Peter Beech

Senior Tutor in Professional Education and Training

Centre for English Language Education

MSc Teaching English (Aston)

BA Philosophy (Sussex)

Senior Fellow of Advance HE (Higher Education Academy)

Much of my career has been spent in Greece, where I firstly ran an English language school and later operated a teacher training centre, mainly offering four-week pre-service training courses (CELTA equivalent) for novice teachers of English. During that period, I had several part-time roles with British universities teaching on BA and MA programmes in TESOL and Applied Linguistics.  I also served as a consultant with the Research Centre for Language Teaching, Testing and Assessment at the University of Athens. My first experience of working with Chinese teachers of English was at the University of Reading in the UK, where I contributed to a teacher development programme sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. The year before I came to China, I worked in Malaysia on a teacher development programme sponsored by the Ministry of Education. I joined UNNC in 2016.

In my first years here, my role included teaching preliminary year EAP courses, teaching on the MA TESOL, and working on curriculum and teacher development with the UNNC Affiliated High School.

My current focus on professional education and training includes:

• commercial teacher training courses for teachers using English as a Medium of Instruction
• teacher development activities for teachers of English
• courses in English for Specific Purposes for commercial clients

My research interests centre on ways to make teaching more effective through the integration of research and practice. This is of particular significance in the areas in which I have supervised dissertations, relating to the application of SLA research findings in classroom methodology. I am especially concerned with the professional development needs of Chinese teachers of English and ways of integrating a communicative approach to language teaching with Gaokao preparation.

The CELE Outreach Teacher Training Team was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal in 2022.

• Bringing exam tasks to life: Things we’ve tried that work. In B. Beavan (ed.) (2009) IATEFL 2008 Exeter conference selections. Canterbury: IATEFL
• In my end is my beginning: Trainee teachers’ personal aims. In B. Beavan (ed.) (2008) IATEFL 2007 Aberdeen conference selections. Canterbury: IATEFL
• Peer observation in teacher development. In B. Beavan (ed.) (2007) IATEFL 2006 Harrogate conference selections. Canterbury: IATEFL

As a former Board member of TESOL Greece and founding coordinator of the Learning Technologies SIG, I organized many events and gave numerous presentations. I also presented as an invited guest speaker at events organised by PALSO, the Federation of Greek Language Schools, and QLS, the Panhellenic Association of Accredited Quality Language Schools. I attended and presented at the annual IATEFL conference in the UK several times. While working in Malaysia, I presented at both the MELTA and PELLTA conferences. Some of my more recent conference presentations since moving to China are:

• Integrating theory and practice TESOL China Assembly, Macau, August 2023  
• Continuation Writing Demonstration Lesson TESOL China Assembly, Hangzhou, August 2022
• Summary Writing Demonstration Lesson TESOL China Assembly, Hangzhou, August 2021
• Developing Reflective Practice KOTESOL International Conference, Seoul, October 2019
• Supporting Reflective Practice 17th Asia TEFL International Conference, Bangkok, June 2019
• Professional development needs of in-service teachers of English 39th Thailand TESOL
• International Conference, Bangkok, January 2019  
• Needs Analysis for Continuing Professional Development of Chinese Teachers of English 16th Asia TEFL International Conference, Macau, June 2018  
• Teachers Develop Teachers Adapt MATSDA / Shanghai International Studies University Conference, Shanghai, June 2018  
• From Theory to Practice: Development of Graduate Teaching Assistant Course from 2016-2018 in an EMI University in China.
• Joint presentation with Dr Shanru Yang. MATSDA / Shanghai International Studies University Conference, Shanghai, June 2018  
• New perspectives, new methodologies for English teaching in a Chinese high school 8th International Conference on English Language Teaching (ELT) in China, Xi’an, October 2017
• Innovation in EFL classroom practices in a Chinese high school 15th Asia TEFL International Conference, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, July 2017  
• Colorless green ideas worth spreading TED^X Yinzhou Senior School, May 2017

I was also chairperson of the organizing committee for the 2023 UNNC EAP/ESP Conference.