About the Authors

Daniel Barber

Daniel Barber is a teacher, teacher trainer and writer based in the south of Spain. He has taught for over twenty years in Mexico, the UK and Spain. As well as helping to establish and run a language school in Cádiz, he has written for several publishers and co-wrote From English Teacher to Learner Coach. He is an experienced tutor on Trinity Certificate and Diploma TESOL courses. Interests include motivational factors, the future of ELT, evidence-based learning, and the way that children and adults learn languages. Daniel has recently been part of National Geographic Learning’s team writing Perspectives, a course for upper secondary level, and is a contributor to NGL’s blog.

Hugh Dellar

Hugh is married with two kids and lives only five streets away from Andrew in north London. He grew up on the south coast of England and in South London and graduated in English Literature from Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, in 1991. Like many native speakers, he then drifted into language teaching, only really becoming serious about it during a four-year stint in Indonesia in the mid-90s. He returned to London to do his DELTA and then an MA TESOL and moved soon afterwards into coursebook writing. He worked initially with Michael Lewis and Jimmie Hill, the two men behind The Lexical Approach, a book that influenced him enormously. In his (far too limited) free time, he continues to play in a band, The Beatpack; he wrote for a music magazine and DJs occasionally; he reads voraciously; enjoys cooking, and is a life-long Arsenal supporter!

Amanda Jefferies

Amanda Jeffries is a teacher, trainer and author. She is based in Oxford, UK, where she teaches English and communication skills to university students and runs training workshops for teachers. She has written English language teaching materials for several major publishers, specialising in advanced English. She has taught in the UK and Chile.

Lewis Lansford

Lewis began teaching English in Barcelona in the late 1980s. The experience inspired him to get a Master’s in TESOL, after which he taught at a university language center in Arizona and then a manufacturing company in Japan. In 1995, he took an editorial job with a major publisher in Hong Kong developing materials for Asia, and in 1997 became a freelance editor, project manager and writer in the UK. He has worked on books, videos, tests, audio materials, worksheets, apps and online materials for English learners of all ages across the world. He currently lives in the United Kingdom.

Andrew Walkley

Andrew is married with two children and lives in North London with his partner and son, now his daughter has left home. He grew up in Birmingham and went to Nottingham University, where he studied English Studies. After that he went to Spain to teach English ‘for a year’ while he decided what he wanted to do with his life. It turned out he wanted to teach English! After that he returned to the UK where he worked in various language schools and adult colleges, completed a DipTEFLA and trained to deliver CELTA courses. He then worked at the University of Westminster for 17 years with a four-year break, when he went back to Valencia with his family. When he isn’t working, he plays football twice a week, cycles round the city and enjoys London. He grows vegetables in an allotment, cooks and watches TV.