Who are we?

Hi, I’m Shaun, one of the founders of Dublin TEFL. I started working in English Language Teaching back in 1999 when I took the Trinity Cert TESOL. I flew off to Japan soon after where I cut my TEFL teeth teaching adults in a language school chain and young learners in primary and secondary schools.

Returning home two years later, I lived in London for some years where I decided ELT was something I could do as a career and not just a job to support travelling around a bit. Once I’d diversified my experience a little, I decided to gain a higher level qualification to deepen my knowledge and look more at the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ of teaching. On gaining the DELTA in 2005 I was fortunate enough to pick up teacher training work quickly and soon became involved in initial teacher training, working on CELTA courses. Since that time I’ve worked on dozens of initial certificate and higher diploma courses for a range of institutions of all sizes and locations, including International House London and Barcelona, and the British Council in Milan. I’m also a CELTA assessor and involved in language assessment and exam quality monitoring.

Since becoming a teacher trainer, I’ve always tried to ensure I stay in touch with the everyday issues and realities of the profession by continuing to teach as well as train. I’ve worked in many geographical locations face to face as well as online, designing and delivering courses for general and specific purposes including business, legal, and academic English. I’ve also continued to study and try to develop academically by following courses and pursuing qualifications. A colleague of mine once said you should go back to school every seven years. In my case it took 10 years between gaining my Diploma and enrolling on a Masters, and then nearly 5 years to complete it part time, rather than the two I had planned for!

I understand the sacrifices we make when we take on study and work towards qualifications while continuing to balance work and life commitments (you can remind me I said this if you ever need to ask for an extension!).

I’m interested in all aspects of language learning and teaching, but key areas that stand out for me are listening processes, receptive phonology, spoken discourse, task-based language teaching and dealing with emerging language in the classroom. 

If you want to see more about who I’ve worked with, you can check my Linkedin profile.

Hi there. I’m Emma and the other half of Dublin TEFL. I started working in TEFL over 15 years ago when I signed up for a teaching abroad stint in South Korea. It was more about escaping than teaching at the time, but little did I know that it was also going to be the start of something kind of special.

After just over a year in Korea it was on to London to get some proper training. I took my CELTA and within a couple of short years I’d also done my DELTA and trained up as a CELTA trainer. In spite of regular trips to the virtual travel agents, I ended up spending 10 years in London working as a teacher and trainer. One of the things that kept me was an incredible team of teachers and trainers where I worked and the sense of community and innovation that was constantly going on around me. 

In London, I was able to satisfy my travel-fix needs thanks to the fact I was working with students and teachers from such an enormous range of countries and cultures. However, in 2015 I finally needed the real thing and so packed my bags for a bit of work-based globe-trotting via Saudi, Dublin and finally Barcelona, which then became my new home from 2016. 

As well as becoming a Cambridge DELTA and Trinity Diploma tutor, Barcelona was also where I got really involved in blended and distance learning. I spent 5 years working on the Cambridge Blended CELTA, Online Trinity Dip TESOL and writing and delivering bespoke distance learning programmes for teachers working in an array of contexts. The high point of this time was getting to design, manage and deliver IH Barcelona´s extremely successful Blended DELTA programme and getting to support candidates from all over the world.

I love keeping up to date with second language acquisition research and current trends in methodology however I can. Though my areas of interest are diverse and ever-evolving some constants have been all things task-based, classroom interaction and teacher development.

It´s funny how things come round full circle so 16 years later I´m now back in Dublin. The escapist in me has definitely calmed down but the feeling of excitement and passion for TEFL has only grown. I´m also ready for some more virtual travel again and I´m really looking forward to seeing how Dublin TEFL can help teachers from all over the globe.