In an earlier life Richard taught EFL (with a CELTA)  in  France, Switzerland, Germany and Peru and has worked as an IELTS examiner. He has also taught at Imperial College London and British secondary schools.  Richard began an EAP lecturing career at Leibniz University in Germany before returning to England to work at the University of Birmingham for 14 years as a coordinator of Presessional/Insessional EAP programmes.  He completed his DPhil part-time while at Birmingham and was awarded a Senior Fellowship in Higher Education (SFHE) for his work in teacher training, blended learning environments and a British Council project improving EAP teacher training in Brazil.

Richard’s research interests  include teacher training, blended learning and how teachers believe their students improve language accuracy.   In his doctorate Richard investigated Chinese L1 learners’ accuracy of use of  structures ungrammaticalized in their first language (e.g. English articles), L1 transfer effects and teacher attitudes and beliefs about teaching such grammar.