alexander first went overseas to teach it was because he was not ready to settle back home after doing his OE in the United Kingdom. He thought he would be teaching in Asia for a few years and then would eventually come home – eventually ended up being over fifteen years!

In order to improve he also gained a Masters in TESOL by distance. Alexander hopes he can share a few life lessons and his passion for teaching to aspiring teachers. Teaching ESOL can be a gateway to many exciting experiences and adventures and he hopes that studying with The TEFL Academy can be the first step on a wonderful journey for his student teachers.

After moving from Indiana to Scotland and graduating with a master’s degree in TESOL from the University of Edinburgh, Gina moved to the island of Malta where she spent 7 years teaching English to students from all over the world, ranging from beginner to advanced level.  During this time, she developed a love for creating materials that helped students to use the language in meaningful ways. After sharing these with her colleagues and seeing the benefit they had for both students and teachers, she chose to self-publish a resource book on Amazon called ‘On the Go English’