Presenters on November 7 & 8, 2025

Tina discovered teaching with comprehensible input during an internship at an American high school. During six weeks, she experienced how the students successfully acquired German in classes taught with CI. She has been applying the same techniques in her own classes ever since, and presents workshops on CI activities and techniques in Germany. Tina teaches English and French at a Gymnasium in Wetteraukreis. She is also part of a group of dedicated teachers who strive to spread the word about CI in Germany. 

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https://www.fremdsprachen-unterrichten.de/%C3%BCber-uns/

With inexhaustible energy, Marianne teaches Dutch as a second, third or fourth language to children at the British School in The Netherlands, and she is the team principal at the Dutch language department. Marianne is a natural at teaching TPRS and other forms of understandable input, and enjoys a lot of variety in her lessons. She develops many games and teaching materials for her students. For Marianne , the path to language acquisition consists of building relationships with her students, making up and acting out stories together, having fun and developing a love of reading.

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-van-klaveren-29b492114/

Charlotte Dincher has been using CI techniques with great pleasure in her lessons at a German state school for many years. After the spark was blown at a TPRS conference in the US, she became a trainer herself and has trained and educated many other teachers in international schools. She also maintains a blog in which she shares materials she has developed herself. "Lost in London" is her first CI-easy reader for beginning English learners. 

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Website: https://www.sprachenbesserlehren.de/

Bryce Hedstrom is a teacher and teacher trainer from Colorado. He taught Spanish for more than 30 years at all levels—elementary through college and now devotes himself full time to teaching teachers of all languages. Most recently he has learned Latin at his daughter’s request and is teaching Latin I, II and III as a volunteer teacher at the classical school she started. Bryce received the Best of Colorado award from CCFLT, and the Award for Excellence in Teaching from the college where he taught for 22 years. He has also trained employees and managers at Fortune 500 corporations and has translated corporate training materials and operations manuals. Bryce is a regular presenter at state and national conferences and gives custom workshops and keynotes to train and inspire teachers around the world.

 

Website, books and resources: https://www.brycehedstrom.com/

Originally from Northern Ireland, Jonathan McBride is a passionate teacher of German and French based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Jonathan enjoys engaging with research on second language acquisition and education more generally, and is particularly interested in the point where research and teaching practice converge. He is interested in rethinking modern languages education in the UK and collaborating with colleagues to encourage more young people to discover the joy of learning another language. In 2024 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust that enabled him to research Comprehensible Input teaching in schools Canada, Switzerland and Germany. Jonathan’s other big passion in life is music. As a former professional violinist he played with various symphony orchestras throughout the UK and Ireland, and these days he enjoys coaching string players in school alongside his languages teaching.

 

Website: https://jonathanmcbride.net/

Blog: https://jonathanmcbride.substack.com/

Churchill Fellowship page: https://www.churchillfellowship.org/ideas-experts/fellows-directory/jonathan-mcbride/

Carmen Meester is a teacher of Spanish and teacher trainer in the field of language education with Comprehensible Input.

After finishing her career as Merchandise Planner in Fashion Retail, she decided to change course and use her knowledge of and passion for the Spanish language professionally. In 2012 she founded her language school Talenmeester in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands, where she soon started teaching with Comprehensible Input. The lessons were such a success that the number of students increased and it led to a demand for other languages being taught according to the same philosophy. 

After having completed the CI-teacher training at TPRS Academy, Carmen herself started facilitating courses to other language teachers as a team member of TPRS Academy. In 2019 she decided to partner with Kirstin and continue this teacher training company under the name Dynamic Language Learning. Together with Kirstin and their team, Carmen now facilitates various trainings and workshops in The Netherlands and abroad as well as online.

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Website: https://www.talenmeester.nl/

Casper is a Latin and Greek teacher who has been teaching these classical languages with CI-techniques for over 15 years. His primary goal is to enable students to learn how to fluently read these languages in a natural way. In 2005 he founded 'Addisco Educational Centre for Ancient Languages and Cultures' where a small but passionate team teaches Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, ancient history, philosophy, archeology and art. Casper also trains Latin teachers in The Netherlands and abroad.

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Website: https://www.addisco.nl/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casperporton/

Tammy has been teaching for more than 30 years. She is a language teacher turned Comprehensible Input (CI) enthusiast who believes learning a new language should feel more like a story and less like a struggle. The moment she stumbled upon CI, everything clicked! Students were smiling, speaking, and actually acquiring language. She was hooked! 

Now, Tammy loves sharing the magic of CI at conferences and workshops, where she loves connecting with fellow educators, sparking inspiration, and exploring creative ways to make input truly compelling. Whether it’s student voice and choice, humor, or using technology in CI, she believes CI opens doors not just to language, but to confidence and connection. 

Tammy is also the co-founder of Yakety Yak, which is developing an app that will help people learn English the CI way; with stories, images, and lots of understandable, compelling input. No grammar drills. No stress. Just real language, real progress and a whole lot of yakking. 

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Website: https://www.yakety.online/ 

Kathrins CI journey started in college in the USA while completing her teaching program. She taught German through via CI and specifically Story Listening to children and adults since 2011 in the US and at an international school in Germany. After receiving a Master’s degree in English/Linguistics in 2023, she went on to get her teaching license in Germany for Elementary school. She has led Story Listening workshops in Germany, the Netherlands and the US and is promoting CI in Germany with FUNN.

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Websites:

https://www.welovedeutsch.com/

https://www.fremdsprachen-unterrichten.de/

https://storiesfirst.org/

Albert is an English teacher at a primary/elementary school in Barcelona. In 2014, he discovered TPRS, which resulted in a radical change in his teaching. Ever since, his classes have been all CI, especially when Story Listening was added to his repertoire. Teaching young children requires certain adaptations in the range of CI activities that he uses, appealing to Alberts creativity and enthusiasm.

Albert is one of the organising team of Soy de Idiomas, a CI conference for Spanish speaking language teachers in Huesca, which takes place every year in July.
 

Website: https://www.soydeidiomas.com/inicio

Janique has more than 30 years of experience in teaching Dutch and reading to illiterate immigrants in Belgium. In 2007, she started developing "Zwart op Wit", a course in technical reading for illiterate adults.

She also trains teachers in teaching strategies for this specific group of learners at the Centre for Professional Development and Education. And because she highly values pleasure reading, she runs a website with reviews of books that are suitable for learners of Dutch as a Second Language. 

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Website Comprehensible Language Learning for Teachers: https://cllft.com 

Websites with Dutch books for non-Dutch readers: https://leesmoment.weebly.com and https://levojo.weebly.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janique-vanderstocken-6b04a1174/