Meet the Speakers – 40th Annual ETAS Conference 2024

Plenary speaker

Dr Anne Wiseman has worked in the field of English and education for over 20 years and is currently Regional English Lead for the British Council in EU Europe. Her areas of focus are measuring the impact of English projects and developing language education projects to support teachers working in a multilingual context. Anne has vast experience of teaching, teacher training and managing education projects in countries across the world, including Egypt, China, the Middle East, Italy, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Peru, Lebanon, and most recently Sudan and Ethiopia. She has published various books and articles on the topics of inclusive education and teaching in multilingual classrooms. Anne has an MA in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Education which focuses on evaluating the long-term impact of education interventions.

Speakers

Anna Bennett is an experienced teacher and teacher trainer. She is currently Head of Product Support (English Language) for Trinity College London, Italy and Switzerland. Her main interests are how to implement technology-enhanced teaching to enrich the learning-teaching experience, and identifying how technology can really add value to language teaching and learning.

Sirja Bessero has more than 15 years’ experience as an English teacher in a Swiss vocational school in the canton of Valais. Besides helping her learners grow into confident language users, Sirja provides support as a school mediator and is in charge of the Matura courses. Combining these various roles has given her a broad vision and a deep understanding of the current state of affairs in Swiss vocational education. As a long-time member of ETAS, Sirja is a firm believer in the impact our association can have on inspiring and motivating teachers.

Dina Blanco-Ioannou has over 20 years of teaching experience and is a long-standing ETAS member and teacher educator at the PH FHNW, Institute for Secondary Education. Her diverse cultural background adds a unique perspective to language education. Always learning and growing, Dina nurtures a full-dimensional learning environment, dedicated to teaching the whole person.

Meg Einhorn is Swiss, having lived most of her life on the shore of lake Biel. She has taught English and French to learners of various ages. She enjoys nature and art.

Jillaine Farrar is a lecturer and Head of the Exchange Program at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Business (Hochschule Luzern-Wirtschaft). She is the Co-President of SIETAR Switzerland (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) and Associate Editor of the Swiss Journal of International Education, Training and Research.

Jane Kaskova (Ievgeniia) is an ESL teacher, trainer and Cambridge speaking examiner. She has been teaching general English, business English and exam preparation courses (Cambridge, IELTS, TOEFL) for over 15 years. Jane is CELTA certified, has a master’s degree in Economics, and a NILE diploma with distinction “Prepare your students for IELTS”. Currently, Jane is a teacher training manager at EF Teach Online and a Cambridge examiner at CEL-Cambridge English Languages. Jane has delivered teacher development courses in the Ukraine and abroad on topics such as train the trainer, professional development, and helping learners to prepare for exams. She is the founder of the Global English language centre in the Ukraine. As an educator, Jane believes in a mission to change the world through the power of education and it led her to represent her country in Davos (WEF) as a panellist in 2017. She takes part in dynamic global initiatives and conferences.

Nicole Küpfer is a trained English and drama teacher, who enjoys improvisation, with over three decades of teaching experience at high school, vocational school and university. She keenly believes in holistic, analogue teaching for effective learning by blending drama, writing and voice in her teaching.

Jayne Kyte has over 32 years’ experience in ELT here in Switzerland. She is a freelance teacher/teacher trainer with experience in general and business English as well as teaching for exams. She has been a CELTA trainer since 2014 working with Academia in Basel and CEL in St. Gallen. More recently, Jayne has begun working with teens at an international school where she supports and improves their level of English for them to study for the International Baccalaureate.

Dorinda Maio-Phillips, originally from London, finds Switzerland an ideal place to teach English as it is truly used as a lingua franca here. As an officially semi-retired independent teacher, she has lively lessons in her home for older students, but also enjoys helping youngsters as they start their careers.

Ian McMaster is a business communication consultant, author and journalist. He was editor-in-chief of Business Spotlight magazine from 2001 to 2021 and is a former coordinator of IATEFL Business English SIG. His latest publication (with Bob Dignen) is Trainingsbuch Business English – Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit in internationalen Teams(Haufe, 2023).

Ridha Mejri grew up in a bilingual and bicultural environment namely Arabic and French. He has lived, studied and worked in several countries. Thus he is very familiar with the customs, behaviour and business etiquette of the Arab world, but also Germany where he has lived for more than 20 years. This helped him form a solid base for his intercultural expertise. He holds a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Heidelberg University and a TEFL certificate from the University of East Anglia in Norwich. He is currently a lecturer for business communication and intercultural management at the Worms University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He has worked as an in-company trainer and consultant for many years. He offers seminars and workshops to top executives and expats who would like to improve their intercultural skills and management competence. He speaks Arabic, English, French, German and Italian.

Gina Rodriguez has over 25 years’ experience in ELT. She is the founder of GR School Marketing, supporting language schools and ELT professionals to grow their social media presence to attract and retain more students. Gina provides social media training, talks and consultancy for language schools and teachers. She blogs about social media marketing for language education and education trends in ELT at www.grschoolmarketing.com

Mary Schnueriger is both a teacher and teacher trainer, in the field since 1987. Her teaching style is inspired by practical experience as both a student and as a teacher. She has a unique take on what worked, what didn’t and what made people go hmmm? She has taught around the world and loves trying new things, changing it up and inspiring herself and her students to find joy in their lessons and their learning. Because if you are bored, so are your students.

Leo Selivan: Over his almost 20 years in ELT, Leo Selivan has worked as a teacher, senior teacher, examiner, trainer and materials developer. Today, he lectures on graduate and postgraduate courses for teachers and editors. He is the author of Lexical Grammar (CUP, 2018) and Activities for Alternative Assessment (Delta Publishing, 2021).

Lee Shutler is Principal at Hilderstone College, a post he has held through Brexit and Covid. Yet he still occasionally smiles. He keeps sane by running, cycling and looking after three truculent greyhounds. His approach to teaching has always been “student first”.

Samvidha Srinath is a student training to become a teacher at the FHNW. She is currently teaching French to a class of secondary school students in the canton of Zürich. Apart from teaching, she loves learning about how language works and how it is learned and enjoys learning new languages. When she has time for herself, she blogs on her website www.booksandcoffee.me , plays chess and enjoys singing and dancing.

Geoff Tranter has been teaching at C2 level for many years at Dortmund Technical University. He has a wide experience of teaching and test design at C1/C2 levels and has offered a number of training workshops for teachers in higher, further and adult education at many international conferences including ETAS.

Carol Waites teaches English to master’s students in HES-SO and writing skills to medical professionals in WHO globally. She is Publications Chair for ETAS and a qualified proofreader and editor. She worked as a trainer in international organizations for over 20 years and is now a consultant.

Cynthia Werner works as Academic and Government Relations Manager DACH for ETS Global B.V. With her background as an ELT, school director and manager of a teacher training academy, as well as a consultant for school development and quality and international affairs, she specializes in English language methodology and assessment, and strategic development in education.

Lynn Williams is an experienced teacher of upper-secondary English language and literature in the Swiss public school system. She has held seminars, talks, workshops and consultations in teacher education since 2010. Lynn’s professional interests include assessment, bilingual education, differentiated instruction, and literature and culture in the ELT classroom.