Bahiyyih Hardacre, California State University Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
Polina Vinogradova, American University, Washington, DC, USA

Dear ALIS Community,

As this newsletter comes out, we will be concluding our term as Co-chairs of the Applied Linguistics Interest Section and getting ready to assume our duties as Past Chairs. It’s been a privilege to serve our TESOL community this past year. Undoubtedly, it has not been an easy year for us all, full of uncertainties and worries. This year required us to find additional strength and resources to support and comfort our students, colleagues, families, and friends. And our hearts go out to colleagues and students who lost loved ones to COVID-19.

At the same time, it has been a year of extensive and engaging online learning. So many excellent webinars and workshops were offered by TESOL Interest Sections, TESOL affiliates, and various organizations dedicated to language education. Many of them asked us to think deeper about social justice, racism, and anti-racist pedagogy; to reflect on who we are as English language educators; and to revise and decolonize our courses and teaching materials. Reflecting on the past year, we are happy to have been a part of this learning. ALIS webinar series “Multifaceted Teacher Identities: Perspectives on Language, Race, and Professional Positioning” was well attended and offered a deeper exploration of who we are as English language educators. You can view webinar recordings on TESOL's YouTube channel and use these videos in your work with colleagues and TESOL candidates.

• Quanisha Charles: “Black Teachers of English in South Korea: Constructing Identities as a Black Native English Speaker and English Language Teaching Professional”
• Kristen Lindahl and Bedrettin Yazan: “Teacher Identity, Awareness, and Critical Autoethnography”
• Ester de Jong and Feifei Fan: “Exploring Professional Identities of Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in the United States”

We are also thrilled that ALIS will continue to offer these learning opportunities as Anna Dina Joaquin, who will assume the position of ALIS chair during the TESOL 2021 International Convention, is already hard at work planning events and webinars. As you can see from her letter that follows, we will have an exciting and engaging year ahead. And we look forward to seeing you and learning with you in the upcoming year.

Stay healthy and safe,

Bahiyyih Hardacre and Polina Vinogradova

ALIS Co-chairs