Joan Acosta was the editor of The Westcoast Reader, a newspaper for beginning adult readers in British Columbia. She has taught ESL in Canada, Mexico, and Liberia and is the author of several books for ESL and literacy learners. She was instrumental in developing the first plain language version of the Newcomers’ Guide to British [...]

Mary Ashworth was the Fairy Godmother of ESL in B.C. She introduced the concept of teacher training to our profession and taught 478 for many years at UBC. The graduates of just one of her famous, lively 8:30 a.m. classes produced a TEAL President, 2 TESL Canada Presidents and 5 Doctorates!! On her retirement in 1988, [...]

Jean Benetti, B.Ed Sec, M.Ed. One of the founders of BC TEAL in 1967. Member of committee that initiated the first TESL course (478) at UBC. In 1967, seconded from the VSB to head full-time, federal government, Manpower ESL adult courses at VCC. Taught and administered in various levels at VCC until 1991. In 1991, [...]

Debbie Binnie Smith switched from high school teaching to adult TESL when she lived in London, England in the early 70s. There, she got her RSA and spent five happy years teaching ESL/EFL. Back to Canada in 1975, she continued teaching ESL in various places. Debbie settled in Vancouver in 1983 and has been at [...]

Qualifications: Secondary Teaching Certificate from SFU; BFA, TESL Certificate and MA in Language Education from UBC. Employment: High-school teacher, ESL teacher and tutor, curriculum developer, teacher trainer, program manager. Volunteer work / contributions to ESL field: Includes President of TESL Canada, BC TEAL and PELSA; Board member of TESOL and CLC. Instrumental in the development [...]

Nick Collins started teaching English in 1964 in the Canary Islands and has taught in Canada since 1967. He served as TEAL President for 4 years in the 80s and then as Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President and President of TESL Canada. He was the Local chair for TESOL 92, the Chair of TESOL 96 in Chicago [...]

Ernest Hall,  a former journalist, was TEAL president from 1985-89, during a time of exciting innovations in TEAL. He had previously served as Editor of the Newsletter. During his term the Westcoast Reader funding was solidified, the TESLCanada Journal was created, TRI-TESOL was introduced in Seattle and the TEAL Charitable Foundation-the world’s first Foundation operated [...]