An Expert You Admire

There are lots of interesting people related to my field of Applied Linguists and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The first one who really had any lasting effect on my Teaching was a man called David Nunan. He's an Australian who has worked in lots of different countries and today he is one of the most respected English language teaching experts on a world level.

I first heard about him in the year 2000. I was involved in a course that was supervised by an Australian University here in Santiago. One of the visiting professors referred to Nunan's work and I decided to investigate.

I admire Nunan because he actually started out as a teacher and therefore he knows all the in and outs of teaching. Additionally, he has written some excellent books on teaching that are really accessible to teachers and not just academics. My favourite book by him is Language Teaching Methodology, which is the first one that I read. However, he has also written really good books on Task-based Learning, and Learner-Centred Teaching and Learning. A lot of the things that he writes about are very practical and I guess he is the person who has most influenced my teaching over the last ten years or so. Nunan introduced me to a lot of new ideas about what is to teach without forgetting that the learner is the most important element of the equation.

Write about an expert you admire.
Say:
Who it is,
What their area of expertise is,
How you heard about this person,
Why you admire him or her
What effect they have had on your studies.

Mention anything else you thing is important. Write a comment on your teacher's blog and on the blogs of at least 3 classmates.