Dr Christina Gitsaki is an Associate Professor and Research Coordinator at the Center for Educational Innovation at Zayed University, UAE. Dr Gitsaki has previously served as the UNESCO Chair in Applied Research in Education, in addition to serving on the executive boards of a number of professional associations, such as the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, the Gulf Comparative Education Society, and TESOL Arabia. She is currently the Secretary General of the International Association of Applied Linguistics, and has published extensively in second language acquisition and pedagogy, the use of educational technology in the second language classroom, teacher professional development, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Dr Melanie Gobert is a member of the General Education faculty at the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. She was Editor of Perspectives, the TESOL Arabia peer-reviewed English Language Teaching journal, from 2008–2014, and was a featured speaker at the 2nd World Congress on Extensive Reading held in Seoul, Korea, in 2014. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Composition, a Master’s in Applied Linguistics, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. She was a judge for the Language Learner Literature Awards in 2014 and 2015, and has published and presented widely on reading, writing and vocabulary acquisition.

Helene Demirci is a member of the English Foundations faculty at Abu Dhabi Men’s College. She has taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at primary, secondary and tertiary levels for over 20 years in England, Turkey, and the UAE. Her interests lie in engaging students in extensive reading and technology integration. She has been involved in the implementation of an extensive reading program in Abu Dhabi Men’s College, and is currently serving as co-chair of the MENA-ERF. She holds an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Liverpool.