Meet with the Executive Committee and Hepers
Bethany Cagnol
PresidentRelations with TESOL Inc, IATEFL, Affiliates
Spring Day and Colloquium 2010 Coordinator
American, Bethany Cagnol met her French-American husband in a car wash while completing her BA at the University of Virginia, USA, in 1999. In 2002 she moved with him to Paris where she discovered the joys of teaching English to adults. The year 2006 was a busy one in which she received her MA in Teaching Second and Foreign Languages at the University of London Institute in Paris, founded her own freelance teaching business, International Customer, and joined the TESOL France Executive Committee. Thanks to the contacts she's made through the association she has spoken at IATEFL, IATEFL BESIG, IATEFL Poland, and the American University of Paris Conferences. She recently began writing for the publisher Cornelsen. Her professional interests include Business English, Testing and Assessment, Teacher Development, English for Specific Purposes, English as an International Language, and Materials Design.
Debbie West
Vice-President2010 Spell Event and Workshops Coordinator
Debbie West, UC Berkeley grad, brought up in a military family, has done almost everything from teaching French to being International Student Advisor in the United States to now teaching English to all levels and ages here in France. An educator at heart she sees education as broader than in a classroom and is definitely not very traditional in her methods. With a love for developing programs and an ever-present bank of ideas, there never seems to be enough time, energy and money to do everything. Being single helps and sometimes doesn't. Here in France she is an independent (after all the accountants were just "trying to help") and teach English and do a bit of translation. Debbie is a Representative for the International Business Program at UC Berkeley Extension, and is trying to develop a Total Summer Immersion English Program (in August). She tries to do her part in developing people's English skills. She can be reached using her website: westlanguage.com.
James Beneson
Tech Advisor
Shara Brennan
Membership and Events TeamI started teaching English in Rome Italy in 2004 after trying out different careers in the UK previously (ranging from Sales and marketing to aromatherapist) I started teaching Air Traffic Controllers English for special purposes and I really enjoyed it. After that I moved on to different companies teaching business and general English. I decided to take the CELTA course in 2006 and that lead to better job opportunities in Rome, working with International House and also other companies that specialise in business English. I have done 3 summer schools in London and found them very rewarding. I moved to France from Italy in September and since then I have been working for Berlitz 4 days per week. I continue to enjoy teaching and my interest areas are teacher development, training and building creativity.
Françoise Brown
Events HelperFrançoise is French, but has a Scottish father, hence the bilingual name. She studied English at Paris IV-Sorbonne, where she got her Doctorate (British "civilization") in 1986. Françoise taught in French secondary schools in France (Mouy, Oise: 1980-1983) and Tunisia (Lycée Français de la Marsa : 1998-2001). She also taught English for Specific Purposes in a Tunisian Faculty of Sciences (Monastir: 1985-1998). She has been teaching speaking and translation at the Faculté des Langues of the Université de Picardie in Amiens since 2001. She is the coordinator of the Department of Applied Languages (Langues Etrangères Appliquées) there.
John Cagnol
Webmaster Helper
Vera Dickman
Telecom ParisTech Helper
Gillian Evans
General Secretary, Publishing and Secretarial TeamMy working life and professional career began not as a teacher, but as a production assistant in the Latin American Service of the BBC. As both my parents were teachers, I thought there were enough in the family, so decided to use my language degree in other ways. From working in Latin America Embassies and in companies as a translator in both England and France, I gained an insight into the business world and the life of a company. I never regretted my decision to study for a teaching diploma and for the past twelve years have been teaching business English in a variety of large companies, and designing programs for students of English in all fields of industry. I have given evening classes at the Mairie de Paris and organized programs for the unemployed. I am now very happy to help on the TESOL ExCom team. The teaching world is my world.
Eric Halvorsen
The Teaching Times Contributor and Events TeamOriginally from Connecticut, my interest in languages and English teaching has led me to spend the last ten years of my life abroad. After finishing my B.A. at McGill University in Montreal I began my ELT career in northern France with middle school students. From there I moved on to Mexico City where I was both a Business English trainer and a Spanish language student. In Mexico, I discovered I had a special interest in teaching adults in business contexts and decided to continue in this field of ELT when I moved to Paris in 2006. I also started my distance learning M.A. in TESOL with the University of Birmingham in 2006. I am currently completing my Masters dissertation on Task-Based Language Teaching for one-to-one Business English learners. My work as Head of the English Department and Business English trainer at a small language school in Paris and the work I have done for my M.A. have allowed me to learn more about and develop my skills in my specific areas of interest. Those areas are ELT methodology and TBLT, learner autonomy and the use of new technologies in the classroom. A member of TESOL France since 2008 and new to the Executive Committee, I will be actively involved with the Teaching Times, events planning/coordination and, in the future, developing a TESOL France blog.
