Carol was born in the UK, but the family emigrated to the southern hemisphere when she was quite young, so she has spent most of her life in New Zealand, where her family (including her three daughters) still resides. She completed a Bachelor's degree at Massey University, a Master's at Waikato University, and a PhD at the University of Auckland.

Carol has been a teacher, manager and teacher educator of ELT for many years, having begun her working life as a  high school teacher, then moving on to adult speakers of other languages, and then to university work. She has taught in many places around the world, including New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, China, North Korea, Turkey, UK, and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. She has presented at numerous conferences around the world and published widely, including in academic journals, chapters in books, and also her own books. 

Carol's major areas of research interest are strategies, individual differences, teacher education and support, English as a medium of instruction (EMI), English as a lingua franca (ELF), action research, language intake, and using literature to teach language.