DEVELOPOD - The IATEFL TDSIG Podcast

In this episode, Helen and Caroline Door talk about her journey from education marketing to teaching English. At the IATEFL 2026 conference in Brighton, she presented on managing young learners' sensory needs, drawing from personal experiences and research. Caroline highlights the importance of addressing sensory factors like light and temperature to improve learning environments. She emphasises t...

In this episode, Helen talks with Natalia Wright, an experienced ELT practitioner and academic with over 30 years in the field, outlining her professional journey and key influences. Natalia completed her BA in 1990, later earning an MA from the University of Chichester and a doctorate from the University of Glasgow. She currently teaches at the American University of the Middle East in Kuwait. Na...

In this episode, Anna Loseva chats with Helen. She shares her ELT to EAP journey from tutoring at 19 to teaching in Moscow, Japan, and Vietnam. She highlights the impact of supportive and communicative management and workplace environments, the value of professional community (Twitter, ITDI), and her focus on academic skills in higher education. Proud of moving to Japan in 2015, she encourages lis...

In this episode, Helen chats with Matthew Ellman, a teacher, trainer, and author, discussing his journey from music to accounting and then ELT. He highlights his work with Cambridge University Press, focusing on teacher development and training, and they discuss Matthew's dissertation on video-supported feedback, which won the British Council's MA Dissertation Award in 2018. They also consider the...

In this episode, Helen interviews Emma Walker of Pronunciation with Emma , who describes her journey from early reading support work at age 16 through linguistics studies, CELTA, and a TESOL master’s to becoming a pronunciation specialist and major YouTube educator. Emma explains how her passion for phonetics and classroom experiences with learner listening difficulties led her to focus on pronunc...

In this episode, Helen and Emily discuss her eclectic career, including teaching, teacher training, authoring books like Voices for National Geographic Learning, running online courses, and creating doodle and sketchnote visual resources. Emily describes teaching ESOL learners from refugee backgrounds and embraces a nomad lifestyle, traveling while working remotely. She highlights persistent issue...

In this episode, Cecilia Lemos-Harmer and Adrian Underhill explore how language learning is deeply connected to identity, emotion, and embodiment, rather than being a purely intellectual process. Adrian argues that effective language development happens when learners feel psychologically safe, engaged, and willing to experiment with new sounds and expressions. He emphasises the teacher’s role in c...

Helen and Dr Harry Kuchah Kuchah reflect on his lifelong ELT journey, beginning with helping classmates in Cameroon and moving through roles as a primary-teacher educator, UK-based researcher, Ministry of Education policymaker, IATEFL President, Chair of the British Council’s English Language Advisory Group, and Director of the University of Birmingham’s MSc TESOL programme, where he also mentors...

In this episode, Helen and Ana Paula Biazon Rocha discuss Ana’s journey in ELT, emphasizing her passion for pronunciation and teacher development. She started teaching at 17 in Brazil, influenced by her family of educators and legacy. Anna's interest in pronunciation stemmed from personal challenges and feedback from teacher trainers – while seeking to improve, she discovered a passion. She highli...

In this episode, Helen & JPB Gerald discuss his professional foundation in ELT and his current work writing articles, essays, and books, focusing on language, race, neurodivergence, and critiquing the ELT industry. Justin talks about motivation, personal struggles, his writing process and style, and shares his evolution as a writer. He shares his perspectives on academic writing and the import...

In this episode, Helen & Laura Patsko discuss her ELT journey, describing her career as a mix of diverse elements, like salad or spaghetti. She began in advertising, transitioned to ELT after influential conversations, and completed her CELTA and DELTA in Prague. Laura then worked in teacher training and for Cambridge University Press before going freelance. She emphasizes the evolving accepta...

In this episode, Helen and Chiara Bruzzano talk about her professional development journey, her work in teacher education, writing, and research, those who impacted her CPD, and the role of research in ELT and the importance of its accessibility. She points out that teachers are the experts in and know what’s best for their own context, and talks about keeping academic research accessible to ensur...

