Meet the Oxford TEFL team

Duncan Foord
Director of Teacher Training

Qualifications: MEd in TESOL, Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL).

Duncan has been teaching and training teachers for 25 years in Spain, the UK, France and the Czech Republic. He also works as a CertTESOL moderator for Trinity College, London. He has a Trinity DipTESOL and MEd in TESOL.

He is co-author, with Lindsay Clandfield, of the Language Teacher's Survival Handbook (Its Magazines, 2007) and The Developing Teacher (Delta publishing, 2009).

He is a regular presenter at conferences on a range of areas, in particular teacher development and leadership and management in ELT.

Anna Stubbs
Course Director (Barcelona)

Qualifications: Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL), BA (Hons) degree in European Business and Spanish.

Anna joined OxfordTEFL in September 2001. She has a BA (Hons) degree in European Business and Spanish as well as the Trinity Diploma.

She works on our Certificate course as both a Teaching Practice tutor and as one of the phonology input tutors.

Her love of (nearly) all things Spanish brought her to Barcelona after a 3 month trip to South America. She can usually be found eating and drinking around town.

Regina Cardenas
Careers Advisor & TESOL Administrator (Barcelona)

Qualifications: BA in Psychology, Trinity Certificate in TESOL (CertTESOL).

Regina was born in Mexico City and has always known that traveling around the world from one place to another immersing herself in new cultures is her thing.

She’s been teaching since she was 19 years old and loves making others smile any way she can. Helping find a TEFL job, giving reiki therapy, shiatsu massages, or hugs, you name it!

She’s known to burst into song out of the blue every once in a while and for being a bottomless pit when it comes to eating sushi.

She’s a child at heart with a constant soundtrack in her life who lives by the motto “love life and live love”.

Violeta Stefanovska
Course Tutor - Barcelona

Qualifications: Degree in English Language and Literature, MA in Applied Linguistics, Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL).

Violeta has been with us since 2006 when she moved to Barcelona after teaching English for 12 years in Macedonia.

Apart from the Trinity  Diploma in TESOL, which she completed with OxfordTEFL, she holds a degree in English Language and Literature and an MA in Applied Linguistics.

Her interests comprise learning strategies, student motivation and teacher-friendly teaching. She loves Barcelona and enjoys wandering around the Barrio Gotico and feeding the fish and the seagulls at Maremagnum.

Catalina Dumitrescu
Course Tutor - Barcelona

Qualifications: Degree in English and French, MA in Marketing and Business Communication.

Cat has a degree in English and French, and she's taught English to adults and young learners in Romania, England, Slovakia, Poland and Spain. In 2004 she did a Master's Degree in Marketing and Business Communication to get a taste of something different as well as some help with teaching Business English.

She's also worked as an in-house trainer for a TV station and has got to watch programmes (to check the subtitles) as part of her job.

Cat loves rollerblading and dancing and she is fascinated by child development and all things linguistic.  Her challenge at the moment is to learn Spanish and test various learning theories on herself.

David Young
Course Director (Prague)

Qualifications: Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL), HND in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management.

David joined the team in October 2001 having worked teaching a variety of courses in both the Czech Republic and Spain since 1993.

From a first EFL job teaching in summer camps to kids, he has gone on to teach exam preparation courses, design and run various ESP (English for Special Purposes) courses for engineers, management and Human Resources at a large multi-national in Syria, and worked as Director of Studies for a language school in Prague.

Since taking the Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL, David has run teacher training courses in Barcelona, Madrid, Hong Kong, Paris and Prague.

David enjoys table football, cooking and going to concerts.

Adrian Marriott
Course Tutor - Prague

Qualifications: Bsc (Hons) Economics and Industrial Relations, Post Grad Diploma in Strategic Human Resource Management, Trinity CertTESOL.

After working for over 15 years in the Finance and Waste Management sector in a variety of positions including HR, Training and Development, Adrian decided it was time for a change and took the Cert TESOL in 2005. Since then he has mainly worked in Prague and has undertaken a variety of roles including Senior Teacher and ADOS (with responsibility for teacher development).

He specialised in teaching Business English and designed and run various ESP courses for IT staff, sales and marketing departments, HR teams and call centre staff.

Adrian's passion for people development led him to join the Oxford TEFL team in Prague, where he is a tutor and in-house teacher.

In his spare time, Adrian can be found at various venues around Prague listening to live music or sampling the culinary delights of the Czech capital. He is renowned for his Indian homestyle cooking, but be warned: his curries are not for the faint-hearted!

Vincent Deieso
Course Co-ordinator - Prague

Vinny has been living in Prague since 2006. He was an aircraft mechanic for three years, but needed a change. He tends to do foolish things without thinking them through, and it works out for him about 50% of the time.

