About

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The author of these pages is Paul Fanning, a retired teacher and teacher trainer in the field of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). Paul began his career as a secondary school teacher in Zambia in 1971, but since then he has worked mostly in universities with students at an advanced level of English. He specialises in the teaching of English for academic and professional purposes, with a particular interest in common problems of grammar and vocabulary in this area. As well as in Zambia, he has taught English in Spain, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and Britain (Middlesex University). He has been involved in the writing of two coursebooks in English for Specific Purposes: English in the Medical Laboratory (1980, with John Swales – published by Nelson), and Grammar Practice for Professional Writing (2009, Athena). 

Paul lives in the town of Reading in England, but maintains links with East Africa, where he still has some professional contacts, and Spain, where the eldest of his five children (Noelle) resides. His main activity in retirement is thinking and writing about learners’ problems in English for Academic Purposes. He hopes that this web site will bring his numerous ideas and insights of the past 40 years to a wider audience of learners and fellow teachers, so that anything of true value in his thinking is not lost. The word “Guinlist” in the address of the site is an anagram of “linguist”, the word that best sums up his academic orientation.