Penny Ur is a renowned ELT‏‎ expert, author and teacher trainer.

She was educated in the UK and earned her first MA at Oxford University. She then studied for her PGCE‏‎ at Cambridge University and later got her MA TEFL at Reading university.

In 1967 she emigrated to Israel where she began teaching English at primary and secondary level. She was for a time head of the M.Ed program in foreign-language teaching at Oranim Academic College of Education, and now teaches MA courses at Oranim and Haifa University.

Ms Ur is interested in all aspects of language-teaching methodology, but in particular English teacher training, language-learning activity design and the implications for teachers of the development of English as a lingua franca‏‎.

She has published a number of articles, and books with Cambridge University Press‏‎, many of which have become staples amongst language teachers and teacher-trainees.

In July 2013 she was awarded an OBE for services to language teaching.