The English Language Advisory Group advises the English and Examinations leadership team and influences how the British Council’s vision and strategy are developed.
The English Language Advisory Group reports to the Executive Board. Its formation or disbandment is the responsibility of the Chief Executive. It is a forum for advice and has no decision making or executive powers.
The members of the English Language Advisory Group are listed below.
Catherine Walter is a researcher, teacher educator and materials developer, and an advocate for equality and inclusion in education. She is an Emeritus Fellow in Applied Linguistics at Linacre College, University of Oxford; a National Teaching Fellow; and a Past President of IATEFL. She is the Series Adviser for Navigate and the co-author of The Oxford English Grammar Course, both with OUP. Catherine is an avid powerlifter, and she promotes strength training for women and for older people.
Dave Allan is the Director of NILE, the Norwich Institute for Language Education, which in the last 20 years has provided professional development for 40,000 teachers from 65 countries. Dave has been in ELT for 40 years, has worked regularly worldwide with and for the British Council since 1982 and has served on a range of British Council committees and working parties. He’s also a fanatical supporter of Sunderland AFC.
Eric Baber is Learning Solutions Support Director for Cambridge University Press. In this role he is responsible for training delivery to internal sales teams, teachers and school management in particular around digital products and technology integration, along with a number of other support-related areas. He has published widely on technology and language-learning related areas and is Past President of IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language).
Fiona Copland is Professor of TESOL at the University of Stirling, Scotland, where she is also the Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Fiona has taught English in Nigeria, Hong Kong and Japan and has worked in teacher education in the UK for over 20 years. She has published widely, including Linguistic ethnography: collecting, analysing and presenting data (with Angela Creese) and The Routledge handbook of teaching English to young learners (with Sue Garton).
Chris was formerly a full-time Professor at the University of Birmingham and is now an Honorary Research Fellow at Birmingham and Warwick Universities. He is a former Chair of ETAC, and a past President of IATEFL, and has been a teacher, trainer, academic, manager, and consultant during his career. He recently edited a collection on ELT in Iran for the BC Teaching English series.
Harry is Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Leeds, UK. He has also been involved in a range of teacher education and materials development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and Europe. More recently, he has served as a consultant with the Council of Europe, in Albania and with ELT Consultants in South Sudan. He is one of TESOL International Association’s ‘30 upcoming leaders’ in ELT and Vice President of IATEFL.
John’s career splits into four distinct periods. The first is as a TESL (Teacher of English as a Second Language0 teacher in a London comprehensive (3 years); the second as an ELT specialist with the British Council in Iran, Jordan, London and Japan (13 years); the third as Director of the Institute for English Language Education and then Director of the International Office at Lancaster University (19 years); the fourth was a self-employed higher education consultant (7 years and counting).
Steve is the Chair of English UK, the national association of accredited English Language centres in the UK, and a Managing Director of the British Study Centres Group looking after Transnational Education and University Pathways. He has worked in the ELT industry for over 25 years as a school owner, for private higher education, and in the profit and not-for-profit private ELT sector. He is TEFLQ (Cambridge DELTA) and is a Fellow at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
Shelagh graduated in Classics from the University of Cambridge. She was a British Council Officer between 1974 and 1991, working as Project Officer for the King Abdul Aziz ESP project in Saudi Arabia, teacher in the English Language Teaching Institute, Portland Place and English Language Officer posts in Italy. At the University of Warwick she set up the MA strand in English for Young Learners in 1991. She retired from Warwick in 2010 since when she has completed her PhD.
Dr Philida Schellekens is an expert in language learning with a particular interest in workplace, vocational training and study contexts. Philida works as a consultant, speaker, researcher, author and teacher trainer in the UK and internationally.