The annual TESOL International Convention is always an incredible learning experience and the 2013 convention in Dallas, Texas was no exception. There were so many sessions that were relevant to BEIS/TEDS that it was impossible to attend them all. With this in mind, it has been our pleasure to serve as editors on this 2013 TESOL International Convention special issue of Bilingual Basics. The articles presented here represent the interests of a variety of BEIS constituents, through pieces ranging from summaries to classroom applications, all based on presentations from the 2013 convention. Our constituents are educators who use bilingual methods with hearing and deaf students; they are also researchers and teacher educators.

The first section includes two articles that highlight the critical nature of recognizing cultural and linguistic diversity. The first, an article by Joy Kreeft Peyton, addresses the importance of valuing heritage languages and cultures in the English classroom. In the second article, Mayra Daniel and James Cohen take on the prevalence of the deficit perspective in schools today and advocate for a funds of knowledge approach among classroom teachers. In the second section, Rahat Naqvi, Elaine Schmidt, and Marlene Krickhan summarize their research on Spanish/English bilingual programs in Alberta, Canada. Finally, in the third section, there are three articles that provide connections to multilingual classrooms, outlining interesting instructional strategies. Paige Franklin and Jane Nickerson discuss the ways in which they “harmonize” English and American Sign Language in the classroom. Helaine Marshall explores the ins and outs of “flipped” learning in which English language learners can access course content via videos outside of the class, freeing up class time for collaboration and feedback. Lastly, Natalia Ward and Amber Warren describe how English language learners experiment with digital literacies as they tell their own autobiographies.

We would like to thank all of the contributors who afforded the readers of Bilingual Basics with the opportunity to revisit the 2013 TESOL International Convention. We would also like to thank those who volunteered their time to review these articles: Drs. Aida Nevárez-La Torre, Barbara Greybeck, Helen Berg, Alma Contreras-Vanegas, and Burcu Ates.

Mary Petrón is an associate professor of bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) education at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, USA. Her research interests include transnational populations, biliteracy development, and bilingual/ESL teacher education.

Juliet Luther has been a bilingual educator with the New York City Department of Education for the past 16 years, and since 2004, also ESL specialist and ELL program coordinator in the multilingual school where she still works. She has also been an adjunct for the City University of New York (CUNY) and Fordham University in graduate education in bilingual education and TESOL, since 2005, and is a doctoral candidate at Fordham University in New York City.