On July 17th, Phil Longwell passed away. He was an extraordinary teacher and remarkable human being who often attended TDSIG events, including our PCEs and recent 40th Anniversary celebration. We will miss him. In tribute, we are reposting episode 20 of Developod, where he was interviewed by Christian to mark Mental Health Week in the UK. They discuss Phil's personal experiences with mental health...

In this episode, Didar speaks with Varinder Ünlü about her professional development journey in both teaching and training as well as the importance of inclusion and diversity in ELT at all levels. She explains how she makes an effort to stay current and aware while highlighting how things have changed. She encourages leaders and trainers to adapt to teachers’ needs and teachers to adapt to learner...

In this episode, you’re going to hear from two of our Early Career Teacher Scholarship winners.  First is Wing Wu from Hong Kong. Wing actually won the award back in 2023, but was unable to attend the conference until this year. We’re delighted that he was finally able to make it! Secondly, we’ll hear from Hang Vu from Vietnam, who won the Early Career scholarship for this year.  It was really gre...

In this episode, Helen speaks with Jim Fuller about ways to become a leader in your educational context through your sphere of influence and understanding the culture, social skills, collaboration, and continuous professional development. He encourages us to seek out development opportunities and face challenges, and reminds leaders that the environment that they create has a huge impact on CPD fo...

In this episode, Helen speaks with Harry Waters of Renewable English about his ELT journey, how he came to focus on the climate crisis, how education has been changing in response to it, and what he thinks ELT professionals could do to become more sustainable. IATEFL Conference Plenary Friday 11 April: “Five burning questions to education from a young changemaker” Harry Waters & Alicia Waters...

In this episode, Helen speaks with Rachel Tsateri about becoming a humanistic teacher trainer. Rachel is a freelance teacher, teacher educator, and blogger based in Greece but working exclusively online. She's been involved in ELT since 2014 and holds the Cambridge CELTA, DELTA and Train the Trainer certifications. She is working on her Masters in Professional Development for Language Education an...

In this episode, Joint TDSIG coordinators James Taylor & Cecilia Lemos Harmer invite our listeners to come to TDSIG’s Web Carnival, on October 19 & 20. James introduces Kristina Novik and Didar Moldazhanov, who are joining Helen on the Developod Team. Helen talks about the 3rd Web Carnival Plenary Speaker Silvana Accardo and her session. Kristina introduces the 2nd Plenary Speaker Leonardo...

In this episode, Helen interviews Taylor Veigga, who is CELTA, CertTESOL, CertPT, Delta1, & DipTESOL tutor, writer, editor, IATEFL PronSIG Webinar Joint Coordinator, and an advocate for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in ELT. She shares her CPD journey, including people who (and training/qualifications that) influenced her career, how her focus on looking at pronunciation from a diversity a...

In this episode, Helen interviews Lottie Galpin, who writes dyslexia-friendly materials, is a freelance ELT publishing professional, an ELT editor/writer, and a DEI in ELT consultant. Lottie shares her professional development journey from teacher to materials writer to DEI consultant, offering support and suggestions for teachers who want to create their own materials and/or move into publishing,...

In this episode, Helen and James discuss our new theme "Teacher Change" and Helen interviews Peter J Fullagar, who is an ELT editor/writer, DEI in ELT consultant, and LGBTQIA+ champion. Peter discusses his professional development journey from teacher to editor/writer to DEI consultant to LGBTQIA+ champion, offering support and suggestions, and encourages us all to use our voices to speak up. Happ...

Joining Christian on this episode is Jo Gakonga, a Teacher educator and online course creator, to discuss her interest in early career teachers. This episode is the final part of our Future of Teacher Development strand. Jo has worked in ELT for over 30 years in a range of countries and contexts including Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Kenya and Switzerland. She's a CELTA trainer, assessor and Joint...

In this episode, Christian talks with Sandy Millin about the future of Teacher Development from her perspective, especially focusing on the power of blogs and social media.  Read Sandy Millin's Blog here:  https://sandymillin.wordpress.com/ British Council Webinar with Sandy Millin: Professional development through blogs and blogging: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/web...

Joining us for episode 47 are Vicky Saumell & David Read. They help us to continue our investigation into the future of teacher development from a technology point of view.