ITAIS Newsletter - June 2020 (Plain Text Version)
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS James Coda, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
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 Sarah Emory |
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