E-mail: Background:

I am originally from the Midwestern part of the United States. After attending college for a year, I moved to Venezuela and served as a missionary for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After that, I returned to the States, and I attended and graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in Spanish education. During that time, I also worked in a variety of teaching and training positions, and it was back in the late 1980s that I decided to switch my focus to teaching English as a second language. Since that time, I have had wonderful opportunities to travel to different parts of the world to both share my background in educational technology and to learn about our world neighbors and cultures.

I moved to Japan after I finished my master's degree in TESL and taught English, intercultural studies, and computer literacy at several colleges and universities for the next eight years. A change of jobs brought me back to Utah where I now work. My areas of interest and specialty include CALL, video technology and language teaching, teacher training, and learner autonomy. In addition to this Website, I have created several others including Tips for Students, EZSlang, and Train Your Accent. Outside of the profession, I enjoy doing family history research (see my home page, The Cavazos and Contreras Family History ), camping, backpacking, and hiking (my Website, Hiking in Utah), and spending time with family. You can do a listening activity on my site called A Hiking Family in which I introduce myself and my family.

Feel free to email me any questions about this site or my other interests. I also am available to give presentations and workshops on educational technology (see HERE for details).