Meet a member - Amanda Croft

For our first interview of 2026, Viktoryia Zelianko speaks with Amanda Croft about Business English, storytelling, and professional development. Drawing on theatre, coaching, and decades of teaching experience, Amanda explores confidence, communication, and why human connection matters more than ever in the age of AI.

Bio:

Amanda has 30 years acting and EFL teaching experience. She has an MA in TESOL specialising in gesture and language acquisition. Over the last four years, she has led workshops at IATEFL, Neurolanguage Coaching®️ Conference in Sitges, for ELTABB and BESIG. She runs English with STILE (Storytelling, Theatre & Improvisation in Language Education).

1. So, what’s your Business-English-Trainer story? What career transitions did you go through and what motivated you?

Business English found me rather than me making a positive decision to move into Business English teaching. I was running ghost tours in Canterbury when I took a party of business professionals on one such tour. The teacher who accompanied them asked me afterwards what my ‘day job’ was? I replied I teach English at the University of Kent and at Chaucer College in Canterbury. It turned out she was the courses manager at the London School of English. I was interviewed and before I knew it, I was teaching one-to-one and small groups at the school. I absolutely loved it. She always said afterwards that she just wanted to capture that energy and put it in a business class setting! So, I went from teaching teenagers and university students to the world of Business English.

2. Has the learning needs of your students changed over the years? What are the most common requests you get?

This is an interesting question, but fundamentally the most common request has always been a desire to be more confident, fluent and spontaneous. I would say that business professionals want to be able to speak confidently about their specific field of professional expertise and to be able to understand their interlocuter. They want to be nable to speak up in meetings, share valuable insights and not miss out on opportunities to speak, making and creating impact. Small talk often features quite strongly as most professionals can talk about their business, but when they step out of the board room, they need to be able to socialise in English too. Often, in the world of business, this is where the real work happens and trust is built with colleagues and clients. Of course, there are specific requests for job applications, interview practice, presentation skills, negotiation, cross cultural communication, idioms and phrasal verbs too. The most unusual request I’ve ever had was working with a spiritual healer from Japan and this involved having spiritual healing.

3. Among other business communication skills, you teach storytelling. How does it apply to a business context? Does it go beyond “telling a personal story” while networking or presenting? 

Yes, I would say that it absolutely does. Sometimes, the stories we tell become self-limiting traps that keep us stuck thinking or behaving in a certain way or viewing life from a certain vantage point. I really believe that it’s important to be able to work with our clients self-limiting beliefs about their English, their ability to speak the language and feel comfortable with their English communication. It’s so important to listen to these stories too. In these situations, coaching comes to the fore. I have used various methods from the use of ‘powerful’ questions to role play and forum theatre to help clients reshape and reformulate their story. So, they feel empowered rather than disempowered by a particular story.

4. What is a good activity to teach storytelling for an individual student or a group? What if a group is of mixed cultures?

I think of storytelling as a recipe and ask participants to define the key ingredients. They can share highlights from their favourite childhood stories, a film they loved, their favourite book and of course tell their own. Sometimes, our clients believe they haven’t a story to share but ask them about a moment they felt most proud, inspired (add any adjectives here) or the biggest challenge they have faced in their working life. Stories will come. Put participants in pairs. ‘A’ tells ‘B’ the story, then B retells the story. Then swap, ‘B’ tells ‘A’ their story and ‘A’ retells it to B. This requires paraphrasing and active listening. Depending on level, a group of 4 or more can swap again before the original storyteller hears their own story. Of course, the stories change, but the key point remains.

5. You are now helping other trainers to expand their toolkit. What gave you the idea of English with STILE? Tell us a few words about it.

I spent years working in TIE (Theatre in Education) which meant touring schools with plays in the UK and across Europe. The European tours were mainly English plays specifically written for children whose first language was NOT English.  When I came to thinking about what I now do I thought it’s storytelling, theatre practice and improvisation and so I have gone from TIE to STILE (Storytelling, Theatre and Improvisation in Language Education). I also liked the play on words. Learning English as business professional should be playful and enjoyable too. Finally, I like the idea that a STILE helps you overcome the challenges you face in acquiring another language.

6. As an entrepreneur in a niche business, what do you find rewarding and challenging about it?

I am at the beginning of this journey. I have built a new website, I’m marketing what Ido, I’m attending conferences and getting the word out there about my approach, I’m running courses both online and in person while also working for a couple of well- established companies to fund the financial cost entailed. My timetable is full and that can definitely be challenging at times, but I am on a mission because I believe 100% that what I do has the capacity to change lives. Marketing and being present on social media can be a challenge as well, but I’m getting better at dedicating time to the different aspects of running a business and taking time out and taking the pressure off myself. ‘Rome was not built in day’, so it’s important to find down time too.

7. In what ways have you found being an IATEFL BESIG member useful? 

I am new to BESIG, but what I gained from the conference in Athens is that BESIG offers a hugely supportive community of language teachers, trainers and coaches working within the same field. It really is a caring, sharing and enabling community and I’m proud to be part of it. Thank you.

Interview by Viktoryia Zelianko. Edited by Shweta Paropkari.