Peter Brereton

Peter Brereton is an English for Liberal Arts instructor at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, where he teaches Academic Reading and Writing, Research Writing, and other content-based EAP courses. Alongside his responsibilities at ICU, Peter is also a teacher trainer for Cambridge University Press, a Delta Local Tutor, a Delta External Assessor, and is a qualified examiner for several well-known tests of English proficiency. Until COVID made it unfeasible to hold face-to-face conferences, Peter was also involved in organising the ExcitELT conference in Tokyo.

Peter received his BA from the University of Leeds in French and German (2:1 with Distinction in Spoken German), and also speaks fluent Spanish and basic Japanese. He completed his CELTA in 2007 and DELTA in 2013 (M1: Distinction, M2: Merit, M3: Merit) and holds an MA in TESOL (Distinction) from the University of Nottingham. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Dr Steve Mann and is currently collecting data on Japanese students’ experiences of English Medium Instruction.

His main area of teaching expertise is in English for Academic Purposes and exam preparation courses (e.g. FCE, CAE, CPE, IELTS). Prior to working at ICU, Peter worked in Germany, France, Latvia, Ireland, the UK, Australia, and had three spells in Spain before moving to British Council Tokyo in 2012, where he held positions as ICT Coordinator and University & Corporate Course Coordinator. He then became Program Manager of the Center for English Discussion Class at Rikkyo University, responsible for supervising and supporting teachers, planning and delivering teacher training, evaluating and writing the course textbook, and designing and implementing assessment methods.

Peter is committed to equality in ELT and is a male ally for Equality in ELT in Japan as well as a supporter of initiatives to eliminate native-speakerism from our industry. In teaching, Peter is most passionate about teacher development, reflective practice, and – as a member of The C Group – teacher creativity. His interests in creativity are particularly focused on teacher improvisation – “the dark side of teaching” (Underhill & Maley, 2015) – and our ability to respond to emergent factors in the classroom and think on our feet. In his free time, Peter enjoys writing bios in the third person, reading, playing futsal, playing pool, and exploring lesser known parts of Tokyo.