ELTOC Chapter 10

Peter Sandford is a senior solutions architect in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector team, with a focus on AI and machine learning applications for education. He holds a PhD in applied machine learning, and has over two decades of experience, including 15 years working on foreign exchange and analytics systems. Peter joined AWS in 2022, and now works exclusively with the education sector, collaborating with publishers, universities, and EdTech companies to implement AI solutions for both educational practitioners and researchers. Peter is particularly interested in bridging the gap between education practitioners and technologists.

Jo Szoke Jo’s a freelance teacher trainer, AI in Education specialist, and EFL teacher. She trains pre-service and in-service teachers and university staff at a Hungarian university and on Erasmus training programmes, and has delivered many workshops and webinars on using AI in education. At the moment, she’s working on a book on AI literacy development, to be published by DELTA Publishing in 2025.

Gemma Archer is an EAP teacher and programme co-ordinator in the ELT unit at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. She is also the joint-coordinator of IATEFL Pronunciation special interest group (PronSIG), former editor of PronSIG’s biannual journal Speak Out! (2017-2023), and co-author of Teaching English Pronunciation for a Global World (OUP, 2024). Her research interests lie in the field of pronunciation pedagogy and accent, and the issues which can arise when students and teachers of English are confronted with diverse regional and global varieties of English. This led to her creation of The Scottish Sound School a resource to help new arrivals to Scotland acclimate to the unfamiliar sounds of Scottish speech.

Montse Costafreda  is a Senior Educational Consultant with Oxford University Press, based in Barcelona, Spain. Her passion for learning and teaching has driven her to explore a wide range of approaches and methodologies throughout her career. Montse is deeply involved in professional development programmes for teachers and educators, including wellbeing training sessions. As a non-native English speaker, she has a keen interest in pronunciation and enjoys finding effective ways to teach it.

Aysu Simsek is an American academic with a passion for history, language, and education. He studied History at Oxford and Cambridge Universities before embarking on a career as a university professor. His passion for the English language and teaching has resulted in over 850,000 followers on Instagram (@professor_korten). His account is dedicated to exploring all aspects of the English language, offering valuable insights and resources for learners and educators alike. Professor Korten's unique blend of expertise and communication skills has made him an influential figure in academia and social media.

Philip Haines is originally from the UK but has lived in Mexico for 30 years. He works as a Global Professional Development Consultant for Oxford University Press and has been training teachers for over 20 years throughout Mexico and Latin America. Philip is an ELT book author and has written books for young learners, teens, and adult students. He is also one of the authors and tutors of the Oxford Teachers’ Academy courses.

Riccardo Chiappini is an experienced ELT materials writer, test-item specialist, editor, and teacher trainer. He specialises in developing high-quality ELT materials, with a particular focus on test-item writing, formative assessment, global skills development, pronunciation, communicative grammar, and mediation. His work includes items for international exams and publications for leading academic publishers such as Oxford University Press. An award winning author, he received the 2020 British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources. Riccardo frequently publishes on a variety of ELT-related topics, such as assessment, teaching methodology, and global skills development, presenting his work at national and international conferences. Riccardo spends his free time immersed in hard science fiction, with Arthur C. Clarke’s masterpieces being among his favourites. 

Erika Osvath MEd in Maths, DTEFLA, is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer, life coach and co-author with Edmund Dudley of Mixed Ability Teaching (Into the Classroom series, OUP). Before becoming a freelance trainer in 2009, she worked for International House schools for 16 years in Eastern and Central Europe, where she worked as a YL co-ordinator, trainer on CELTA, LCCI,1-1, Business English, YL and VYL courses, and Director of Studies. She has extensive experience in teaching and mentoring. Her main interests lie in helping teachers to bring out the best of both themselves as well as of their learners in both face-to-face and online teaching.

Nick Thorneris a teacher and writer based in Oxford at d'Overbroeck's school. He has engaged in both teaching and teacher training in a variety of international contexts, including Italy, Latin America and the Middle East and has many years' experience preparing students from around the world for IELTS exams and UK university courses. He has authored two course books including Foundation IELTS Masterclass and is author of professional development title Motivational Teaching. Nick is also involved in academic research and has recently contributed a chapter on demotivation to the Palgrave Handbook of Motivation for Language Learning and co-authored a position paper for OUP on motivation and social learning.

Nate Owen is Senior Research and Analysis Manager at Oxford University Press. He holds a PhD in language testing from the University of Leicester specialising in L2 reading processes. His research interests and publications include the interface of language testing and technology, big data analytics, the use of language tests in English-medium instruction contexts, research methods and widening participation in higher education. He has presented work at multiple national and international conferences including Language Testing Forum (LTF), Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC) and Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE). 

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co-editor of several books in this area. She has served as Principal Investigator on several funded research projects, has worked on the editorial board of various journals, is co-editor of Multilingual Matters’ Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching book series, is currently president of IAPLL, and is ambassador for IATEFL.

Neil Ainsworth is involved in ELT for over 20 years working as a teacher, teacher trainer, and director of studies in Australia, Ireland and Spain. He now works in the Educational Solutions team at OUP as a Professional Development consultant .He is especially interested in Technology, Mediation, and Assessment. Neil creates and delivers material on a wide range of PD topics both in Spain, where he is based, and internationally. He also writes for the Oxford Teachers’ Academy.