Our Team

Director

Keith Armstrong

Keith comes from Bath in the south-west of England. He was Director of International House Tarragona from 2007 to 2017 and then spent three years as a language school inspector for International House World Organisation. Following the closure of the much-respected IH Tarragona in 2020, he founded a new language school in the same premises, Idiomes Tarraco, with the same commitment to quality language teaching. He has considerable experience in organising Cambridge English exam sessions and he is a Cambridge English Speaking Examiner at all levels from pre-A1 to C2. In addition to a degree in French and German, a Postgraduate Diploma in Conference Interpreting and the Cambridge DTEFLA, he has an MA in Applied Linguistics-English Language Teaching. He has taught English in the UK, France, Spain and Egypt and has previously worked as a Conference Interpreter and Tour Manager. He speaks English, Spanish, Catalan, French, German and is currently studying Greek online. As well as languages his hobbies include crosswords and travel. His most memorable trip was travelling down the Nile and across Lake Nasser for two weeks, ending up at the Great Temple of Abu Simbel.

Teacher

Adam Quigley

Originally born in London, Adam has been living in Tarragona since 2006. He has a CELTA English teaching qualification and has been teaching for over 15 years, notably in the Col·legi “Santa Teresa de Jesús” (Teresianes), El Corte Inglés and the Banco Santander in Tarragona, the Escola d’adults in Altafulla and Planeta DeAgostini in Barcelona. He has also designed his own teaching programmes for courses at the Col·legi “Santa Teresa de Jesús” (Teresianes) and the Escola d’adults in Altafulla.

Special mention should be made of two achievements: the design and programming of an interactive online English course for Secondary teachers given official approval by the Department of Education in Catalonia and the publication of two books, which were the fruit of six years of research: “Antes morir que rendirse. Testimonios británicos en el asedio de Tarragona 1811” and “Tarragona 1813. El árduo camino hacia la liberación”, published in 2018 and 2021 respectively.

Adam has given speeches at historical conferences specialising in the Spanish War of Independence and he also works as a tour guide in Tarragona, with tours focusing on “Tarragona 1811” and “Roman Tarragona”.

Teacher

ErikSeth Stewart

ErikSeth was born next to the beach in Santa Monica, California. He was taken inland at a young age and grew up in Utah, Central California and Washington State. He wasn’t able to return to the sea until he arrived in Catalonia in 1996 where he has since worked his way south from the Costa Brava to the Costa Daurada. While in Barcelona, ErikSeth studied Catalan, French and Spanish to complement his work in tourism and hospitality and it was those experiences as a language student that led him to his vocation as an English teacher. He obtained his CELTA in 2014 and his CELTYL in 2015 and has taught students of all ages, from pre-schoolers to retirement age, and all levels, from A1 (Beginner) to C2 (Proficiency).

In addition to General English, he has also taught classes with a more specific focus, such as English for Work Purposes, Academic Purposes and exam preparation for IELTS and for Cambridge First Certificate and Cambridge Advanced. As a music enthusiast, ErikSeth is keen to use songs and jazz chants to enhance his classes and strengthen his students’ awareness of word and sentence stress in order to improve their listening skills and pronunciation.

“(English B2 First intensive) I liked having to remember and that I learned a lot in a short time. The Zoom platform is very useful to help see the teacher’s notes from home.”

“(English B2 First intensive) I liked the amount that I learned in just a short time. The 4 hours of class flew by and didn’t drag on as I had expected. I understood everything thanks to the teacher’s explanation and practising a lot. “

“(German A1 intensive) I liked the range of exercises and combining the skills of listening, writing, speaking and reading in an entertaining way”.

“(English Business) The possibility of exploring different topics related to the world of business. Congratulations and keep up the good work!”.

“(English course) I liked the presentation and type of teaching style. To be honest, I’m looking forward to the next class because I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.”

“What I liked about the classes is that we practiced communication a lot, and the homework also helped us study English outside the classroom”.

“(German course) We didn’t just learn basic things, but we focused on things that would be useful to be able to hold a conversation. Curriculum based on useful language for the learning process”.

“(French course) Preparation before the class by the teacher – very good class preparation. Teacher’s ability to clear up doubts”.

“I liked the fact that everything was geared to my level and to be able to make progress at my own speed. Very qualified and friendly teacher”.

“A good teacher who has helped me a lot. I’m happy I took the course”.

“I enjoyed the difrerent topics, working with a lot of different material and a lot of speaking”.

“Very happy with the service this school offers”.

“The teacher is pleasant and she also explains everything very well, clearing up any doubts”.

“We do a lot of “speaking” and that’s a very good way to learn. The teacher deals with any doubts that we may have”.

“The pace of the class is good and time passes quickly”.

“The teacher is very attentive to students’ needs and has a lot of patience in class”.

“I like the way of learning and the variety in the material studied”.

“We don’t always do the same thing, so the varied activities in class make learning more enjoyable”.