Eric H. Roth

Eric H. Roth teaches international graduate students the pleasures and perils of writing and speaking in English at the University of Southern California (USC), and holds the title of Master Lecturer. He also created the ELT textbook series, Compelling Conversations and Chimayo Press. Eric consults English language schools on communicative methods.

In 1992, Roth taught his first English as a Second Language class at a refugee center for immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and became hooked. Since then, Roth has taught English to high school, community college, adult, and university students from five continents and over 60 countries. He has also taught university writing courses in Spain (2007) and France (2008), and directed an elite private high school in Vietnam (2009) during summer breaks.

Roth co-authored 'Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics' in 2007 to help English language learners increase their fluency in English. Recommended by English Teaching Professional magazine, the advanced ESL textbook has been used by English language learners and English teachers in over 60 countries. Since then, he and his co-author Toni Aberson have added new titles to the series: Compelling American Conversations (2012) with Hal Bogotch and Compelling Conversations for Advanced Vietnamese English Language Learners (2011). Roth also edited Aberson's latest book titled: It's a Breeze: 42 Lively Lessons on American Idioms that introduces common expressions to high-beginning students.

In 2015,Roth also co-authored 'Compelling Conversations - Japan: Questions and Quotations for High-Intermediate Japanese English Language Learners' and 'Compelling American Conversations -Teacher Edition: Commentary, Supplemental Exercises and Reproducible Speaking Activities.' More recently, Roth co-authored 'Compelling Conversations-Vietnam: Speaking Exercises for Vietnamese Learners of English' with Teresa X. Nguyen in 2017. The two authors collaborated again in 2019 with 'Creating Compelling Conversations: Reproducible Search and Share Activities for English Teachers' and a team of experienced ESL/EFL teachers. All the titles are available as both paperbacks and many as ebooks.

Roth and Aberson also co-author a monthly column in Easy English Times, an adult literacy newspaper, that has published "Instant Conversation Activities" based on their conversation textbooks for over a decade.

A member of the USC faculty since 2003, Roth is an active member of numerous professional Organizations including: California Association of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL); the International Professors Project (IPP); Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and the International Society for Education Leadership (ISIL). Roth has given several CATESOL and TESOL conference presentations and led many teacher training workshops. Roth was a plenary speaker at the Virtual ELT Summit in 2020 and gave a keynote presentation at the Virtual ELT Summit 2021. He has recently expanded the micro-sized Chimayo Press to help friends publish books for global souls and sophisticated English language learners.

A collector of vintage postcards, old/odd books, and travel experiences, Roth has enjoyed conversations in over 40 countries so far. He looks to seeing more of our magnificent world in the coming years.