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EAP Faculty Spotlight: Dave Learoyd

May. 25, 2025

Ever since joining Lakeland in 2018, Dave Learoyd has played a central role in developing LUJ's English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program, teaching Listening and Speaking, Writing, and Reading classes across all five levels, from beginner to advanced. 

Mr. Learoyd also manages to find time to chair various committees, write vocabulary workbooks, manage other EAP faculty, and deliver presentations at conferences. Across seven years, he has helped prepare hundreds of students to take academic classes at the undergraduate level. 

For this month's Faculty Spotlight, we caught up with Mr. Learoyd and asked him a few questions. 

In your first year at university, were you already planning on being a teacher in some way? Did anything change from year one to graduation?

No, I wasn't planning on being a teacher. I wasn't planning on being anything. I had no idea what I was going to do after university. I just enjoyed my time studying and socializing.

What changed from year one to graduation? I wish I could say something profound and illuminating, but the truth is, I just grew up and became more independent. I had no great plans or ideas, and I had no clue where life was going to take me. I was just happy living life. I still am.

You're not only a teacher, but also a writer. What inspired you to put together your five workbooks that EAP students currently use in classes?

I think English course textbooks are generally really good at giving students skills and practice, but the language component that can really help students quickly expand their vocabulary is never large enough in those books. At the same time, other vocabulary workbooks that I've used lack the capacity for students to personalize and use the language - the two key things you need in order to remember vocabulary. I started making some worksheets of my own during the pandemic when teaching and studying language were more of a challenge and got some good feedback from teachers and students. They just gradually grew from there.

When you're not in the classroom, and you have a few days to yourself, how do you fill your time?

I love a good hike or a random urban walk, and the onsen/sento culture is one of the things I like most about living in Japan. I also try to watch a documentary once a week. Other than that, I just do the things that everybody does - movies, parks, books, food, and drink.

Besides England and Japan, have you lived in other countries? How was that experience?

I started teaching English in Hong Kong and lived there for a few months. That was back in 2006, so it was an interesting time politically and culturally - at a fork in the road, I guess. It was very international, constantly noisy, always busy, and had a unique energy. I haven't been back since, so it would be interesting to see how it's changed and what has stayed the same.

After that, I lived in Seoul, South Korea, twice - each time for a year. It was before Korean culture was the global thing it is now, so I was there before it was cool to be there. The economy was developing a lot at that time, and the whole country seemed to be in a rush to get to the future. Everybody did everything to the max - eat, sleep, drink, drive, work, love, hate. Everything was at 100 mph. It was a lot of fun, but I probably spent too much time in the city instead of searching out the smaller, quieter parts of the country.