My name is Derek, I’m a native Brit and a certified TESOL/TEFL trainer, with Business English specialisation.
I’ve been teaching Business English and BEC exam preparation in the classroom for the last 10 years and I’m really looking forward to reaching more people and not being restricted by geography.
I also have online course on Udemy and Skillshare and currently have over 300,000 learners.
You can benefit directly by asking questions and commenting on the posts. If you have any specific difficulties, let me know. I would much rather write about solutions to your problems and topics that benefit you.
So please feel free to comment and ask questions – I’m here to help.
Whilst you’re here, please take the time to subscribe – that way, you won’t miss out on any new articles.
You can contact me directly here.
Facebook Group
I also have a Facebook group for English learners of all levels. This is a place to ask questions and interact with others.
Fear of making mistakes is the number one factor holding people back. My Facebook group is a safe place where there are no wrong questions. It is a supportive environment for learners who wish to advance their language ability.
I was started learning “The Complete English Grammer” provided access by my employer, but that was for a week. I would like to join again personally but its cost is so high so can you give me any discount coupon.
You should have lifetime access (unless it was under the Udemy for Business scheme).
Interesting Derek. I got three ‘f’s. Who wouldn’t?
I just wrote this to a newspaper writer:
“Boeing had long failed to fix safety problems.”
“Nice try, Michael Laris, but you get no points for that headline. (Washington Post, 7/1/2019)
“The rule: The word ‘had’ does NOT belong in front of ANY past tense verb in the English language.”
How say you, Derek, to the ubiquitous ‘had’ problem?
.brad.7/2/2019.
Hi Brad,
Thanks for your comments and question.
To be honest, I don’t see the problem here – the Boeing sentence is an example of past perfect, a commonly used and valid tense.
If I missed the point, please let me know.
I’m very interested in accents but am feeling rather silly as I dont even know what TEFT or TESOL stand for. I seem to have a blindness when it comes to abbreviations for words/phrases.
Hi Pamela,
Thanks for stopping by.
TEFL and TESOL are acronyms for English teaching. TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language and TEFOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Both terms have nothing to do with accents, which is an interesting topic in itself.
Hi Derek: I came across your site through Twitter (which I do not use very often). I am a doctoral student in instructional technology and distance education. I also have a Master’s in TESOL. As I said, I am working on my doctoral. I have finished most of my core classes and have started the dissertation process. My topic has evolved from general ESL in distance education to business english or ESP, particularly on the instructor certification side of business English in a distance learning format. There seem to be a lack of resources for instructor certification for business english in an online format. I am considering a case study. I have not had a chance to really look through your site yet but wondered if you would have any suggestions for me of resources.
Hi Cybele,
Thanks for your comments and questions. Do you mean resources that are useful, or courses that will certify someone? If you mean the latter, ITTT springs to mind. They have many courses for someone wanting a certificate in TEFT/TESOL, in purely online, classroom, or mixed. Please let me know if you need more information, or if I misunderstood your question.