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After going through a somewhat harrowing immigration experience
that left a bitter taste in my mouth, I arrived at Baltimore on April
5, 2016 in a rather depressed state. It took me hours to find the
entrance to the convention center, but registration was thankfully
quick. Not having time to check into my hotel, I lugged my case and bag
straight into the affiliates’ day-long program at the convention center.
Affiliate Leaders’ Workshop
Every year, the Affiliate Leadership Council (ALC) organizes
the Affiliate Leaders' Workshop at the TESOL Convention. This year, it
was devoted tothe theme, "Connections Reflect Actions: Moving Affiliates
Forward."As I entered, the first session was already underway. It was
a peer presentation on “Actions That Connect With Membership.” This
interactive session guided affiliates through a process of reflecting on
various ways to connect with membership. BC TEAL was used as a case
study to examine possibilities for connecting.
The second workshop was also an interactive presentation that
encouraged participants to focus on networking among affiliates in a
structured manner. The presenters had a wonderful approach to their
delivery—showing awareness of cognitive elements and cultural
differences. As the morning continued, affiliate leaders reconnected
with old acquaintances through interactive activities. Affiliate leaders
also made new friends, warming up to each other as they shared their
affiliate experiences and brainstormed on issues that were identified as
being relevant to their respective affiliates. This sense of bonhomie
spilled over into the TESOL leadership appreciation luncheon by the
President-Elect and the Board of Directors of TESOL International
Association.
Affiliate Breakout Sessions
After lunch, the afternoon breakout sessions were split into 12
peer-facilitated, concurrent, 45-minute sessions over a period of 3
hours and 45 minutes, presented by affiliate leaders. I presented “Peer
Support Reviews Through Affiliate Networks.” It connected directly to
the affiliates’ theme of “Member Engagement.”Working within the
framework of “moving affiliates forward,” this workshop shared the
concept of Peer Support Review (PSR) that was recently introduced to a
teachers’ associations’ network in the South Asia region. The whole
exercise revolved around the idea of an affiliate initially carrying out
a self-assessment of its own operations on a variety of issues—from
leadership, management, and implementation to marketing, promotion, and
sponsorship. Later, the same affiliate was peer-reviewed by at least two
other affiliates in the region during its annual conference.
The important element in this initiative was that the visiting
affiliates needed to undergo a training session on how to carry out the
PSR and what the assessment parameters were before doing the actual
review of the host affiliate during the conference. The visiting
affiliate would then give constructive feedback to the host affiliate.
The whole ethos of this entire exercise is the “don’t worry, we are in
the same boat” approach. Nevertheless, the exercise was taken seriously.
The reviewers participated in the conference like other delegates and
discreetly gathered information while engaging in friendly exchanges
with member delegates at lunch or tea. The visiting Teachers Association
members thus reviewed the host affiliate’s activities and during the
post-conference feedback session gave their comments. The members
deliberately avoided criticism, emphasized strong points, and presented
options for moving ahead. The main objective was to encourage enhanced
management and develop a positive sense of identity in the affiliate as
members of a profession.
TESOL 2016 Affiliate Colloquium
In her introductory speech, Dr. Janet Pierce, ALC Past Chair,
underlined the importance of intercultural communicative competence as
playing a significant role in recognizing English as a world language.
At the same time, Dr. Pierce highlighted local and international
contexts as settings of English language use. She pointed to the
significance of native-nonnative and nonnative-nonnative discourse and
the relevance of recognizing successful bilinguals as having
intercultural insights and knowledge.
The following colloquium panelists discussed different aspects
of intercultural communicative competence in order to help both
affiliates and international TESOL understand how affiliates view and
use intercultural communicative competence:
• Dr. Sanjay Arora (ELTAI, India) spoke on how interpersonal communicative competence can be acculturated.
• On behalf of BELTA (Bangladesh), I spoke on the role of
interpersonal communicative competence among affiliates, school, and
TESOL. In this connection, I referred to a project that included seven
teachers’ associations in South Asia with the aim of sharing and
strengthening best practices.I also touched on features of the cultural
constraints on interpersonal communicative competences that might have
resulted in a moderate achievement of goals.
