Our Story
Chasing Time English is a New Zealand based company, founded by Scott Granville and Ben Woollen.
We started this journey with a clear vision: to provide engaging live-action narrative series with teaching and learning resources for English language educators and students around the world.
Our team is a unique combination of English language educators, applied linguists and filmmaking professionals working and living across four continents. We believe this range of talent and diversity allows us to provide our customers with flexibility in delivery: a keystone of the modern education marketplace.
Central to the design of our materials is learner motivation. This objective is achieved through the design process, where prior to scripting, the production team consults with applied linguists and teaching professionals to identify appropriate learning content, and to ensure that the more difficult barriers to comprehension are mitigated.
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Our Teaching Philosophy
The pedagogical approach of Chasing Time English
English language education should excite. Content should grip the imagination and inspire learners to speak and to write. They should be eager to hear more. And the things students learn should be real and be crucial.
We believe video is the medium to achieve this. The drama and action of our short narrative videos make for compelling viewing, enlivened with intrigue, humour, surprise and tension. Our vision is for the video to stand on its own as entertainment: captivate learners, and the learning will follow.
We back this up with solid, cutting-edge pedagogy. Our international team of materials developers consists of PhD-qualified applied linguists and experienced industry professionals dedicated to designing teaching and learning resources based on contemporary, research-backed approaches.
Staying a step ahead, we draw on the fields of Conversation Analysis and Pragmatics to promote a broad base of communicative competence. We aim to shift the industry away from Listening Skills to broader Viewing Skills, a more authentic approach in which meaning is not merely detected through decoding sound – as if every conversation was by phone – but through language as it is enhanced through multi-modal resources including voice, facial expression, gesture, and a sense of space.
Chasing Time English promises pedagogical innovation, learner engagement, and quality assurance.
Our Team
Scott Granville
Co founder | Managing Director
A co-founder of Chasing Time English, Scott has worked in the education and media sectors for over 20 years with international experience in New Zealand, South Korea, Australia, Japan, China, the USA, and India. He leads the Chasing Time English team across the development, production and delivery of our narrative-driven education resources for English language education. Scott has extensive experience and post-graduate qualifications in English language and literature, scriptwriting and project management, as well as in-depth knowledge of cross-industry collaboration processes in the education sector.
Ben Woollen
Co founder | Director
A co-founder of Chasing Time English, Ben is an award-winning filmmaker currently based in Wellington, New Zealand. Having spent the better part of 20 years in the creative industry, and producing content for a wide range of international clientele across multiple sectors, Ben has amassed a strong portfolio of film and photographic work. He has worked on a number of major motion pictures in the Wellington region and his production work has taken him to all corners of the world.
Jonathon Ryan
Director of Education
Jonathon (Jono) has over 20 years English teaching experience in New Zealand, Mexico and Ireland. He is particularly interested in L2 pragmatic competence and especially in applying insights from Conversation Analysis, and brings to his role many years of experience in designing and writing teaching materials. He holds a PhD and MA in applied linguistics, a postgraduate diploma in second language teaching and a bachelor degree in Film & Television Studies. His academic research has appeared in prestigious journals including Language Learning, Journal of Pragmatics, and ELT Journal.
Karen Kemsley
Head of Engagement
Karen has lived, worked and travelled in nearly forty countries, including seven years in Africa and South America. Originally from London, she settled in NZ in 2001, working as an English language teacher and academic counsellor. Karen is passionate about communication and has a special interest in teaching listening and speaking skills. Prior to settling and focusing on language teaching, Karen applied her productive skills and resourceful nature to a career in the movie industry, working on productions such as The Last Samurai and Prince Caspian.
Contributors
Craig Nicol
Data analyst | CTE Academy
Maria Tarau
Materials writer | CTE Academy
Michael Rabbidge
Materials writer | CTE Academy
Laura Haseley
Materials writer | CTE Academy
Yuko Nakahama
Materials writer
Penny McLarty
Materials writer
Robert McLarty
Industry consultant
Marc Granville
Partnerships consultant