Dr. Rod Ellis has served as a Full Professor of TESOL and former Dean of the Graduate School of Education since 1998. Rod Ellis is a world acclaimed author of TESOL and Applied Linguistics texts, and recipient of Oxford University Press’s Award for the Best Book in Applied Linguistics. Rod Ellis is working with AU's renowned TESOL faculty to develop a Doctorate of Education in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

Dr. Rod Ellis is a renowned linguist who received his Doctorate from the University of London and his Master of Education from the University of Bristol. A former professor at Temple University both in Japan and the US, Prof. Ellis has served as the Director of the Institute of Language Teaching and Learning at the University of Auckland and has taught in numerous positions in England, Japan, the US, Zambia and New Zealand. Dr. Ellis, who is known as an expert in Second Language Acquisition, is author of numerous student and teacher-training textbooks for Prentice Hall and Oxford University Press. Prof. Ellis's textbooks on Second Language Acquisition and Grammar are core textbooks in TESOL and Linguistics programs around the world.