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Dear HEIS Community,
Welcome to our February issue of HEIS News, a newsletter for our Higher Education Interest Section (HEIS) members, other TESOL members, and all professionals who work in the field. I hope you are all doing well, staying safe, practicing mindfulness and self-care when you can.
This issue has two book reviews, each covering important areas. The first book review for Neil J. Anderson, William G. Eggington, and Norman W. Evans’ ESL Readers and Writers in Higher Education: Understanding challenges, providing support comes reviewed by Fabiana Stalnaker, who writes about how the book gives the readers tools to help educators and other professionals with ESL students and their reading and writing needs. The second book review for Fareed Zakaria’s In Defense of Liberal Education, reviewed by Daniel Clausen, provides a topic of debate by exploring the area of liberal education and its benefits.
The TESOL 2021 International Convention & English Language Expo will be held virtually from March 24 – 27, 2021, and there will be some presentations involving HEIS members and leaders. One presentation you may want to check out include the HEIS and NNEST-IS (Nonnative English Speaker Teachers Interest Section) intersection session, “Preparing NNESTs to Challenge Language and Culture Assumptions in the United States”, which will be given by HEIS Past Chair Maria Rossana Ramirez, Saurabh Anand, Teresa X. Nguyen, and Udambor Bumandalai. Another presentation that may interest you is the PAIS (Program Administration Interest Section) and HEIS intersection session, “The New Normal: Adapting ESL Programs to Meet University Priorities”, which will be given by HEIS Chair Maria Ammar, PAIS Co-Chair-Elect Brad Teague, PAIS Co-Chair-Elect Pamela Smart-Smith, Kimberly Becker, Kristin Terrill, Rebecca Yoon, Ketty Reppert, Estela Ene, Saskia Van Viegen, and Jennifer Brondell. In addition, the presentation by HEIS Chair Maria Ammar and Anne Cannon, “Encouraging Student Engagement through Extensive Reading”, will have information about extensive reading to help educators with connecting with their learners and helping them to achieve academic reading success.
When you have time, I hope you all will take some time to post questions, news, or comments about current happenings in the TESOL world to our HEIS community board in MyTESOL. We enjoy seeing your postings, especially when it starts an important discussion that gets others talking, thinking, and moving.
We hope to improve member engagement through HEIS News, our HEIS community board in MyTESOL, and HEIS webinars. We welcome your involvement in any of these areas.
Best regards,
Maria Ammar
Chair, TESOL Higher Education Interest Section
Maria Ammar is associate dean of ESL at Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. |
