All award nominations will be assessed by our external panel of three experts in the education sector, consisting of:
Amos Paran
Amos Paran is Professor of TESOL at the UCL Institute of Education. He started his professional career teaching EFL in secondary schools in Israel and writing EFL coursebooks. His main areas of interest are using literature in EFL, reading in EFL and distance education and he has published extensively in these areas. Publications include Testing the Untestable in Language Education (co-edited with Lies Sercu, Multilingual Matters 2010); the teachers’ handbook, Literature (co-authored with Pauline Robinson, OUP, 2016); Taking Literature and Language Learning Online, (co-edited with Sandra Stadler-Heer, Bloomsbury 2022); and Becoming a Reading Teacher (co-authored with Jane Spiro, Routledge 2024).
He is a tutor on the free MOOC, Teaching EFL/ESL Reading: A Task-Based Approach (www.coursera.org/learn/esl-reading) and is also the Book Reviews editor of the ELT Journal and the co-convenor of the AILA research network, Literature in Language Learning and Teaching (LiLLT). He is very active in IATEFL, and was the association’s treasurer between 2008 and 2014; he is now on the Advisory Board of the association. He has been a plenary speaker at teachers’ conferences throughout the world, including the English Teachers’ Day in Luxembourg in 2012 and 2017.
Bettina Schwandt
© Universität des Saarlandes
Bettina Schwandt works at the Centre for Teacher Education (ZfL) at Saarland University. She is a trained secondary school teacher for English and French and started teaching in different schools in the Saarland before returning to Saarland University to work as scientific staff member at the ZfL in 2003. Since then she has been working in teacher education.
Part of her work is organizing the internships for the student-teachers, preparing and accompanying them for and during their internships in schools as well as counseling after their teaching practice. She also teaches in-service seminars for teachers in the Saarland. She is interested in the didactics and methods of EFL and FLE and is part of the teams organizing the yearly (English) Teachers’ Day as well as the Französischlehrertag at Saarland University. She also represents the ZfL in the Saarland linguistic council.
Tess Charnaud
Tess is the founder of ActNow which uses a co-active coaching approach to empower young people in building self-esteem, both in their personal and academic lives. She works directly with young people, as well as with families, schools, and organisations.
She is a passionate educator who has extensive experience in the UK and Luxembourg. Previously, Tess was the Head of the Science department and a Biology and Chemistry IB teacher at the International school of Luxembourg. She has also successfully completed a Masters and a Doctorate in the field of International Education at the University of Bath.
Having taught both English and Drama in the UK, she has supported English and performing arts students in preparing them for full production and performances, as well as examinations. Tess has also worked in adult learning for a long time, teaching at university on the teacher training course. In the past, she has presented at the English Teachers’ Day in Luxembourg on teaching and learning.