Dear ALIS-ers,

The annual TESOL convention is almost upon us, and I am brimming with excitement! Not only am I looking forward to going to Seattle—a city that I absolutely love, rain and all—but the convention itself promises to be a remarkably rich and invigorating professional experience for all of us.

I would like to invite you to attend the ALIS academic session, which we have been planning for some time. This session will be devoted to the role of linguistics and linguistic research in ESL teacher education.

While most TESOL programs today provide a solid foundation in linguistics for their students, it is still not unusual for some ESL teachers to come to the profession with little or no such preparation. This is especially true in a lot of K–12 environments, where a teacher may “fall” into teaching English language learners (ELLs) because the school district demographics change, or because the teacher him- or herself is bilingual and bicultural and can relate to students with a similar background and communicate with them in their L1. Some teachers at both secondary and postsecondary levels begin their careers in environments where their native-English-speaker status is considered sufficient for a teaching job. They often fall in love with teaching and become passionate about serving their students in the best possible way, but they may lack rigorous linguistic background to do so effectively. The best of these teachers do seek to increase their understanding of linguistics and language teaching, and this is where we, applied linguists, come in.

What do ESL teachers need to know about linguistics? Come and find out the answers at the academic session held on 24 March from 9:30 am to 11:15 am.

Some of the most renowned scholars in the field of second language acquisition and second language teaching will be sharing their recent research and its pedagogical implications during this informative session. Ann Snow (Cal State Los Angeles) will discuss the acquisition of language for school by ELLs. Her talk will focus on the conceptualizations of academic language, including the types of texts and genres that students must read and write and that teachers need to know how to teach. Kathryn Howard (Cal State San Bernardino) will share her research on collaborative partnerships between linguists and educators that foster inquiry into the classroom learning and language practices, and that provide both researchers and teachers with insights into the learners’ multilingual repertoires. Eli Hinkel (Seattle University) will address a subject that a lot of ESL teachers, even very experienced ones, often find intimidating—grammar. Eli’s presentation will provide a perspective on teaching and learning grammar in a productive, effective, meaning-focused way. Neil Anderson, (Brigham Young University, Hawaii) will examine one of the least developed areas of linguistic knowledge for ESL teachers—semantics. His talk will center on the benefits teachers gain from explicit instruction in semantics and pragmalinguistics: the linguistic resources speakers draw on for pragmatic purposes in various communicative contexts. Finally, Donna Brinton (educational consultant, Beverly Hills, California) will shed light on the multiple myths that abound in the field of teaching pronunciation. She will provide an overview of the recent research in practical phonetics that helps dispel such myths and will summarize best practices for pronunciation teachers.

Whether you are an expert researcher in applied linguistics, a graduate student just preparing to embark on your teaching career, or a practicing teacher looking to enrich your pedagogical repertoire, please come and participate in this powerful, intellectually stimulating panel and discussion.

Finally, I would like to encourage all ALIS-ers to come to our annual open meeting on Wednesday, 22 March 22, from 5 pm–6:30 pm. As you may have gleaned from the recent very active discussions in the myTESOL Lounge (and our email inboxes), TESOL International Association is planning a significant overhaul of its internal structure. This restructuring, if it goes through, will significantly impact all ISs and ours in particular. ALIS boasts one of the largest memberships among TESOL ISs. Yet, our active involvement in the business of the IS is, to put it mildly, relatively lackluster. Though many of our members regularly attend the conference, present their research, and publish in academic journals, only about a dozen attend the annual open meeting every year, and that dozen generally includes the current leadership group: the chairs, the community manager, and the newsletter editors (accounting for about 1/3 to ½ of the attendees). If TESOL moves from the current IS-based structure to the Professional Knowledge Communities, a significant amount of paperwork will be involved each year for the PKC to remain in operation. As a community of teachers and scholars, we need to discuss the benefits and/or disadvantages of this move and make sure that our voices are heard by the TESOL Board. So, please, mark your calendars and don’t miss this year’s open meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Seattle,

Olga Griswold