Meet Tanya

The ESL Library staff is proud to welcome Tanya Trusler to the blogging team. Tanya is our new editor! She is responsible for editing and proofing new materials and content for Red River Press. This year Tanya will also be helping us adapt some of our current lesson plans in order to make them accessible for your lower-level students. With her extensive experience in the ESL industry, Tanya is an excellent asset to our team. We are very excited to add her voice to our blog!

Hello Teachers

Hello all! I thought it might be nice to introduce myself before we sink our teeth into the grammar-related blog posts I plan to write. I've been the editor at ESL Library since January 2012, and I'm enjoying it immensely. It's the perfect place to combine my teaching experience with my editing skills.

I've always had a passion for helping others improve their communication; it started with tutoring French to kids way back in high school. After graduating from Simon Fraser University with a BA in Linguistics and a Certificate in TESL, I moved to New Zealand for one year to teach ESL. After that, I accepted a job at GEOS Language Academy in Vancouver, BC, where I spent the next eleven years (minus one year spent living in Amsterdam, NL) teaching students of many different ages, levels, and nationalities. I especially loved teaching TOEIC (business English test prep) and TOEFL (university entrance test prep). While at GEOS, I met the lovely and talented Tara Benwell, who, as many of you know, is the Media Director and a materials writer for ESL Library. We worked together for two years, and have been friends ever since. It's so great to be working with her again even though we're many provinces apart now.

During my last two years teaching English, I was also editing academic papers for a client who was doing a master's degree in psychology, and I caught the editing bug. I finally decided it was time to switch careers and to focus my love of grammar and communication on editing, so I've spent the past year completing an Editing Certificate at SFU. Now I'm truly enjoying being an editor —it's like I was born to do this!

Joining the Blogging Team

I'm excited to start blogging for ESL Library. I plan to do at least two blog posts a month, focusing on teaching tips and contentious grammar points. Let's get some good debates going! My aim is to make my blog posts useful and interesting for you, so I invite you to do one or more of the following (in the comments section below):

• introduce yourself
• let me know of any grammar points you find difficult to explain to students
• let me know of any questions you may have about teaching (multi-level classes, classroom management, etc.)
• let me know of any aspects of the English language that may confuse, annoy, or amaze you

In the words of my illustrious ex-colleagues, let's get grammared!

—Tanya