Meet with the Executive Committee
Ros Wright
PresidentRelations with TESOL Inc, IATEFL, affiliates, Past Presidents, Events Coordinator
In 1989 and after an initial disastrous experience as lectrice I vowed would never teach again! My luck changed in ‘92 when I completed an internship with Penguin France and was paid in books!! Maybe publishing was more my thing (?) A few months later and I found myself in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo about to embark on a three year stint teaching English to the Japanese: a fantastic experience that at last gave me a taste for teaching. A ‘chance’ redundancy after a few years as Responsable Pedagogique in a school in Paris forced me to rethink my future. So an MA in EFL Materials Design was the next step. I then joined TESOL France to further satisfy my thirst for [ELT] knowledge. Now virtually full circle, I am establishing a career in publishing as a freelance editor and materials writer, specialising in English for Medical Purposes
As an active member of the TESOL France ExCom I am kept very busy organising BESIG workshops, maintaining and developing links with the publishers as well as working with the Events team on the annual Colloquium and Spring Days.
Bethany Cagnol
Vice-PresidentBest of BESIG 2 and Colloquium 2008 Coordinator, Promotions Coordinator
American, Bethany Cagnol met her French-American husband in a carwash 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. Always looking to expand her pedagogical horizons, she looks forward to working with the Executive Committee to bring together tomorrow’s realms of teaching and research.
Annie Gresle
Past President
I started teaching English way back in 1968 and then some of my students were my age! As a French native I have always felt I needed to improve my skills. That is one of the reasons why I travelled as much as possible in English-speaking countries be it Malta, Trinidad, Canada, Australia or even Great Britain and the US. I also prepared the French degree called the "agrégation" which I obtained once my children had finished their secondary studies and I felt I could spare more time for myself. This period included my discovery of TESOL with the Special Interest Group on using video in the classroom where I found ideas to improve one of the French BTS exams. I am grateful to all Tesolers who have helped me to expand my interest in English teaching and hope to be involved in our events in the future.
Sophie Pietrucci
General Secretary & Publishers/Supporters Coordinator
I 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’ve 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;m currently working in several different Engineering Schools, Business Schools and Grandes Ecoles.
Michael Ashworth
Past President & Association Advisor
Michael is British and has lived in France for 15 years. After studying history at Cambridge, he trained with Arthur Andersen in London as an auditor and then worked as a Management Accountant in an Opera company for seven years. On moving to France, he worked for nine years in a language school, combining financial and administrative duties with teaching. He also taught English at a Grande Ecole. For the last five years, he has been a freelance teacher specializing in English for Finance and in Business Communication. He was TESOL France BESIG Co-ordinator for five years before becoming President in January 2006.
Françoise Brown
Editorial Team & Helper
Françoise 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
Nataliya Chernyuk
Promotions Team
I have worked as a teacher of English in the center of foreign languages ÒForward Center" and "British American Tobacco Ukraine" in Kiev.
I have had excellent opportunities to teach a variety of English courses during my graduate studies, including first-year writing for second language students, academic writing and English public speaking. I was involved in enormous collaborations at university level.
I have a Master's degree in both Political Science and English ("Professional Translations"). I'm graduated in Culture Studies with specialization "Teaching Methodology of Culture Studies".
I have an extensive experience of translation and interpretation for various french and foreign companies in different fields such as communication, journalism, international trade.
I'm deeply interested in educational work and teaching advancement.
TESOL France it's a really great opportunity to share experiences and disseminate teaching ideas, discuss methods and approaches that could make EFL teaching more relevant.
Erin Douglas
Publishers/Supporters Team
Gillian Evans
Membership & Secretarial Team
My 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.
Colin Mackenzie
Relations with IATEFL
I have been an English Teacher and Director of Studies for fifteen years in Slovenia, Italy, the UK and, for the last six years, France. During this time I have always thought that membership in professional organisations is essential for personal and professional growth. On joining TESOL-France and mentioning at my first colloquium that perhaps we could be using email to contact members, I became responsible for electronic communication. I am also heavily involved with IATEFL, with a particular interest in teacher development, and hope that through this involvement I can help forge stronger links between IATEFL and TESOL France.
John Overton
Treasury Team
Marianne Raynaud
TESOL France Regional Coordinator
Marianne 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.
Joan Sobota
Treasury Team Coordinator
Mary Vigier
Assistant Editor of The Teaching Times
Mary has American and French nationalities. She started her career at Michelin Tire Corporation in Greenville, South Carolina before moving to France where she joined the teaching profession.
