John Polias is an international consultant in the classroom applications of the role of language in learning. He has been an ESL teacher at all levels of schooling, a teacher of mathematics and science, a lecturer in ESL teaching and linguistics at university level and a consultant in language and literacy.
He and Brian Dare are the two international tutor trainers for and the writers or co-writers of Teaching in English in multilingual classrooms (TEMC); 3L: Language and literacy for learning; How Language Works (HLW); Teaching ESL Learners in Mainstream Classrooms: Language in Learning across the Curriculum (TESMC: LiLaC); Literacy for Learning (LfL); and Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts (TYCEMC).
He is a writer of curriculum and teaching materials for post-graduate students and teachers, and the writer of the ESL Scope and Scales for the SA Department of Education. He has also written a book on how students are apprenticed into science, co-written a book on a description of genre and functional grammar for Swedish and co-written chapters on teaching and learning in multilingual contexts in several academic publications.
John currently works with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in designing and delivering professional development courses for the Education Bureau of Hong Kong on meaning-making in a range of subjects: science, humanities, mathematics, physical education, technology education and visual arts.