Natalia Dolgova, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Heather Weger, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, USA

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the spring issue of AL Forum, newsletter for the Applied Linguistics Interest Section! First and foremost, we send our warmest wishes for your well-being and health as we continue to enact our teaching platforms against the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic. Second, and with great excitement, we are thrilled to bring you a Special Issue of AL Forum. In collaboration with Professor Winke of Michigan State University (MSU), this special issue presents a collection of articles from student-scholars at MSU. The four articles focus on ways to generate learning outcomes through classroom practices revolving around three positive affective individual differences: motivation, grit, and willingness to communicate. This focus on a positive lens is especially useful given how arduous the language learning journey may sometimes be.

We begin with the anchor article by Dylan Burton and Paula Winke, which outlines the theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between the three positive individual differences. Next, Monique Yoder discusses current conceptualizations of motivation, suggesting teacher and student reflective practices to bolster motivation in the language classroom. The third article, by Martiniano Etchart and Tamoha Siddiqui, introduces the more recently emergent construct of grit and includes strategies for building grit in the language classroom. In the final article of the issue, Joanne Koh examines ways of designing classroom tasks to foster students’ willingness to communicate. Together, this collection of articles presents numerous classroom practices to create optimal learning environments.

In leadership updates, in their letter, our co-chairs Bahiyyih Hardacre and Polina Vinogradova reflect on the lessons from this past year, focusing, in particular, on the professional development options provided by ALIS under their leadership. Please click on the webinar links in the letter to revisit these important topics and takeaways.

Also, in her chair-elect letter, our incoming chair Anna Dina Joaquin introduces herself and shares details regarding the ALIS academic session at TESOL 2021 that focuses on translanguaging practices. Please check out the enclosed flyer with speaker names and presentation titles – the session promises to be very exciting!

We hope you enjoy this issue and also hope to connect with you during TESOL 2021!

Cheers,

Natalia and Heather