He has been working in the private EFL sector as teacher, director of studies, school director and teacher trainer for many years. He now lives in Spain but his previous experience includes teaching and training in the UK and in his native New Zealand.

Teacher education has always been his special interest and was the subject of his MA dissertation at the University of Reading.

He has been involved with UCLES accredited teacher training schemes and he is presently Chief Examiner for the DELTA scheme.

Over the last ten years Thornbury has also worked as material writer contributing to several course book projects. He is the authors of a number of books on language teaching, including Beyond the Sentence and Uncovering Grammar, dozens of articles and reviews.

His particular interests include: discourse analysis, classroom interaction, second language emergence and critical pedagogy – and the relationship between all four.