David Bonamy first became interested in teaching English for business and technology while working as a volunteer in Sudan, where he taught English to banking, construction and engineering students. Another formative experience was at the Pathway Industrial Unit in London, where he carried out needs analyses and ran in-company EL training courses for local firms with immigrant employees. He still has vivid flashbacks of motorcycling to factories along the A40 at 2 am in winter to teach night shifts, finishing classes in time for the first breakfast cafes to open.
David then worked in Indonesia, where he trained teachers and developed technical English courses in a multilateral aid project to upgrade the skills of technology teachers. His next job was based at Kuwait international airport, where he helped develop the national airline’s language programmes and training manuals. From there he moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where he trained teachers to run the university’s ESP Centre, developed courses in English for engineering and medical students, and ran short courses for clients from business and the petroleum industry.
David’s next post was at Singapore Polytechnic, where in addition to management and administrative duties he taught communication skills to business and engineering students. During this period he wrote technical and business English materials, both in print and in multimedia versions delivered to students over the campus IT network.
Since 2000 David has worked in the UK as a freelance ELT author. Among his recent publications are the five-level course English for Industrial Schools, published by Egyptian International Publishing (Longman), which is currently in use in the Egyptian school system. More recently, he has written the two-level course Technical English for Pearson Education.
David has an MA in English from St Andrews University, and a postgraduate MA in Linguistics for ELT from Lancaster University. He also has a teaching diploma in ESL from Leeds University.
