This September 14 and 15, Ellii is hosting ElliiCon2023—a free two-day virtual conference to explore the intersection of technology and traditional teaching. Learn how to maintain human connections with your students in the age of AI while incorporating practical tech tools that can free up more time for the crucial aspects of learning. This article is part of a series of posts introducing our 2023 conference speakers.

Meet Nik Peachey

Nik Peachey is a two-time British Council ELTons award winner for innovation in English language teaching. He’s also the founder and director of pedagogy at PeacheyPublications, a publishing company that designs digital learning materials for English language classrooms.

Presenter Q & A

Nik Peachey was a popular speaker at last year's ElliiCon, and we are thrilled that he agreed to come back to offer more great ideas and tools this year. Nik was kind enough to share a few thoughts with the #Ellii team ahead of ElliiCon2023 to help us get to know him better. (View last year's session with Nik Peachey here.)

Ellii: The theme of ElliiCon2023 is Humanity & Technology in ELT: Striking a Balance in the Age of AI. In your opinion, is AI a friend or foe of English language teachers? How do you think AI will impact our learners?

Nik: I certainly think that AI can be a friend of language teachers. It can save us so much time in so many ways from lesson planning to creating materials that are personalized and differentiated for our students' needs. It does require us to step outside of our comfort zone, but for me that’s always been an exciting place to be. That’s where we can really grow. It can also be a great friend for students. They can literally make it into a friend that they can chat to in English and that can talk back to them and support and encourage them. It can open up so many ways for students to practice and learn language and find out more about the world.

Ellii: What topic will you be focusing on at ElliiCon this year? Can you share a few key points that you plan to touch on?

Nik: In my talk, I’ll be looking at how AI can be used with students to help them prepare for pair work in the classroom. I’ll be sharing some prompts that will enable students to practice interviews, role-play real-life situations, cowrite scripts, get feedback on their writing, and immerse themselves in the world of literature. So come along and see how this new technology can really engage our students.

Ellii: What's one thing that you would like ElliiCon attendees to know about you before attending your session?

Nik: Even though I’ve been working with educational technology in English language teaching for more than 25 years now, I still consider myself to be a humanistic teacher. My real interest is in people—their culture and their creativity—and what technology can do to enable and empower teachers and students to engage in expressing those parts of their lives. 

Attend Nik Peachey's #ElliiCon2023 Session

At #ElliiCon2023, Nik Peachey will be presenting on ChatGPT as a tool for flipped learning. Join this session on September 14 from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm CDT. Register for ElliiCon2023. It's free! You can also connect with Nik Peachey after his presentation at our Presenter Q&A Table.