21st Century Communication: Listening, Speaking and Critical Thinking

Lida Baker is the author of more than two dozen print and digital books for students and teachers of English as a second or foreign language. Now a full-time author and editor, she previously taught ESL at the American Language Center, University of California, Los Angeles Extension. She lives in Los Angeles.

Laurie Blass is a writer and editor specializing in print and digital English Language Teaching materials. She has an M.A. in Linguistics and a TESL certificate from the University of Pittsburgh and has taught ESL in the United States and France. She is the author/co-author of over 40 ELT titles representing a wide range of audiences, from adult education to English for academic purposes.

Jessica Williams is an author, teacher, and teacher trainer. She was a professor of Applied Linguistics for more than 30 years at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she prepared hundreds of students for classroom teaching. She is the author or co-author of more than fifteen textbooks as well as digital ELT materials.

Lynn Bonesteel became interested in international education and cross-cultural communication over thirty years ago when she spent her junior year abroad studying Latin American topics and linguistics at the Centro Andino in Quito, Ecuador. Lynn holds an undergraduate degree in Spanish from the University of Massachusetts and a graduate degree in education with a specialization in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Boston University. Lynn is fluent in Spanish, has studied German, French, and Italian, and has traveled to many countries in Europe and Latin America, as well as Japan. In addition to having worked full time for more than 25 years at the Center for Language and Orientation Programs at Boston University (CELOP) as a senior lecturer in ESL at all levels (beginning to advanced), Lynn is the author, co-author or contributing author of numerous textbooks for English language learners. Lynn is also a frequent presenter at international teaching conferences and often works with student teachers, graduate students, and International Teaching Fellows from Boston University’s School of Education and Graduate College of Arts and Sciences. Lynn has a particular interest in teaching Legal English to foreign lawyers and prospective law students; she has taught at the Boston University School of Law’s Summer Legal Institute in London and at Chuo University Law School in Tokyo, Japan, and currently teaches in and coordinates the Pre-LLM Legal English program at CELOP. Lynn has also worked as an English assessment specialist with Boston Language Consultants in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Christien Lee, who has dual Canadian and British citizenship, has worked in English Language Teaching for more than 20 years. His roles have included teacher, teacher trainer, curriculum developer, materials writer, director of studies, consultant, and author. In addition, he founded and ran an award-winning private language school in Canada for almost ten years. He has wide experience in ELT, but specializes in academic English and, particularly, exam preparation. Currently, his focus is on developing innovative e-learning materials and writing textbooks. He is the author of several ELT titles. This is his first book for National Geographic Learning.