Elaine Henry
Membership and Events TeamElaine, whose parents are Jamaican, was born and raised in England. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Spanish from the University of Bradford and then decided to make a life for herself in France. She tested a number of professional waters including PA work and English teaching. However, more exotic destinations (with warmer waters!) were on the horizon… A 3-and-a-half-year stint in Guadeloupe enabled her to complement her office skills with a graphic arts qualification. After returning to work in the UK, she took up an offer in Paris to become PA to the 'PDG' of an Afro-Caribbean radio station, Media Tropical, which is sadly now off-the-air. This closure was the perfect opening for Elaine to change directions and settle down doing what she really enjoyed: English language training. She gained experience working in language schools and trained to become a 'Formateur-Coach'. She then decided to take the plunge (or more like walk on water...) and become a self-employed English trainer ('indépendant').Her core purpose for language teaching is personal development of trainees. Using English to help them to communicate confidently is a means to this end. She also trains groups of professionals from the medical field who want to improve their oral communication skills in English.
Denny Packard
Jobs ListDenny Packard is an American who has lived and taught English in France since 1977, where he has taught slow learners in a largely immigrant middle school, companies, and Grandes Ecoles, all but two years of it in part-time positions. In addition, he worked for two years helping to train teachers for the Académie de Nancy-Metz. He has also done volunteer teaching to French prison inmates and drug addicts in a rehabilitation program. Managing the TESOL-France jobs list come rather naturally to him since he started working at the age of 11. He is a charter member of TESOL-France.
Sophie Pietrucci
Swap Shop HelperI am a French native speaker and I lived in The United States as a teenager and in the UK as a child and later as a French teacher. I first studied English at university in France and got my master’s degree specialised in American cinema. I also have a master’s degree in FLE (French as a foreign language), as well as in Sciences de l’Education (specialised in sociology and psychology).
As I have always been interested in languages, I studied Spanish, German and French sign language. I’ve travelled around the world (especially in Asia) to discover different cultures, languages and ways to communicate with people.
Thanks to TESOL, I have had the opportunity to meet other teachers and share fruitful ideas, and acquire more knowledge on teacher development which I could use right away in my teaching practice. I therefore never have the feeling that my job is in anyway repetitive. Belonging to this association really keeps me moving.
I am currently working in several different Engineering Schools, Business Schools and Grandes Ecoles.
Marianne Raynaud
TESOL France Grenoble Coordinator and The Teaching Times ContributorMarianne Raynaud is the author of QualityTime-ESL: The Digital Resource Book, consultant and speaker and creator of the podcast series "Better Speaking Skills" on iTunes. She was an English professor at the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France from 1980-2004. She has given several talks and workshops all over the country, including a TESOL France favorite, "Making Student Films." Marianne has many interests, and is most recently the coordinator for the brand new TESOL France - Grenoble.
Jane Ryder
TESOL France Strasbourg CoordinatorJane Ryder is the TESOL France Strasbourg Coordinator has been working for over ten years in EFL in the Alsace. For five years she was the pedagogic coordinator for Greta Nord Alsace, the continuing education branch of Education Nationale. In November 2010 she set up ESOL Strasbourg, in partnership with the Pole Formation of the CCI Strasbourg, to offer the CELTA & DELTA teaching qualifications. Jane is committed to changing the status of EFL teachers in France and, with TESOL France, intends to shake things up in the Alsace. She is a published writer (incl. ELT Journal) and holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from Leicester University. Previously she was a TV documentary maker, an ethologist and, in her words, sometimes failed revolutionary.
Laurence Whiteside
Treasurer & Electronic CommunicationsI started out teaching English in Spain in 1993, and have stayed in the profession continuously since then. I worked in the private and public sectors in England and ran a modern languages department in a further education college in Cambridge for 4 years. I was also active in my union both in my workplace and in the East Anglia region.
I moved to Paris in 2005 to join my partner (now wife) and take up a lecteur post, and I joined the TESOL France ExCom as Membership Secretary in 2006. I passed the CAPES exams in 2007, and I currently teach Business English in the UFR d'Economie et Gestion of the University of Cergy-Pontoise.
Ros Wright
Past PresidentTESOL France Regional Coordinator
Editor of The Teaching Times
I would describe my 16-year career in ELT as fairly rounded, having worked not only in teaching, teacher training and professional development, but also in publishing and more recently as a freelance materials writer. A career that has taken me to Japan, France and the UK, and one that spans most branches of the field; from general and business English, through ESP and EAP, to e-learning and exam preparation – including the USMLE oral component (equivalency exam for qualified foreign doctors wishing to practice in the US). Having earned an MA in Materials Development for Language Learners from Leeds Metropolitan University under the guidance of Brian Tomlinson in 2003, I have since co-authored Good Practice: Communication skills for medical practitioners (CUP), as well as online materials for nurses (onestopenglish.com) and an ESAP Medical English title for Garnet Education. Good Practice was short listed for the British Council 'Award for Innovation 2008' and has just received the first IATEFL BESIG/Macmillan 'David Riley Award for Innovation in Business and ESP'. I am an active member of TESOL France and having already completed a stint as Vice President, I am now in my second year as President. I have also recently been elected to the IATEFL Conference Proposals Committee. My fields of interest lie in ESP and the use of spoken corpora and audio-visuals in the training of effective communications skills.