March 2022
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
Natalia Dolgova, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Heather Weger, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, USA
Ben White, St. Michael's College, Colchester, Vermont, USA


Natalia Dolgova


Heather Weger


          Ben White 

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the winter-spring issue of AL Forum, newsletter for the Applied Linguistics Interest Section! First of all, we hope you are doing well in your teaching and learning communities and that you have been able to mitigate the effects of the pandemic as safely as possible. In anticipation of the hybrid TESOL convention in Spring 2022, this issue brings you leadership updates summarizing past and future ALIS activities and three thought-provoking articles representing diverse areas of applied linguistics and its applications to the classroom.

The first article features an interview conducted by our chair Anna Joaquin with three plurilingual and translanguaging scholars; it discusses ample evidence for the benefits offered by translanguaging pedagogy for the learner. In the second article, the author Daniel Clausen discusses ways of creating rich learning experiences in mixed-level classrooms. In the third article, Detong Xia and Hye K. Pae report on a study on the use of phrase frames in business emails; they discuss pedagogical approaches to enable learners to build effective workplace communication skills using phrase frames. Through attention to research and practice, all three articles offer ideas for improved pedagogy.

In leadership updates, in the chair letter, Anna Joaquin shares the links to ALIS recorded webinars from 2021 and outlines plans for the 2022 convention, focusing on the Academic Intersection session, which is co-organized with the TEIS (Teacher Education Interest Section). Next, in the chair-elect letter, Sun-Young Shin introduces himself and provides details pertaining to this year’s Academic Session that focuses on the fascinating topic of development and validation of aviation and medical English assessments. Please check out these letters for further details on the names of speakers and topics of specific presentations.

We hope you enjoy this issue and look forward to seeing some of you at the convention this spring!

Cheers,

Natalia, Heather, and Ben

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Natalia Dolgova is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the English for Academic Purposes Program at the George Washington University; her research interests address various applications of usage-based linguistics to pedagogy.

Dr. Heather Weger is faculty of Legal English at Georgetown University Law Center where she designs and delivers curriculum for multilingual students pursuing a Masters of Law (LLM) degree.

Ben White directs the MATESOL program at St. Mike’s, holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Studies from Michigan State University, and has research interests in cognitive linguistics and sociocultural theory.