About

I am a Professor of English as Second Language (ESL) at the University of Delaware English Language Institute, assistant director for teacher-training programs, and graduate program director of the MA TESL degree. I currently direct the OELA National Professional Development grant, Project DELITE.

I previously taught at Michigan State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,  the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia University, and the Wust Summer School in Germany, where I also served as the Director of Studies.

I am also an ESL materials writer. You can find out more about the textbooks I’ve written on the textbooks page of this website. My publications include Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writers (2nd edition Michigan, 2019), Essential Actions for Academic Writing (with Ann Johns, Michigan, 2023), Inside Writing 2 and 4 (Oxford, 2014), and the advanced reading/writing book in Oxford University Press’s Q: Skills for Success series (3rd edition, 2020). I have also published professional chapters and articles, mainly on the topic of teaching academic writing to graduate and undergraduate ESL students, and I have presented at conferences and professional development workshops in person and (increasingly) online. I have consulted with universities and language programs around the US and in Canada, South Korea, Italy, and other countries.

I completed my PhD in Education in 2017 with a dissertation on the impact of Joint Construction (collaborative writing) on intermediate-level ESL students’ independent writing. I study genre-based writing pedagogy, graduate-level writing, and disciplinary literacy. My recent interests include alternative assessment (“ungrading”), teacher certification for multilingual learners, and preventing the unwanted intrusion of technology in language education. I hold an Master’s in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Cambridge University. My head shot was taken in front of my first residence hall at St. Catharine’s College!  I took the photograph in the page banner in the Yorkshire Dales, near my home town of Leeds, England.