About the authors

John Hughes – Spotlight on First (second edition)

John Hughes is an ELT author, teacher trainer and presenter at international conferences. He began working as a language teacher in 1992 and combined language teaching with business communication skills training. Between 1993 and 1995, he worked at a higher business school in Poland and then managed language training for companies in northern Poland.

He also ran company language courses in Italy in the late-nineties as well as training teachers on courses leading to the Trinity Certificate in TESOL and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Certificate in Teaching Business English. John also started to publish articles in journals during this time, including a regular column for ELT teachers in the Guardian Weekly newspaper.

From 2001 onwards, John managed a teacher training department in the UK and developed online programmes as well as face-to-face courses. His first book for teachers was published in 2005 and, since then, he has gone on to author and co-author numerous books, including teacher resources, workbooks and student books. His titles for National Geographic Learning include Spotlight on FCE, Life (six levels), Practical Grammar (three levels), Success with BEC Vantage and Total Business 2.

As well as writing, John still teaches part-time in Oxford and trains teachers in the summer at Oxford University. 

Jon Naunton – Spotlight on First (second edition)

Jon Naunton has been involved in teaching English for more than thirty years. Following a degree in English and a TEFL certificate, he went to Italy, where he had his first experience of Cambridge examination classes. He then went on to work in Libya in more peaceful times.

On his return to England, he taught business English, before moving to International House London, where he occupied different roles that included teaching at all levels, running teacher training courses, management, and recruiting for the organization’s overseas schools. Back in Britain, he took time time out to obtain an MBA from Cass Business School and a Master’s degree in Second language acquisition and teaching from the University of London.

His experiences in Libya inspired him to write a course to help Arab learners of English with script and spelling. In all, he has written around twenty books for several different publishers. These include FCE preparation, general English and Business English at all levels. He has even written a book for students in the oil industry! His titles for National Geographic Learning are Spotlight on First, Aspire and a coursebook for Poland.

For the past sixteen years, he has lived in the centre of France, where he has taught in higher education, at a business school and currently at the Ecole Polytech’ of the University of Tours. His students are mostly French but include others from North and West Africa and China.

He still loves teaching and considers his students his greatest resource. He feeds his insights from his teaching into his different publications.