I am originally from Russia, but I have lived in several countries including New Zealand and Turkey where I spent three years teaching English and coordinating the work of the Curriculum Design and Materials Development office at an Intensive English Program (also known as Prep School) at a private university in Kayseri.
I have been teaching English for over 10 years, including two years as Director of Studies at a language school in Novosibirsk, Russia. I attained my CELTA (Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in New Zealand in 2012, followed by DELTA (Cambridge Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), which I completed in 2016. My research interests include developing and adapting materials, Dogme in ELT and using technology in the classroom.
After completing my DELTA, I returned to my hometown of Novosibirsk, Russia, where I got to try my hand in teaching training at a private language school. I also got certified to teach Russian as a Foreign Language by earning a Diploma in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language from the Russian Language Centre of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and started teaching Russian.
I am currently based in Seattle, USA where I continued to teach English as a Second Language (mostly online) and also taught Russian as a Foreign Language. I have also embarked on a new career path by becoming a medical interpreter. I have another blog at https://medicalinterpreterblog.com, devoted to resources and information for medical interpreters.
I created this blog as a way to share my ideas and my experience with other ESL/EFL teachers and as a way to keep a record of the things that worked for my students. I love sharing ideas with my peers – I am constantly inspired by the amazing ideas my colleagues and fellow bloggers come up with. I am a passionate material developer and I love creating/adapting materials that meet the needs of my students and engage them in learning. I also believe that, as educators, we need to keep up with the times and use the latest technology in the classroom to our advantage.
Yuliya Speroff 