Rebecca Hooker is a researcher and teacher with an extensive experience of teaching mixed groups of differing students of various ages and backgrounds (age 5–85). This has included teaching languages (French, Italian and German) and English as a foreign/second language in community adult education and at secondary schools in South Devon, as well as English as a second language to refugees and asylum seekers. She currently teaches English for academic purposes and academic skills to international graduate students at INTO, the University of Exeter. Her research interests reflect her commitment to interdisciplinary endeavours and capturing the essence of the learning experiences of international students. She has published and presented papers on: mismatches in blended learning; the benefits of learning a foreign language in late adulthood; and the value of soft skills for ‘hard’ learning. She loves living beside the sea in Brixham with her family.