About the authors

Jane Boylan

Jane Boylan is a freelance author, consultant, and creator of ESL materials for print and digital resources. She has worked for a range of publishers and educational organisations, creating and developing language learning materials for young learners and teachers of English. She has taken a leading role in educational resource projects for specific cultural contexts in East Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, West Africa and Kazakhstan, consulting on content development and classroom application. Formerly, Jane worked on British Council teacher development projects primarily in East Asia, managing, writing and delivering a diverse range of training courses to state sector primary and secondary teachers of English. Earlier in her career, she worked as an English language teacher in Spain, Portugal, Thailand and Vietnam.

Claire Medwell

Passionate about quality English teaching, Claire Medwell is a teacher, teacher trainer and independent materials writer. She has 26 years of experience in ELT and ESL specializing in infant and primary learners. Her publications include Cambridge Global English Stages 4–6 and the New Fun Skills 1 and 2.

Nicola Mabbott

Nicola Mabbott is a linguist who began her teaching career in Nottingham, England in 1998, teaching English as a Foreign Language to young adults. Since then, she has taught learners of all abilities and ages (from kindergarten age to retired adults) in Italy. She also regularly works as a Tutor in English for Academic Purposes. Nicola has been writing for a variety publishers in the UK and Italy – mostly resources for teachers of EFL to young learners and adolescents - for over 10 years. These resources include games, quizzes, communicative activities, worksheets, self study resources, short stories and reading and listening activities for school course books.

Nicola has a passion for language and languages and also works as a translator.

Kathryn Harper

Kathryn Harper is a freelance writer, publisher and consultant. Early on in her career, she worked as an English Language teacher in France and Canada. As an international publisher at Macmillan and Oxford University Press, she published teaching materials for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Latin America. Her freelance work includes publishing reading schemes, writing electronic materials, language courses and stories for markets around the world. Her primary French whiteboard course for Nelson Thornes, Rigolo, won the 2008 BETT award. She also volunteers as an English teacher for child refugees and a mentor for young African writers.

Helen Tiliouine

Helen Tiliouine is an experienced teacher and writer of test materials. She is currently Chair for Cambridge English Young Learners Reading and Writing exams at Cambridge Assessment. She has been Chair for Cambridge Secondary Checkpoint tests and a writer for Cambridge Primary Checkpoint tests.

Alison Sharpe

Alison Sharpe is a freelance teacher, writer and publisher. She started her career teaching English in Japan, Taiwan and the UK. She then worked for many years at Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press publishing learning, teaching, exams and assessment materials for teachers and students all around the world. As a freelancer, she has been involved in a wide range of projects, including developing online teacher training materials, the assessment of children’s writing and editing language learning materials for young learners and adults. She is also currently a part time tutor of academic literacy at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education.