She is the English Department Chair and International Relations Manager for Anglo-Saxon Programs at the ESC Clermont Graduate School of Management in Clermont-Ferrand. She co-authored, with Michael Bryant, Henri Caquot, Kevin Metz, and David Sheehan, Mastering Business English: A Learning Resource Book, Chiron Editeur, Paris, 2004. She has been editor of the TESOL France newsletter since 2003.
She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in French from Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina (U.S.A.); a Certificate in French Language and Culture from the Alliance Française, Institut Catholique and Institut Britannique, Paris, France; and a Licence and Maîtrise d’Anglais at Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Laurence Whiteside
Membership Coordinator & Treasury Team
I 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 take up a lecteur post at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, and became involved with TESOL France in 2006. After passing the CAPES exams in 2007, I am currently teaching teenagers in a collège just outside Paris.
Sab Will
Editor of The Teaching Times
Sab Will has been teaching English in France and Greece for nearly 15 years. He has taught all levels and ages, from 5-year-olds at the British Council's Young Learners Centre to retired ladies in the Mairie of the chic 16th arrondissement in Paris. He has worked with the British Institute, the Chamber of Commerce, Pilgrims in the UK, several French language schools, universities, and large and small companies of all types. He also set up and ran a private language school for children in Greece. Sab is currently working on a teachers resource book for Cambridge University Press and also runs the Hotch Potch English web site for English learners and their teachers. He holds the Cambridge DELTA and is editor of the TESOL France newsletter. In his other life he runs his Paris Set Me Free photography business.
I started teaching English way back in 1968 and then some of my students were my age! As a French native I have always felt I needed to improve my skills. That is one of the reasons why I travelled as much as possible in English-speaking countries be it Malta, Trinidad, Canada, Australia or even Great Britain and the US. I also prepared the French degree called the "agrégation" which I obtained once my children had finished their secondary studies and I felt I could spare more time for myself. This period included my discovery of TESOL with the Special Interest Group on using video in the classroom where I found ideas to improve one of the French BTS exams. I am grateful to all Tesolers who have helped me to expand my interest in English teaching and hope to be involved in our events in the future.
I 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’ve 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;m currently working in several different Engineering Schools, Business Schools and Grandes Ecoles.
Michael is British and has lived in France for 15 years. After studying history at Cambridge, he trained with Arthur Andersen in London as an auditor and then worked as a Management Accountant in an Opera company for seven years. On moving to France, he worked for nine years in a language school, combining financial and administrative duties with teaching. He also taught English at a Grande Ecole. For the last five years, he has been a freelance teacher specializing in English for Finance and in Business Communication. He was TESOL France BESIG Co-ordinator for five years before becoming President in January 2006.
Françoise 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.
My 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.
I have been an English Teacher and Director of Studies for fifteen years in Slovenia, Italy, the UK and, for the last six years, France. During this time I have always thought that membership in professional organisations is essential for personal and professional growth. On joining TESOL-France and mentioning at my first colloquium that perhaps we could be using email to contact members, I became responsible for electronic communication. I am also heavily involved with IATEFL, with a particular interest in teacher development, and hope that through this involvement I can help forge stronger links between IATEFL and TESOL France.
Mary has American and French nationalities. She started her career at Michelin Tire Corporation in Greenville, South Carolina before moving to France where she joined the teaching profession.
She is the English Department Chair and International Relations Manager for Anglo-Saxon Programs at the ESC Clermont Graduate School of Management in Clermont-Ferrand. She co-authored, with Michael Bryant, Henri Caquot, Kevin Metz, and David Sheehan, Mastering Business English: A Learning Resource Book, Chiron Editeur, Paris, 2004. She has been editor of the TESOL France newsletter since 2003.
She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in French from Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina (U.S.A.); a Certificate in French Language and Culture from the Alliance Française, Institut Catholique and Institut Britannique, Paris, France; and a Licence and Maîtrise d’Anglais at Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
I 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 take up a lecteur post at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, and became involved with TESOL France in 2006. After passing the CAPES exams in 2007, I am currently teaching teenagers in a collège just outside Paris.
Sab Will has been teaching English in France and Greece for nearly 15 years. He has taught all levels and ages, from 5-year-olds at the British Council's Young Learners Centre to retired ladies in the Mairie of the chic 16th arrondissement in Paris. He has worked with the British Institute, the Chamber of Commerce, Pilgrims in the UK, several French language schools, universities, and large and small companies of all types. He also set up and ran a private language school for children in Greece. Sab is currently working on a teachers resource book for Cambridge University Press and also runs the Hotch Potch English web site for English learners and their teachers. He holds the Cambridge DELTA and is editor of the TESOL France newsletter. In his other life he runs his Paris Set Me Free photography business.