My name is Terry Shortall. I am from Ireland. I started my career teaching English in Brazil by accident. I was travelling through Brazil when my money ran out. I took a job teaching English, and I knew then that I had found my destiny in life. I stayed in Brazil for ten years.

After Brazil, I moved to Tokyo. In Tokyo, I worked as a teacher and later as Methodologist for the Japan Times School of Languages, where a wide variety of methods were used: Communicative Language Teaching, Total Physical Response, The Silent Way. Later I transferred to the Japan Times Educational Projects Department, where for three years I hired, supervised, and trained a team of teachers working on a variety of specific-purpose courses.

After three years in Japan, I felt a lack of depth in my own knowledge of how languages are acquired, so I then went on take a Masters in Applied Linguistics at the University of Wales, UK, and subsequently moved to a college in Portugal where I taught Portuguese-English translation (in the areas of journalism and law), and Applied Linguistics on a degree course for translators. This was a new departure for me, as it allowed me on the one hand to work with languages in parallel, and on the other to realise the importance of content in language teaching.

After Portugal, I moved to the University of Birmingham in the UK where I taught for 14 years, on both campus and distance MA programmes in TEFL and Applied Linguistics. At Birmingham, I was responsible for the setting up of a distance MA in TEFL/TESL, which had 300 students on its books. I supervised a team of two administrative staff and 5 academics. In addition I edited all, and wrote some, of the course materials for the distance MA. On the campus MA programmes I taught courses in Psycholinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Pedagogic Grammar, and Language Teaching Methodology.

While at Birmingham I took a PhD in Applied Linguistics.

In 2008, after 14 years as a lecturer in Birmingham, I moved to the University of Hong Kong. There I taught a course in Pedagogic Content Knowledge, a course designed to show trainee teachers how to take their knowledge of language and linguistics and apply it to pedagogic contexts.

After a year in Hong Kong, I had a serious back problem, which left me bedridden for four months. In the end, I had to have a spinal operation. After the operation I returned to Brazil where my son lives in order to recuperate. I came to BNUZ in February 2012.

As a teacher, I have a positive attitude and am at my happiest leaving a classroom knowing that I have given of my best and that the students have had an important and valuable learning experience in which they have actively participated.

During my many years of experience, I have seen and used a wide range of methods and approaches. I firmly believe now that there is no perfect method, just as there is no perfectly bad method, and that the discerning teacher draws on all methods in an eclectic manner.

Of utmost importance is that learners be actively involved in the learning process, and that the teacher should tailor his approach to suit the needs and abilities of his/her students.