Richard Gidwaney

Richard Gidwaney

Presessional English Programme Manager (Postgraduate)

Contact details

Address
Birmingham International Academy
46 Priorsfield
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I’m part of the team responsible for running our Presessional English programmes and am involved with staffing, managing coordinators, planning for when students arrive, dealing with assessments and participating in the Exam Board

Qualifications

  • MA Applied Linguistics
  • RSA Diploma TEFLA
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology

Biography

I am Programme Manager for Presessional and have worked as interim Programme Manager for Foundations Pathways as well acting up as Deputy Director of EAP. I’ve been Programme Manager since 2015. Before that I was an EAP teacher and Presessional Course Coordinator in the University of Birmingham. I first started teaching English in Spain where I taught for 8 years before moving to the Middle East – 2.5 years in Syria and 3 years in the UAE. I’ve also been involved in language testing for the University of Birmingham as well as for IELTS in the UK and Trinity in Spain and Italy.

Teaching

I teach or have taught the following programmes:

  • EAP
  • International Foundation
  • Visiting Scholars
  • Insessional, including classes for small group language development, grammar, vocabulary, academic writing, English for Economics, English for Engineering, and Erasmus students

I also offer 1 to 1 tutorials.

Other activities

I am also involved in:

  • Materials and assessment development
  • Teacher training and assessment moderation
  • Sessional teacher recruitment
  • Teacher assistant recruitment and training
  • Student language assessment at home and abroad (Malaysia and China)