We have always said that English Teaching professional is your magazine, so it is nice to be able to report that the content of the November issue has been influenced by one of our readers. After enjoying Sasha Wajnryb’s article ‘What does a DOS do?’ in Issue 80, Phil Wade told us that he would be interested in hearing about the details of other jobs in the ELT field. He then set about finding volunteer contributors, and we are delighted to have an article by the first of these, Chia Suan Chong (who also blogs on this site), in the November issue. Chia’s article is about what a CELTA tutor does. We will be continuing the series in January, with a look at the life of a Diploma tutor.

Also in this issue, Alan Maley recommends some inspirational books in which teachers recount their experiences, often of educational contexts which might seem overwhelmingly adverse but where they managed to overcome the difficulties and make a real difference to the lives and achievements of their students – often by sheer force of personality.

And it is the personality of the teacher that occupies Phillip Brown. He argues that personality is the key to classroom success and that the teacher’s ability to talk to the students, get things across and inspire them is far more important than the formal requirements and expectations laid down by teaching authorities.

At a purely linguistic level, John Potts asserts that the teacher’s own idiolect, the language choices they make which mark them out as individuals, plays an important part in the development of their students’ language ability. He makes a conscious effort to vary his own idiolect to give his students exposure to as large a ‘language bath’ as possible, and takes note of which of his favourite expressions his students adopt and start to use themselves.

I do hope that readers will continue to contribute to English Teaching Professional by sending in articles and letting us know what you have enjoyed in the magazine and anything you would like us to include.