Midlands Network

I worked in Spain for several years as an English teacher and fell in love with all things Spanish. I set up Sunflower Spanish in 2001 which provided Spanish lessons in Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, teaching all ages and levels of students: my two highlights from this time were teaching my local rugby team, the Northampton Saints, and helping a class of 60-year-olds to pass their Spanish GCSE. I passed the Diploma in Translation in 2011 and now combine teaching and translating, a combination which works well. I have really enjoyed helping to set up the Midlands network and meeting other people who work in this sector.

Steve Doswell is a corporate communication practitioner with extensive experience spanning energy, power engineering, robotics, financial services and higher education. He has also had experience as a translator (French/German-English) and became a CIOL member in the 1990s after completing the Final Diploma in Spanish. He was President of FEIEA, the European Association of Internal Communication 2010-2012 and CEO of the UK’s Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) 2011-2016. Steve took time out aged 50 to complete a Masters in European Politics (University of Birmingham). Steve has a deep affinity with Slovenia and is learning Slovene. A keen club runner, Steve is currently writing a book of his experience of running in all 28 EU countries during 2018-19 for charity. “I’m a Londoner but I’ve lived in Birmingham for almost 30 years and I’m really pleased to be able to support the Midlands Network. We can be both local and international in our outlook and that’s a real strength.”

I graduated with a BA in English Philology & Tourism from the Universidad de Jaén, in my hometown. I achieved an online MA in Applied Linguistics in Spanish as a Foreign Language at FUNIBER and the passion I have for my work led me to qualify as a Teacher in Spain and in England. I have taught Spanish in several secondary schools in the UK and at Coventry University as Assistant Lecturer in Spanish. At the moment I am studying for a PhD at the Open University as part of an AHRC-funded project called Language Acts and Worldmaking. My research interests revolve around the role of mediator that foreign language teachers play in the classroom and their personal and professional perceptions and reflections on this process. It is a pleasure for me to be part of CIOL Midlands Network to help to foster the use of foreign languages and support every professional in this field as part of our team.