James Coda, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Sarah Emory, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
|
James Coda
|
|
Sarah Emory
| Hello Everyone!
We hope you are well. Welcome to our second ITAIS
Newsletter of 2020. This year has brought unprecedented
changes to our personal and professional lives. In particular, as
professionals who work with international teaching assistants (ITAs), we
have had to grapple with uncertainties not only related to our
practice, but rather, how we support our students as they encounter an
entirely different conception of teaching and the university. The
cancellation of TESOL as well as other professional conferences, which
provide opportunities for networking and professional development, has
necessitated a shift toward the virtual so as to maintain our
connections. Despite the challenges we have faced this year, virtual
platforms for meetings as well as our list serv continue to stimulate
conversations and connections related to our professional endeavors. In
this edition of the newsletter, then, we are thrilled to share resources
from our authors that may be of relevance to our organization during
these challenging times.
In this newsletter, we have an article from Elena Cotos in
which she summarizes her keynote speech from the 2020 ITA Professionals
Symposium and discusses her studies in relation to the TOEFL
iBT® Speaking test. In relation to classroom
practice, Roger Anderson discusses an activity that he developed to
direct students’ attention to the nonrhoticity (forgoing the
pronunciation of /r/ before consonants) of the Boston accent and the
connections he observed to comprehensibility. Our chair-elect, Stacy
Suhadolc, shares the results of a survey of ITA instructor and
administrator responses to online instruction during the COVID-19 crisis
as well as their future activities for online instruction. Finally,
Maria Mendoza (ITAIS Chair 2020–2021) and Jennifer Grill offer guidance
on poster sessions related to submitting, the benefits of a poster
session, and approaches for a productive poster presentation.
It is our hope that the articles from our authors will embolden
conversations related to our work with ITAs. Moreover, we look forward
to future contributions from our group for the fall edition of the
newsletter.
See you virtually!
James Coda
ITAIS Newsletter Coeditor
Sarah Emory
ITAIS Newsletter Coeditor |
