Dear ICIS members,

The fall issue of InterComm is dedicated to advocacy in TESOL. We understand this theme broadly: as advocacy for our learners, advocacy for professionalism in English language teaching (ELT), advocacy for the diversity in ELT across the globe. Indeed, what better venue to talk about advocacy for diversity and inclusion in TESOL than the newsletter of the Intercultural Communication Interest Section, a global community of like-minded individuals unified by values of respect, understanding, and desire to learn from each other.

We are extremely grateful to the colleagues who took time to contribute to the fall issue. First, we have a feature article submitted by Sharon Tjaden-Glass. In her article, Sharon reflects on the process and outcomes of a dialogue-based intercultural communication program, delivered over a 6-year period. Such longitudinal studies are rare; they provide an in-depth and nuanced exploration, making such studies extremely valuable for researchers and practitioners alike.

Second, we have a book review by Monica Lahiri Hoherchak. As language educators, we often hear that learning a new language is inseparable from issues of identity and is affected by power structures of a dominant culture. In the book Monica reviews, Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language, we get firsthand experience of an American learning Hindi in India—a distinctive perspective, indeed.

Our editorial team has worked hard over the summer, elaborating on the future direction of our publication. As we go forward in 2018, we continue publishing thematic newsletters. Our next newsletter will focus on intercultural communication online, the digital wonders of language teaching and learning, and the opportunities the new era of technology presents to us as educators.

This issue will be the last issue that we, Natalia and Patriann, edit together as a team. After many years working on this newsletter, Patriann is stepping down as the coeditor. Patriann has been instrumental to seeing the transition of the newsletter across platforms and shaping the format it has today. It's been a great pleasure working together as a team, and the whole ICIS leadership wishes Patriann all the best in her future endeavors! We would like to welcome Maxi-Ann Campbell, ESL/academic writing instructor at Duke Kunshan University, as incoming coeditor of the newsletter. You might know Maxi-Ann as the past chair of our interest section and the coauthor of More Than a Native Speaker: An Introduction to Teaching English Abroad, published by TESOL Press.

If you have any ideas for the newsletter—themes, topics or types of articles you would like to see in the upcoming issues—we are eager to hear from you. Please email us at newsletter.icis.tesol@gmail.com.

Cheers!

Natalia and Patriann

ICIS Coeditors 2017–2018

Follow us on Twitter:

Natalia @_balyasnikova | Patriann @Patriann_Smith

Natalia Balyasnikova is a doctoral candidate in language and literacy education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Natalia writes about her life as a graduate student and a newcomer to Canada in her blog.

Patriann Smith (PhD) is an assistant professor of language, diversity and literacy studies at Texas Tech University who relies on tenets of intercultural communication in her cross-cultural work to better understand how immigrant teachers to the United States address their ideologies about nonstandardized languages and how these ideologies affect literacy instruction. The intersections of Patriann’s research can be better understood by taking a look at her recently released coedited Handbook of Research on Cross-Cultural Approaches to Language and Literacy Development.