TESOL celebrates excellence in the field every year at its Convention. At the 2018 TESOL Annual Convention & English Language Expo in Chicago, Illinois, USA, more than 60 awards were given to outstanding teachers, researchers, students, and English learner advocates. Here are some of this year's award winners.

James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL

The James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL was established to acknowledge outstanding and extended service by TESOL members at international, regional, and local levels.

Dr. Deena Boraie is the vice president for student life at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Dr. Boraie also serves as the senior advisor to Egypt’s minister of education for assessment, examinations, and curriculum.

She served as president of TESOL International Association from 2013–2014 and is the recipient of the 2019 James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL to honor her outstanding and extended service at international, regional and local levels. She has published on topics ranging from assessment literacy, language testing and assessment, teacher beliefs, and student and teacher motivation. She has presented extensively at international conferences on issues of English as a lingua franca, language classroom assessment, teacher professional development, and teacher effectiveness. She is also a visiting professor in the MA/PhD Applied Linguistics Pprogram at the Faculty of Arts, English Department of Cairo University, where she teaches research methods. 

TESOL Teacher of the Year Award

The TESOL Teacher of the Year Award was created by TESOL and National Geographic Learning to recognize and honor exceptional English language teachers at all levels.

Tünde Csepelyi is an EL teacher at Sparks High School. She holds an M.A. in TESL and a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture. For nearly two decades, she has been an EL educator in various settings. Her never-ending passion toward EL originates from her own English language learning experience.

TESOL Award for Distinguished Research

The TESOL Award for Distinguished Research was created to recognize excellence in any area of research on language teaching and learning.

Aline Godfroid is an Associate Professor in Second Language Studies and TESOL at Michigan State University. Her primary research interests are in psycholinguistics, vocabulary acquisition, and quantitative research methods. She co-directs the Second Language Studies Eye-Tracking Lab and is the author of a forthcoming book with Routledge on eye-tracking methodology.

Mary Finocchiaro Award for Excellence in Unpublished Pedagogical Materials

This award was created in 1987 in honor of Mary Finocchiaro, a noted educator, author, and TESOL president (1970–1971), to recognize a TESOL member(s) who has achieved excellence through the development of practical pedagogical materials not currently under consideration for publication.

Vanessa Armand and Daniel Scharf are lecturers and Global Teaching Fellows at Tokyo International University in Japan. Besides teaching, they develop academic literacy curricula and liaise between literacy and content faculty regarding program-level needs. Together, they develop and coordinate a peer-tutoring academic writing program supporting international students.

Ruth Crymes TESOL Fellowship for Graduate Study

This fellowship was created to support recent or current graduate students in the development of projects with direct application to ESOL language classroom instruction. The recipient of this award is expected to present the results of the project at a TESOL convention within 3 years of the date the award is received.

Jungmin Lim is a Ph.D. candidate in the Second Language Studies program at Michigan State University. Her research interests include second language writing, language testing, and research methods. Under the supervision of Dr. Charlene Polio, she is conducting her dissertation project on the design and validation of multimodal writing tasks.

TESOL Presidents’ Award

The TESOL President's Award winner is selected annually by TESOL’s Executive Committee in recognition of individuals or organizations who have supported efforts for the field in line with TESOL’s values. This year, it was presented to iCivics.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor founded iCivics in 2009 to reimagine civic education. Her vision was clear and ambitious:

To cultivate a new generation of students for thoughtful and active citizenship. Civic knowledge is a prerequisite for civic participation. Yet for decades, civic education had largely disappeared from school curricula and the repercussions are undeniable.

iCivics games transform abstract concepts into real-life problems. Young people learn how government works by experiencing it. They step into the role of a judge, a member of Congress, a community activist, even the President of the United States—and do the job they do. Students gain civic knowledge and skills because the learning experience is fun and challenging. They learn without even realizing it.

TESOL Travel Grants and Scholarships

Each year, TESOL also presents a number of travel grants and scholarships to TESOL members. To view a list of TESOL’s Travel Grants and Scholarships recipients for 2018, click here (PDF). 

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