Gianfranco Conti, Phd (Applied Linguistics), MA (TEFL), MA (English Lit.), PGCE (Modern Languages and P.E.)

I am an international keynote speaker, professional development provider, writer of instructional materials, blogger as well as an author of books and articles on language pedagogy. A language teacher for around 30 years, I am the founder of the language learning website www.language-gym.com as well as the winner of the 2015 TES (Times Educational Supplement) best-resource-contributor award. I am the co-author with Steve Smith of the best- selling books for ML teachers 'The language teacher toolkit','Breaking the sound barrier: teaching learners how to listen' and 'Memory: what every language teacher should know (available on www.amazon.co.uk) and hold a Phd in Applied Linguistics (Metacognitive Strategies as applied to second language writing); an MA in TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) and one in English Literature; a PGCE in MFL and P.E. and a BA in English and French Langs and Lit. I researched Language Acquisition, Essay Writing, Error Correction, Learning Strategies and Learner Training impact on L2-writing proficiency under the supervision of Professor Macaro, Head of the Oxford University Department of Education and Editor of the prestigious ' International Journal of Applied Linguistics' both on my Ph.D and on a large-scale research project in Oxford comprehensive schools (documented in Macaro, 2001's book). My previous jobs include: Head of Italian, Head of French and MFL subject leader at various secondary schools in England (at primary and secondary level). I was also an Italian lecturer at Reading University, which has recently granted me the title of Visiting Fellow, and a language education researcher at Oxford University. I enjoy blogging about language teaching and learning and creating French/Spanish/Italian teaching materials which I publish on www.tes.co.uk where, in the last 3 years, I have uploaded over 2,000 free resources which have been downloaded over 5,000,000 times by over 100,000 language teachers worldwide (my profile: https://www.tes.co.uk/member/gianfrancoconti1966). Four years ago I co-founded www.language-gym.com, a language learning website packed with interactive self-marking activities and games and a verb conjugation trainer. The website has been recently redesigned and re-launched in a much more user-friendly and stylish form and now offers four languages. I am a keen language learner. I speak English, Italian, French, Spanish and German fluently, get by in Malay and Swedish and I have some basic knowledge of Modern Greek, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese and Farsi. I have a strong grounding in Latin and ancient Greek, two 'dead' languages that have helped me a great deal in life! Finally, I am the proud father of Catrina Jade Conti. Please note: for any bookings please contact me at: thelanguagegymcpd@gmail.com.