Dear ALISers,

Wow! It seems like a year since the last TESOL convention has just flown by, and we are quickly approaching the exciting events that await us in Chicago this year.

The individual papers, posters, and panels submitted under the ALIS strand represent a variety of topics and directions in Applied Linguistics and English language teaching. From Corpus Linguistics, to Systemic Functional Linguistics, from the pedagogies of grammar to the practicalities of teaching pragmatics, from theoretical research to classroom activities—ALIS is proud to “host” 19 individual papers, two invigorating panels, nine posters, and several workshops and teaching-tip events, where both researchers and teachers can learn something new and enlightening for themselves and their students. Please browse the conference schedule for the full list of presentations.

On a somewhat different note, you probably know that for the past few years, TESOL has been moving to restructure its professional communities in order to increase the level of member engagement and to broaden the scope of activities each Interest Section will be able to offer between the conventions. Each Interest Section who wished to remain so after the restructuring was required to submit a transition plan detailing its name, mission statement, goals, and a proposed list of activities by January 31, 2018. For the past year, our Steering Committee has been working on the details we felt important to include in the proposal and transition plan in order to reflect the nature and goals of ALIS accurately. I am happy to say that ALIS submitted the proposal this past January. TESOL is currently reviewing all the transition plans and will inform us this month of the further steps we need to take as an IS. In the meantime, I would like to share with you the key information of the plan and the direction ALIS hopes to go in the future.

The Applied Linguistics Interest Section (ALIS) of TESOL sees its mission in promoting research in all areas of language use, particularly research that contributes to our understanding of language learning and teaching. Our Interest Section aims to promulgate knowledge derived from such research among its members, among the broad membership of TESOL, and among the population at large. ALIS draws on linguistics as well as sister disciplines in psychology, sociology, education, and other areas in an attempt to address real-world, language-based issues pertinent to English language teaching.

ALIS supports TESOL’s mission of advancing the quality of English language teaching by explicitly promoting two key areas in TESOL’s current strategic plan, that of research and that of professional learning and engagement.

Our primary goal is to promote and disseminate research on language acquisition,

language pedagogy, teacher education, and social justice issues pertaining to language use and language rights. In pursuing this goal, we aim:

(1) To form connections between language education practitioners and language acquisition researchers so that both groups can interact meaningfully for the benefit of language learners and teachers;

(2) To extend the expertise of English language teachers and teacher educators by promoting pedagogical practices grounded in the findings of cutting-edge research on language learning and teaching;

(3) To encourage practitioners to engage in research by exploring the emerging scholarly findings and posing new research questions arising from their practical experiences in the classroom;

(4) To encourage researchers to build bridges between theoretical findings and practical applications in the classroom;

(5) To broaden professionalization opportunities for graduate students in all research areas related to language acquisition, language pedagogy, teacher education, and social justice issues pertaining to language use and language rights;

(6) To expand our understanding of language as a uniquely human phenomenon and a medium of human sociality;

(7) To expand our understanding of how humans acquire language in a variety of social and educational environments;

(8) To promote effective research-based methods and approaches to language teaching and learning.

As a soon-to-be outgoing Chair of ALIS, I encourage all members to become actively engaged in the work of the IS between the conferences, share ideas, participate in webinars and/or mini-conferences (online or in real life), or even volunteer to organize one. Please come to our annual open meeting and contribute to the ongoing discussion of where we should be heading as an IS, what we can do to engage the scholarly and professional community, and how we can reach out and connect researchers and practitioners in order to achieve our goals. The open meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 28, 6:45 – 8:15 PM, Room N136 of the Convention Center.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Chicago!

Olga Griswold

ALIS Chair