My research interests are mainly concerned with initial teacher preparation and the potential of the internet for teacher training and development. My MA research was an action research project to develop an online grammar course for English language teacher trainees (you can read this on the British Council MA Award page) and my PhD follows the development of a mentor training programme within the MA TESOL course, looking at the interactions between mentors and mentees. On the MA TESOL, I teach on the Teacher Education and Development module, Professional Practice for Experienced Teachers (Module leader) and Practical Teaching methodology (Module leader). I also involved in the peer teaching part of the Professional Practice for pre-service teachers and I am the main tutor and coordinator for the CELTA courses that we run in the department.
I grew up right here in the Midlands but left the UK after I graduated and lived overseas for a number of years. I've been teaching since 1989 and training teachers since 2000 and have worked in Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Kenya and Switzerland as well as teaching ESOL in the UK. I have an MA from Warwick, which led to the development of my website at www.elt-training.com . This provides video based training for English language teachers as well as development for teacher trainers. I am a CELTA trainer, assessor and Joint Chief Assessor for Cambridge English and was involved with writing and editing the new Cambridge CELT-S course.
- Gakonga, Joanne, 2013. Being there? Comparing synchronous and recorded online instruction for language teachers. In Edge, Julian; Mann, Steve J. (eds.), Innovations in pre-service education and training for English language teachers, London, British Council, pp. 231-243
- Preshous, Andrew, Roberts, Rachel, Preshous, Joanna, Gakonga, Joanne, 2012. IELTS foundation. Student's book. Oxford, Oxford Macmillan Education
Title | Funder | Award start | Award end |
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Video in language teacher education | British Council | 01 Nov 2016 | 28 Feb 2018 |