My name is Laura and I’m an English teacher. For the purposes of this blog on English language teaching materials, that is my defining quality! Scroll down to find out that I also have other interests.

I have now been teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for five years. What began as an interest in powerless language and hedges as a 16 year old, grew into a love for phonology and global Englishes as an 18 year old. Four years later and I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an undergraduate degree in Linguistics and English Language. I took the traditional (cheap, non-committal) route into EFL teaching by completing an online TEFL course and then hopefully throwing my CV at anyone who might be interested in learning my mother tongue. Three months of terrifying volunteer work later and I finally had some credible evidence that I was, in fact, ready to cross the (rather small) pond to Europe and take charge of my first real class.

Over the past five years, I have had some wonderful teaching experiences and some downright awful teaching experiences, both those that reaffirmed my excellent decision to go into teaching and those that made me seriously question, well, everything. Having dedicated a large amount of brain space to the educational cause, I realised that what had started as an EFL adventure was fast becoming my career. The decision to study TESOL at masters level came from wanting to understand in more depth the theories, research and constructs that underpin my daily practice.

This blog serves at the assessment for the TE714 English Language Teaching Materials module at the University of Brighton. Here I will publish a record of what I have learnt each week, things that have captured my interest and ideas that require further exploration. I welcome constructive criticism (and, of course, praise!) and opportunities to discuss ideas.

As eluded to above, I’m not just an English teaching machine. I’m also a seamstress and a yoga fan. I like cats, cakes and cooking, walking and tapas. I am learning Spanish and hope one day to pass my C2 exam… let’s hope there are some good materials out there.