Special Guests

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Aaron Rogers: Academic Consultant for Pearson. He has an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL from the University of Manchester, has worked in the field of ELT here in Colombia for the last twelve years within teacher training programs as well as being an ESOL examiner. He has published extensively and he has just finished a course book on implementing ICT into ELT. His research interests include student autonomy, learning strategies, communities of practice for teacher development and technology. At present he is Pearson Solutions manager for Colombia.

Alexis Augusto López: Full time profesor at Universidad de los Andes. BA in Modern Languages: English and Spanish. Master in Teaching English as a Second Language. Alexis has a Ph.D. in Education and a Master’s degree in TESL, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is an associate professor at the Center for Research and Development in Education (CIFE) and the Director of the Assessment Center at Universidad de los Andes. Previously, he worked at Second Language Testing Incorporated (SLTI) as a Test Development Specialist. Alexis has participated in all facets of the test development process, including developing test specifications, item writing, field-testing, statistical analysis, standard-setting, and conducting alignment studies. He is the author of Potential Impact of Language Tests: Examining the Alignment between Testing and Instruction (VDM Verlag, 2008) and several articles on language testing.

Erica Ferrer Ariza: Coordinator of the Undergraduate Program at Universidad del Norte, in Baranquilla. BA in Educational Sciences specializing in Modern Languages: English and Spanish. Specialist in English Didactics. Masters in Language Teaching and Learning. Erica is the Coordinator of the Undergraduate General English Program at Instituto de Idiomas, Universidad del Norte. She holds experience in language teaching at different levels from middle and high school to undergraduate and graduate programs in areas that include designing and developing ESP and CBI courses to Coordinating English programs. She has conducted teacher training courses at a national level. She holds a B.A. in Education with a focus on Modern Languages from Universidad del Atlántico, a diploma in Teaching at Higher Education from Universidad Santo Tomás, and an M.A. in Language Teaching and Learning from the University of Liverpool.

Odilia Ramírez: Professor at Universidad de Caldas. BA in Modern Languages. Specialist in Educational Management. Masters in English didactics. Odilia is a research professor at Universidad de Caldas and the principal of Institución Educativa Atanasio Girardot, one of the public schools in the local project Manizales Ciudad Bilingue. She has taught English as a foreign language for more than 23 years and has been to the United States as a Fulbright and VIF exchange teacher. Ms. Ramirez has been part of research groups in Universidad de Caldas and is currently studying a PhD in Education with concentration in EFL and ESOL with Northcentral University, Arizona.

Nick Perkins: Academic Consultant for Pearson. He has worked in many roles in ELT over the years (teacher, teacher trainer and ELT manager). He has been based in Bogota, Colombia since 1999 where he managed the ELT Department at the Universidad Externado de Colombia for four years before taking the post of Academic Development Manager for Latin America at Pearson. Nick has spoken on ELT related topics at major conferences and in private and public schools, universities and other institutions all over South America, in Asia and the UK. His principal areas of investigation are student motivation and incorporating technology into ELT. Nick recently designed the Virtual Language Resource Centre module for the Masters in English Language Teaching at the Universidad de la Sabana, Bogota and currently teaches on the Diploma in English for Tourism at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. He also hosts a popular weekly radio show in Bogota.