| English Writing Online: About Us | |
| Hello. My name is Dinos Demetriades and I am the founder of English Writing Online. I'd like to welcome you to the website by telling you a little about myself and about the ideas behind the company. |
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| My parents are from Cyprus but I was born in England and grew up in north London. I studied geography at the University of Manchester and worked in local government for several years before I decided to start a new career as an English language teacher. I obtained my Masters degree in Linguistics (TESOL) in 1994 and I have lived and worked in such fascinating and culturally diverse countries as Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Lebanon. At present, I am teaching at Qatar University. | |
| Throughout my teaching career I have been involved in syllabus design and curriculum development. I have designed courses on English writing, grammar, conversation, pronunciation, Business English, English for Science, and even English history. I have published academic articles on language teaching and have also published Information Technology Workshop for Oxford University Press. In fact, the idea for English Writing Online came to me while I was writing this book. I’ve always been interested in using computers in language learning as I believe the technology allows learners many new and interesting ways to practice their language skills interactively. I am certain you that you will enjoy our website because the team at English Writing Online has taken special care to make sure that the programs are interactive, fun and effective. I am also certain that you won’t find a webiste like ours anywhere else on the internet. It is definitely unique. | |
| English Writing Online is also different because the writing, grammar and pronunciation units, the example sentences, the readings and the exercises have all been written by a small team of dedicated and experienced language teachers specifically for language learners. Each and every page has been proofed and edited by teaching experts to make sure that the content and level is appropriate for non-native speakers of English (meet our Chief Editor). We have worked abroad and we know what is likely to be too easy and what is likely to be too difficult for most people. We approach teaching on the internet in the same way that we approach teaching in a real classroom. We aim to get you thinking about a topic, to use what you already know and to build up your knowledge to take you to a higher level. Good teaching also depends on a thorough review of the material covered in the exercises and most of the exercises have detailed review pages which explain the answers and give additional information, just like a good teacher would do in a real classroom. | |
| To write well we believe that learners need a theoretical model on which to build their writing skills. On this website this model is provided by the idea of genre. You may have heard of genre in terms of film genres such as action films, horror films, romantic comedies, science fiction films, thrillers, and so on. We use this idea in linguistics to look at different types of written and spoken texts. We can see, for example, that an essay, a newspaper report, a business letter, a formal speech, a conversation and a high school debate are all different to each other. Using genre, we can see what makes them different by looking at the way they are structured, their purpose and their intended audience. This affects the way that the texts are written, the grammatical patterns that are appropriate and the best vocabulary to use. | |
| English Writing Online is not just another language learning website. We know that in front of every computer screen is a living, breathing and thinking human being. We have designed English Writing Online to be a world-wide community of shared experiences, knowledge and understanding. We are deeply committed to feedback and participation. Every single page allows you to have your say and we read and take note of every single word you write. We have forums and chat rooms that let you speak your mind and practice your writing skills. | |
| Another reason that we have spent a lot of time integrating feedback and participation in our website is that we firmly believe that people learn best by being actively involved in the learning process and by having fun with it. People learn to speak by speaking. It is only common sense, therefore, that people learn to write by writing. So please don’t be shy to join in and don’t ever worry about writing perfectly grammatical sentences on our website. If you practice enough, correct grammar will come to you more easily, especially if you have watched our grammar movies! | |
| English Writing Online then is a totally new concept in online language learning. It has all the features of a well-written quality English language text book with the interactivity provided by computer technology in one convenient location. What’s more, our teachers are available to help you with your writing via our proofing and editing service. Being a living website, it responds to the needs of its members and grows day by day. Our aim is to make English Writing Online a huge resource for language learners. | |
| Remember the golden rule. The best way to learn a language is to use it, so participate, learn and enjoy writing in English with us. We look forward to hearing from you. | |
| Dinos Demetriades | |
| English Writing Online | |
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© English Writing Online Ltd. 2005