Teacher Name: Brian McCloskey

Nationality: Irish Married: Christine Chen from Taiwan Residence: Lived in Taiwan for five years. Shanghai for ten years. Chinese ability: Intermediate speaking Occupation: Managing Director Kai En English Language Training Center, Shanghai Hobbies: Football. Captain of the Shanghai Lions football team for eight years (1995-2003)

Qualifications
BA in History
Certificate in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
Masters in Education

Teaching Experience
High School in Ireland (one year):
One year of teaching experience in high school in Ireland.
Taught English in Taiwan (five years) and Shanghai (10 years):
Taught conversational English to beginning, intermediate and advanced students.

• Taught business English conversation and writing
• Taught reading and writing courses
• Has taught IELTS preparation courses (Pre-IELTS and IELTS)

Teacher Training Experience

• Providing orientation training to new teachers from abroad
• Workshops and presentations to teachers on
  - classroom management
  - teaching strategies
  - teaching reading and writing
  - conversation teaching techniques
  - teaching listening
• Ongoing teacher training
  - teacher observations and feedback
  - providing reports on teaching performance
  - one-to-one teacher assessment and development

Answer to Question: What makes a good learner?
A successful English language student has a number of important characteristics.
A successful language student is willing to take risks. She is willing to practice and isn't worried about making mistakes. She uses every opportunity to speak English and to use the new words and sentences she has learned. Students who don't take such risks make slower progress in their spoken English.

Good learners are confident about learning. Good learners are sometimes frustrated, but this doesn't effect their belief that they will succeed in their learning. When they don't make good progress, they don't feel discouraged. Instead good learners will think about why they failed so they can try a new approach next time.

Good learners are not afraid of being wrong. They recognize their limitations and are not worried when they make mistakes. In other words, if they find their thinking is not correct, they can change their minds. Good learners are interested in changing and improving.

Good learners are creative in their problem-solving processes. They frequently use other people to test their ideas and views, but will work on their own as well. In short, good learners will use different types of thinking processes at different times but know how to choose the best approach at any particular time in the process.

Good learners don't need a definite answer. Perhaps, most importantly, good learners don't need to have an absolute final resolution to every problem. The sentence “I don't know” does not depress a good learner.

Good learners are realistic. A successful English language student realizes that it takes time to learn English and they are realistic about what they can achieve. The most successful students set realistic goals and reach these goals step by step. They never give up and don't get frustrated when the don't make as much progress as they had hoped.