He is witty, sarcastic, and likes writing about himself in the third person. He likes to read, play games, and go out. His goal is to go everywhere and meet everyone.

Sean Hayward
Course Tutor - Prague

Qualifications: Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL), Trinity Certificate in TESOL (CertTESOL), Degree in English Literature and Social Psychology.

Before becoming an English teacher, Sean worked in banking, retail, youth training, industry, and as a musician, having graduated in English Literature and Social Psychology from Lancaster University in 1983. He entered the ELT industry in 1997 after completing the Trinity Cert. TESOL in Barcelona through Oxford TEFL where founders and directors, Duncan and Nick, were his tutors. He worked in Barcelona for six years, teaching in-company, exam preparation classes and general English for children, teenagers and adults.

He completed the Trinity Licentiate Diploma at OxfordTEFL, Barcelona in June 2002 and started working there as a Teaching Practice tutor the following September. In August 2003 he travelled to Prague to help out on one of the courses there and decided to stay. He now combines teaching several private classes with being a regular tutor on the CertTESOL course.

Sinéad Laffan
Course Tutor/Careers Advisor - Prague

Qualifications: Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL (DipTESOL), BA in English Literature, Sociology & Politics , MA in Film, Culture & Society, Trinity Certificate in TESOL (CertTESOL).

Sinéad joined the Prague team in the autumn of 2008 when she moved to the Czech Republic to teach English. She has worked with adults and young learners in Prague and has taught both Business and General English. She now divides her time between her work on the Cert TESOL as a teaching practise tutor, teaching the Unknown Language Course and providing careers advice and support as well as teaching advanced students.

Her hobbies include singing, going to concerts and playing cards.

Robert Weeks
Head of teacher training - London

Qualifications: Cambridge DELTA

My name is Robert and I’m the Head of Teacher Training here at TEFL London.

I began teaching English back in 1998 when I went to live in Mexico for several years. I later worked in schools both in the UK and Spain and have taught Business English to corporate clients as well as to General English students from all walks of life and from many nationalities.

After taking my DELTA, I first became a teacher trainer on the Trinity TESOL courses in 2005, and then went on to become Director of Studies for the past few years; I hope I can bring this experience of different roles within the EFL industry to help new trainees starting out in this exciting career.

I have enjoyed my return to training immensely, and guiding people towards becoming successful teachers is extremely rewarding. I hope you choose to train with us.

Dani Jones
Course Director (Cádiz)

Qualifications: BA in French, Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) and Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Delta)

Dani has been teaching EFL since 1995. She taught in the UK, Turkey and Costa Rica before finally settling in Spain in 2001.

Dani spent a couple of years teaching in Seville before the Andalucian coast lured her down to Cádiz. Her extensive teaching background includes experience in General English, Young learners, Business English and exam preparation classes.

Dani is also an Oral examiner and has spoken various conferences in Spain and Costa Rica.

Simon Pearlman
TYLE Course Director/DOS/Course Tutor (Cadiz)

Qualifications: BA in English, Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA)

Having started out his professional life in sales & marketing Simon got the teaching calling back in 1997 and since then has taught general English to both adults and children, academic and business classes in Turkey, the UK, Costa Rica and Spain.

He has held various senior teaching positions in the UK and Spain all involving a significant amount of teacher training. Simon is also a trained examiner for the Cambridge Young Learners Exams.

Teresa Bestwick
Course Tutor (Cadiz)

Qualifications: BA in European Studies, Trinity Certificate in TESOL (CertTESOL), Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Young Learners (CELTYL)

T has been teaching in Andalucía since 2004 and has also worked in various positions in UK summer schools.  She has experience teaching a wide variety of ages and levels, and has also taught exam preparation classes and in-house business classes.  

She is very keen on professional development and has spoken at conferences throughout Spain, as well as founding TEFL del Sur, which offers development sessions for teachers in the Cádiz area.  

She also writes a blog filled with ideas for TEFL teachers, "Views from the Whiteboard"

Ceri Jones
Unknown Language Tutor/Course Tutor (Cadiz)

Qualifications: MA in TEFL

Ceri has been working in the world of ELT for over 25 years. She has worked as a teacher, trainer, and DOS in Italy, Hungary, Spain and the UK.  She holds an MA in TEFL from Reading University and has run workshops and teacher development sessions at a number of national and international conferences.

Over the last ten years she has been increasingly involved in materials development and has contributed to a number of adult coursebook series (Inside Out, Framework, Straightforward, The Big Picture) as well as writing grammar practice books (Practical Grammar) and supplementary material for Macmillan Readers and onestopenglish. She writes a blog called Close Up.

See Ceri's profile on the Macmillan website.