The IELTS Speaking website is created by Peter Travis of Splendid Learning, a division of Flo-Joe, the award-winning UK publishing company.
About Peter
I’ve been teaching English, both online and face-to-face for well over 20 years. My teaching career began in Coimbra, Portugal back in 1991. I moved on to Greece the following year and then took on a full-time post in a further education college in the UK. I am fully qualified with a Trinity College TEFL Certification and the Dip TEFL (Diploma in Teaching TEFL). During my career I have taught English at all levels and gained extensive experience in helping students prepare for their exams, including IELTS, Cambridge FCE, CAE and CPE.
It was a combination of my background in EFL, and a growing interest in e-learning, which ultimately led to me co-founding the award-winning Flo-Joe website, and later forming my own company, ‘Splendid Learning’ which publishes online courses for IELTS and CAE.
I’ve also worked with Harper Collins to author ‘Practice Tests for PET‘ (Cambridge English Preliminary) and ‘Practice Tests for FCE‘ (Cambridge English: First). I have also co-authored 2 further titles for Harper Collins, ‘IELTS Practice Tests‘ & ‘IELTS Practice Tests 2‘.
What people say about Splendid Learning courses
Praise for IELTS Speaking: Advanced
“This is a wonderful site and concept to help people improve communication and confidence.”
Bhavna, India
“Useful for peple who do not attend speaking classes all around the world to save their money!”
Amir
“It is a step-by-step teaching procedure, which is good to understand.”
Vishal, India
“To score a band of 9 on the IELTS speaking test, Splendid Speaking site is the best to visit. They provide a stepwise approach that boosts your morale”.
Rebecca, Ghana
“I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent contents of the material which is really very useful for anyone preparing IELTS. Great job!!!”
Bishnupriya, India
“It is really useful. i am using your structure and your advice for improving my knowledge”
Javad
“A really helping hand for those who don’t have an opportunity to be checked at home. Following the steps and instructions can motivate a student and achieving success in only the matter of time.”
Olga, Russia
“Everything is perfect.”
Tanira, Australia
“I thought the comments on chunking and how to sound fluent were very useful. Learners can read and listen to the models of how to pause naturally without sounding overly hesitant when trying to express their thoughts or make comments.”
Anne, UK
Praise for the CAE Speaking Success course
“A relevant and important tool for both teachers and students. It should be used in every CAE prep. classroom.”
Mary, Switzerland
“A helpful tool for anyone eager to pass CAE! Marvelous!”
Raluca, Romania
“Clear, simple and effective.”
Massimo, Italy
“This is the sort of resource I have been looking for so far. Clear and simple as well as assertive. I couldn’t possibly be more grateful for your help! I’m sure your feedback will get all students through the exam.”
Mabel, Argentina
“I highly recommend everyone to try this e-tool! Be sure you will enjoy it and find something new for yourself and your students. I really liked it!”
Iryna Zuyenok, Ukraine
“I think it’s fabulous! I’m really impressed with the lesson I’ve just done…You are doing such a wonderful job to help us with English…THANK YOU!!!”
Lubchik, UK
“Your new learning tool is very useful for both students and educators. It highlights the typical problems of candidates and gives clear examples, explanations that help students to be more aware of these issues during the preparation. The media tool is attractive and easy to use so working with it was a pleasure.”
Kóródi, Hungary
“What an amazing job! Congratulations to everyone who worked on it. I’m sure it can make the difference between a bare pass and high pass in the interview.”
Pollyanna, Greece
“It gave me very useful tips about the exam I wasn’t thinking about. This helps me alot in my preparation for the exam.”
Ghada, Egypt
Praise for the Splendid Speaking online course
“[Splendid Speaking has been]…very important for me in order to organize the mental process in the acquisition of a new language. (My native tongue is Spanish.) It’s a friendly learning environment, which is very important. Thank you!”
Teodoro, English Language student, Chile
“When the CAE exam came, I was perfectly calm and self-assured, because I had done it before, and the hands-on training had taught me practically the right strategy, which I applied making my speaking paper a great success… If it were not for your help, it would have been at least one grade lower.
Thanks Flo-Joe!”
