Welcome to Learning Off the Syllabus, where the real learning unfolds!
Learning Off the Syllabus started from the conversations we don’t usually get to have in English Language Teaching; the ones after class and sometimes after hard days, over coffee (or wine) or the ones sitting quietly in our heads.
I’m Farnaz. I’ve spent years teaching, designing curriculum, training educators, and working alongside international students, newcomers, and refugees. I started this podcast during a moment of real precarity in my own career. Losing work in a field I care deeply about forced me to sit with hard questions about value, care, expertise, and what language education is becoming.
This podcast is a space for honest conversations about ESL and EAP; the emotional labour, the contradictions, the pressures, and the quiet ways people keep showing up (or pushing back) anyway.
You’ll hear from students, teachers, leaders, and thinkers grappling with what teaching and learning actually look like right now.
If you’ve ever felt the gap between policy and practice, care and control, or ideals and reality, then you’re in the right place! Join us as we go off the syllabus!
ELT=English Language Teaching
ESL= English as a Second Language
EAP= English for Academic Purposes
Farnaz Karimian (MA, OCELT) is an English language specialist with over 15 years of experience across Ontario’s ESL sector, including colleges, universities, private language schools, and settlement programs. Her work is driven by a central question: how can language education be more responsive, inclusive, and reflective of learners’ realities?
Drawing on Applied Linguistics, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Critical Digital Pedagogy, she designs learning experiences that centre equity, multimodality, and real-world relevance. She is particularly interested in removing barriers in language education and exploring practical approaches to decolonizing ESL curriculum.
Farnaz has held roles as a teacher, teacher trainer, curriculum developer, academic coordinator, and event planner, and is now a podcast host and producer. She previously served as President of TESL Toronto and currently sits on the TESL Ontario Board of Directors, contributing to ongoing conversations about the future of the field.
www.learningoffthesyllabus.com
Instagram: @learningoffthesyllabus
Email: learningoffthesyllabus@gmail.com
Theme music
Periscope by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://audionautix.com/