Sarah Henderson Lee, Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN, USA

Hello, SLWIS Colleagues.

Welcome to the first SLW News of 2022. I hope this letter finds you staying safe and well. It is my hope that you have found a supportive professional network in SLWIS, especially during the unpredictable times of the ongoing pandemic. Our interest section remains one of TESOL’s largest communities of practice with 1,326 members as of this communication. I invite you to stay connected to SLW peers from around the world using our MyTESOL, Facebook, and Twitter pages. In these spaces, you will find great discussion and sharing of content and opportunities related to SLW.

I want to quickly highlight a few events from this past year, as well as some upcoming events that may be of interest to you. In Summer 2021, we resumed the SLWIS book club with Joel Bloch, author of the recently published Creating Digital Literacy Spaces for Multilingual Writers (Multilingual Matters, 2021). Participants discussed the opening chapter of the book and engaged in a timely Q&A with the author about technology and SLW instruction, especially within the context of COVID. I encourage you to check out the recording if you haven’t already. We kicked off the Fall 2021 semester with a webinar on Tech Tips. This event showcased some of our outstanding graduate student members. Presenters each demonstrated a technology that could be used in a variety of SLW classroom contexts. Be sure to check out the recording if you want to learn about some additional and practical ways technology can support your SLW instruction. SLWIS also participated in TESOL’s Celebrate Our Communities event in August 2021, which provided virtual space to introduce and promote our unique TESOL community. While not especially well attended, we did gain a few new members from this event which was a plus.

In February the SLWIS book club will host MJ Curry and some of the graduate student co-authors of their new book, An A-W of Academic Literacy: Key Concepts and Practices for Graduate Students (University of Michigan Press, 2021). The co-authors will discuss some ideas for using selected entries from the book in the teaching and advising of graduate students. The TESOL 2022 International Convention & English Language Expo is hybrid this year and will take place March 22-25. Whether you are attending in-person in Pittsburgh or virtually, we hope to see you at some of the many SLW-focused presentations. Below are the SLWIS academic and intersection sessions you don’t want to miss:

SLWIS Academic Session

Genre-based writing instruction across L2 writing contexts

Panelists: Ann Johns, Christine Tardy, Nigel Caplan, Silvia Pessoa, and Luciana de Oliveira,

This panel explores genre across a variety of L2 writing contexts, including higher education, IEP, EFL, and K-12. Panelists discuss how genre-based pedagogies have been effectively implemented in their unique contexts, as well as the challenges teachers still face with genre-based writing instruction and how they might be better supported.

SLWIS-SPLIS Intersection Session

Bringing in new voices: The affordances of multimodal writing instruction

Panelists: Megan Siczek, Sidury Christiansen, Ilka Kostka, and Doreen Ewert

This panel explores the affordances of multimodal teaching across a variety of L2 writing contexts, including EAP and first-year composition. Panelists discuss the ecology of digital literacies and the effects on L2 writing instruction and share example tools and collaborations that support both teachers and students.

ESPIS-SLWIS Intersection Session

English L2 writing in specific contexts: Lessons learned during COVID

Panelists: Nell Novara, Karen Schwelle, Shelley A. Saltsman, and Sharon Cavusgil

Using technical language is challenging, especially when certain fields require production of complex writing. Teaching L2 learners navigating high expectations of their fields is challenging under normal circumstances; during a pandemic, new challenges arise. Panelists from ESP-IS and SLW-IS will present how they overcame pedagogical challenges during COVID.

Please note that our Open Meeting will be held online after the Convention so that all members have an opportunity to attend. More information on this meeting will be shared as soon as TESOL assigns our IS a date.

My term as SLWIS Chair ends with the Convention. I want to thank the steering committee members who have continued to engage in the work required to make our IS so successful especially during challenging times, including Past Chair Aylin Relyea; Chair Elect Estela Ene; Secretary Özge Yol; Newsletter Editor Lena Taylor; Co-community Managers Ashley Velázquez and Saurabh Anand; and Members-at-Large Megan Siczek, Veronika Maliborska, Julie Riddlebarger, Sidury Christiansen, Joseph Lee, and Maha Hasson. I especially want to thank Aylin and Julie who will be rolling off of the steering committee, and I want to welcome Sidury in the role of Chair Elect, Veronika in another term of Member-at-Large, and two new Members-at-Large, Madhukar K C and Svetlana Koltovskaia.

I wish you all a bright spring. Enjoy the newsletter and the upcoming Convention.

Best,

Sarah Henderson Lee (Chair, 2021-2022)