Author Archives: Sonja Tack

About Sonja Tack

My name is Sonja Tack and I have 12 years' experience of teaching EFL and EAP in the UK, Ireland and Turkey. I'm a perpetual studier; in addition to my undergraduate degree in Literature, I have the CELTA and DELTA qualifications, an MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics, a Postgraduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education, and I've recently finished an MA in Translation Studies! Believe it or not, I intend to go on to my PhD from here, and I'm aiming for a 2013 start. I've also done a variety of short courses in teaching English with technology, classroom research and teacher training. I'm happiest when I have numerous projects to work on at once, and so I decided to blog for the site I've been visiting every day since September 2010 in my ongoing search to find a great academic job. I am currently the Programme Manager for Presessional and Insessional Courses at the INTO East Anglia London Campus, where I also teach EAP classes. In addition, I do some occasional freelance teacher training for a company called UK TEFL. I've taught on presessional, insessional and extended degree programmes at the University of East London and Imperial College London, and on Freshman English programmes in Ankara and Istanbul. I still love teaching after all this time, and I tend to get quite close to my students. I consider mentoring to be an essential part of the initiation into an academic environment. In terms of research, I'm most interested in applications of educational technology, e.g. blogs, wikis, webquests and social bookmarking for academic research, and effective feedback practices, with a specific focus on written comments. In this blog I'd like to share with you my experiences of teaching students from over 100 nationalities, studying for various qualifications, presenting at international conferences and publishing my work, and of course, the job search. I hope it will provide some food for thought as well as a point of interaction for visitors from a variety of backgrounds. Your comments are always welcome!

6. Surviving the first week

Contributer: Sonja Tack    Posted: January 22, 2012
Categories: English For Academic Purposes (EAP)

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve finally landed my first full-time teaching job since arriving back from Turkey in September 2010. The job market is tough. When starting a new teaching job, it is unrealistic to expect much … Read More »

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5. Back to blogging: job success!

Contributer: Sonja Tack    Posted: January 14, 2012
Categories: English For Academic Purposes (EAP)

I feel that first of all I must apologise to my readers for my long hiatus. I was astonished when I recently introduced myself to two new teaching colleagues and they immediately claimed, independently of one another, to ‘know’ my … Read More »

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4. Insight into a summer presessional: week 1

Contributer: Sonja Tack    Posted: July 31, 2011
Categories: English For Academic Purposes (EAP)

I’ve now finished the first week of a 5-week presessional at Imperial College London Business School and I thought readers might appreciate some insight into this type of course. Do bear in mind that the specifics of presessionals differ from … Read More »

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3. How to write better essays

Contributer: Sonja Tack    Posted: June 22, 2011
Categories: English For Academic Purposes (EAP), English Language Learning & Teaching (ELT), Teaching & Learning

It’s been very difficult to fit in any summer reading so far this year – I have 4 jobs and a translation dissertation to work on – but I was browsing in the university bookshop the other day and couldn’t … Read More »

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2. Summer presessional courses: the interview

Contributer: Sonja Tack    Posted: June 8, 2011
Categories: Careers Advice & Job Information, English For Academic Purposes (EAP)

In my last post I mentioned my upcoming round of interviews for a position as a tutor on a summer presessional course. I attended four interviews in total, in various cities around England. Three of these interviews were in prestigious … Read More »

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1. Summer presessional courses: the EAP tutor’s goldmine

Contributer: Sonja Tack    Posted: June 6, 2011
Categories: Careers Advice & Job Information, Conferences & Networking, English For Academic Purposes (EAP)

I’m about to embark on a round of interviews, which will hopefully result in work as a Tutor in English for Academic Purposes on a presessional university course this summer. These courses are designed to help prepare incoming international students, … Read More »

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