Andrzej Pyka, English Language student, Poland
“The Splendid Speaking strategies are a remarkable opportunity to get more fluent and confident in English. Thanks to Pete and Fiona for creating so splendid way of learning Speaking skills.”
Daniela do Vale, English Language student, Brazil
“I really believe that a good speaker is made and not born, so the tips Splendid Speaking provides are really helpful. Using the ‘Spontaeous Talks’ techniques it provides really helped me to achieve more fluent communication of the message.”
Corina Bold, English Language student, Romania
“Splendid Speaking is giving me the tools and the confidence to improve my speaking skills, providing explanations and tips on the best approaches to answering a question.”
Solange, English language student, Brazil
“What to say more than: absolutely helpful!…Excellent preparation for the speaking part of an exam.”
Vukosava Narancic, English Language student, Portugal
Praise for the Splendid Speaking website
“Cracking use of technology, but seamlessly done. The learner just sees (or hears!) the lesson. This is truly embedded technology, absolutely brilliant.”
Rob Englebright, Policy Advisor FE, British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta)
“Congratulations to Pete Travis for producing an excellent podcast which will prove a valuable resource for all students of English as a foreign language. Pete has lots of experience in this field and knows how to make his podcast fun and interesting. Keep up the good work Pete – I’ll tell all our ESOL students about Splendid Speaking.”
Alan Carr, Elearning Manager, Mid-Cheshire College
“Seems a perfect way for students to practise not only listening but speaking as well! It’s a wonderful idea that allows you to learn from other people from all over the world.” Vicky, Argentina
” An excellent resource for learners of English and I will definitely come here again for more podcasts. ”
Pickfield, Poland
“I congratulate you for these very helpful podcasts that I enjoy listening to. The feedback is very interesting, and trying to guess the errors is a challenging task for me.”
Genevieve Rolland, Co-ordinator of Language Teachers, France
“It’s great to visit your podcast which provide concise correction and feedback to CAE students worldwide, especially me.”
Somrat, English Language student, Thailand
“I think it’s worth writing to congratulate you: not only does the idea of podcasting perfectly match to our needs, but it’s really well done, agreeable, and useful! What else could we dream of? Hoping you’ll keep doing it, thanks a lot.”
Fleur
“Splendid Speaking is an excellent source of improvement for those who will take Cambridge Examinations such as CAE and CPE. Peter Travis makes quite interesting comments which are always a plus to the recording exercises. Congratulations!!!!”
Glaucia Pereira Lopes, Cultura Iinglesa, Brazil
“I’d like to say that this site is the most powerful tool for english student who want to pass in CAE, it is really worthwhile. I strongly recommend using every day to improve your english skills and to get self-confidence.”
Glauberson Cardoso Vieira, Brazil
“Splendid speaking is a great solution to get more fluent in English. It’s more interesting way of learning English than the typical ones and a very good opportunity to prepare for CAE.”
C.H. Poland
“Splendid speaking was a very helpful site for my studies towards CAE.”
Edit Mändli, Switzerland
“The Splendid Speaking website is very useful for preparing an exam. I appreciate the speaking examples and the worksheets which you send with email every week. Thank you very much.”
Karen Dörr, Switzerland
“I’m a teacher and recommend Splendid Speaking to my CAE, CPE and business students. The worksheet provide excellent vocabulary they can use immediately. Thanks!”
R. P., Internatinal House, Spain
“If you want to pass CAE exam with flying colors or just like to keep in touch with English language I really recommend you follow Splendid Speaking.”
S.H, Morocco
C. Praise for the Splendid Speaking community
“It creates a worldwide web of English learners who share the same interest in improving their speaking skills.”
Teodoro Enrique Yagnam, Chile
“I find the Skype project a very good opportunity to improve my speaking and to overcome the anxieties about the exam.The techniques that are practised help a lot.Taking advantage of Skype as a way of preparing for the exams is a brilliant and innovative idea!”
Ekaterina, Bulgaria
“The Skype program is a great tool but I must say too that if it weren´t for the community created by the team, it would not be possible to do half of was done to practise my speaking. Splendid Speaking has created the very opportunities to meet CAE trainees willing to enhance their speaking. I´m definitely keeping good memories about all this.”
Filipe Mendes, English Language Student, Brazil