Who: PhD Applied Linguistics (Oxford, supervised by Ernesto Macaro; thesis on metacognitive strategies in L2 writing). Former head of MFL in UK secondary schools. Co-author with Steve Smith of The Language Teacher Toolkit, Breaking the Sound Barrier and Memory: What Every Language Teacher Should Know. Creator of E.P.I. (Extensive Processing Instruction) and Sentence Builders; founder of language-gym.com.
What: ~300+ posts, very active (several a month in 2026). Weak categorisation, so the “Top Posts” sidebar is the best way in.
Stance: Lexicogrammar-first, input-before-output, heavily recycled. Draws on skill-acquisition theory (DeKeyser), input processing (VanPatten), Processability (Pienemann), output and feedback (Swain, Lyster), Nation’s fluency strand, cognitive load. Polemical about “evidence-informed” general-education fads being transferred to language teaching without ISLA scrutiny.
Read critically: Written for UK MFL (low exposure, 2–3 lessons a week). Promotes his own products. Some numbers are his own synthesis rather than research findings.
Processed notes
- Diagnostic listening - find why an answer was wrong before re-teaching
- How many new words per lesson - working memory limits
- MARS-EARS - the EPI instructional sequence
- Neuroscience of language processing - eleven claims and their limits
- Scaffolding dictation for beginners
- Sentence builders and patterns-first lexicogrammar
- Spaced retrieval is the best-supported technique
- Speaking develops from input and retrieval, not speaking practice alone
- Teach grammar in processability order (Pienemann)
- The full EPI cycle - sentence builders are only step one
- The illusion of learning - correct answers are not acquisition
Next to process
- Deeper pass done. Not found: “Transfer-Appropriate Processing”. Next: When even the experts get grammar acquisition wrong (Nov 2026); “13 Myths About EPI” (June 2025).