Péter Medgyes, CBE, is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Centre for English Teacher Training at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. His professional career also included teaching in a high school (1968-83), and serving as Vice-Rector of his university (1994-96) and subsequently as Deputy State Secretary for International Relations in the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture (1997-98).

Professor Medgyes has written numerous books and articles, including "The Non-native Teacher" (Macmillan 1994; winner of the Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Competition), "Changing Perspectives in Teacher Education" (Heinemann 1996; co-edited with Angi Malderez), "The Language Teacher" (BudapestCorvina 1997). He is also co-author of a recent
coursebook series, entitled Criss Cross (Hueber Verlag 1998-99), for Central and Eastern Europe.