• Cynthia Wiseman (NYS TESOL) discussed intercultural
communicative partnerships from a personal and ESL teacher’s
perspective.
• Dr. Mira Namsrai (Mongolia TESOL) discussed intercultural
communicative partnerships within her affiliate, as well as with other
affiliates in the region.
• Finally, Mohamed Azaza and Sufian Abu-Tmaileh (TESOL Arabia)
spoke about intercultural communicative partnerships within the TESOL
Arabia community and beyond.
At the end of the session, it was evident that there was a
clear need to understand that society today is increasingly revolving
around a range of communicative operatives that are aimed at
understanding and working with people of different cultures and
contexts. In the process, communicative competence
has been identified as a single important skill that enhances the
motions of interaction between individuals, groups, communities, and
countries. Indeed, interpersonal communicative
competence appears to be gaining momentum in the diverse and complex
forms of interaction and negotiation.
The Affiliate Colloquium Panelists from Mongolia TESOL, BELTA
Bangladesh, ELTAI India, TESOL Arabia, NYS TESOL, together with Janet
Pierce, ALC Past Chair (third from left).
The panelists emphasized the point that interpersonal skills
need to include social skills, knowledge, empathy, adjustment,
sensitivity, emotional intelligence, and more recently what has come to
be known as soft skills, much valued in
administration and management and also in social, personal, and
professional behavior. By the same token, these skills have implications
for networking and cooperation among teachers’ associations and TESOL
affiliates. Whether globally, regionally, or locally, affiliates need to
network and tackle shared issues. In affiliates’ discourses, there
needs to be intercultural insights and knowledge and a heightened
awareness and respect for cultural, linguistic, and behavioral
diversities.
Affiliate Editors’ Workshop
The Affiliate Editors’ Workshop, organized by Debbie West
(TESOL France),called on affiliate leaders to consistently share ideas
of good practices in their own affiliates. Affiliates were urged to
bring along copies of their newsletters to share with other affiliates.
Debbie also encouraged affiliate leaders to do a short write-up of any
great idea pertaining to their newsletter or magazine. She put in a lot
of effort in collating these contributions and had them printed for the
editor's workshop. She was thus able to put together a booklet of ideas.
Of course, strengths and weaknesses, as well as challenges, were
shared. Putting our heads together gave us a sense of collegiality.
Other Sessions
The Electronic Village and Technology Showcase was a
mind-blowing exhibition, a unique display of learning-teaching
opportunities available to most learners and teachers worldwide. I am
sure affiliate leaders have taken back a host of new ideas to implement
back home.
Best of all was the musical The Wizard of
Oz, played and sung by big names in the
TESOL organization, with a clever history of TESOL beautifully
incorporated.
Final Comments
Way back in 2003, when I first attended the TESOL Convention, I
felt rather lost in the mammoth congregation that appeared more like a
multinational conglomerate rather than a teachers’ gathering. In
addition, I felt marginalized, as South Asia on the whole was rather
poorly represented then.
In recent years, affiliate leaders have shown increased
interest in making connections with other TESOL affiliates to share
ideas on issues such as membership engagement, advocacy, leadership
responsibilities, creating partnerships, and best practices in
association management. These themes involve collaborative work and a
deep commitment within affiliates, and sometimes, between affiliates.
TESOL has taken a lead in this matter—connecting with other affiliates
to share perspectives and successes around these issues and encouraging
affiliate leaders to take action to lead their affiliates to more
advanced platforms of affiliate management and development. In
organizing such well thought-out sessions during the convention, TESOL
is providing opportunities for affiliates to learn with and from each
other by sharing innovations, identifying challenges, and discussing
strategies.
Arifa Rahman (Ph.D., Institute of Education, University of
London), past President of BELTA,is an English language teacher-educator
and researcher. She is a reviewer for academic journals, on the
editorial board of The Journal of Asia TEFL, and an
educational consultant on program evaluation and language assessment.
With numerous international publications, she has presented widely at
national and international conferences. | 
