About The TESOL Teacher

Hi everyone! My name is Nat Carney. I have been a TESOL educator for over 20 years now. Teaching is one of the great joys in my life, and I am thankful everyday that there are people around the world excited about learning English.

I created this site to share resources, ideas, and stories with other TESOL educators and teachers across the world. I started in the TESOL field soon after graduating from college. I first taught immigrant students in K-12 schools in Pennsylvania. Then, I taught Spanish part-time at college, and through a coincidence I was asked to teach ESL as well. From that point on, I have taught English in many different contexts–to groups of migrant workers in the United States to middle school students in Korea and university students in Japan. I have learned so much from my students, and I have met great educators and colleagues who have influenced how I teach. Along the way, I have earned my master’s degree in TESOL from Penn State University, my master’s degree in Educational Technology from Boise State University, and my PhD in Education and Applied Linguistics from Temple University.

I am an avid language learner myself. I spent a year in Neuquen, Argentina in high school and a year in Puebla, Mexico in college, both of which have given Spanish a special place in my heart. A few years after starting to teach ESL in the USA, I went to Korea to teach English and studied Korean in the mornings at Sogang University. Now I live in Japan where learning more Japanese is a lifelong interest. I love how learning a new language allows you to communicate with people you might otherwise never have contact with. The human-to-human connection is more valuable than ever in this world where technology mediates so much of what we say and do. 

I hope you find something useful on this site, and I would love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, or ideas and resources that you would like to share.

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