About me

Hi, Iā€™m Neil. I was an English teacher in the UK and Japan for about 25 years until 2024 and then moved to Auckland in New Zealand where I teach at the English Language Academy, the University of Auckland. I have a Master’s Degree in Teaching English from Aston University in the UK (1997) and an Ed.D from Exeter University, also in the UK (2004).

I love teaching face to face in the classroom but I also think online courses and materials are a brilliant way to try and put ideas and thoughts across to students who can learn at their own pace and in their own time. It is not easy to learn another language ā€“ as I know from my struggles with Japanese ā€“ but online opportunities can make it a lot of fun and be very motivating. Here is my YouTube channel where I have posted many student-oriented videos.

My partner, Keiko Sakui, and I have also published five online English courses on the Udemy platform: Academic Reports in English; Presentations in English; Successful Meetings in English; Small Talk in English; and Articles in Two Weeks. It has been an amazing learning curve to get to grips with video and audio recording, animation, green screen and so on. It is very rewarding when students sign up – so far we have over 800 from 35 countries.

My research interests include student engagement and motivation, and online learning, especially the use of virtual reality (VR) for teaching and learning. I am currently working on a joint VR project with Mehrasa Alizadeh connecting students in Japan, Australia and New Zealand to encourage intercultural competence and language skills.