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Dear SLWIS Members,
The 48th Annual TESOL International Convention is right around
the corner! The SLWIS will be featuring a wide range of sessions and
events that will be of interest to many of you. These events provide
excellent opportunities to establish networks and converse with
colleagues from all over the world as well as further your knowledge of
our field and its best practices. In this last letter as the chair of
SLWIS, I would like to draw your attention to some of the scheduled
SLWIS events and extend my appreciation to the excellent work that our
members and leaders have engaged in during the past year.
It is through your professional participation that we increase
our visibility and reputation as an IS. Your contributions continue to
invigorate SLWIS in many ways. As an IS, we continue to increase
awareness of second language writing at all levels of education by
offering a wide range of presentations representing the dynamic and
transdisciplinary nature of the field. As I mentioned in the fall
newsletter, we received a record high number (247) of proposals for
TESOL 2014. On behalf of the Steering Committee, I would like to again
thank all of you who sent and/or carefully reviewed proposals and
congratulate those of you who will be presenting next month. We look
forward to all the SLWIS presentations!
In this issue of the newsletter, Todd Ruecker, the chair-elect
of the SLWIS, writes about the exciting academic session and the many
InterSections planned for Portland We hope that you will soon be able to access
the full list of SLWIS sessions at our community site; please be alert
for updates concerning availability. In the meantime, you can also use
the online
convention planner to search for all SLWIS sessions by
searching according to “second language writing” interest section.
Please take a look at these fabulous presentations and mark your
schedules! A handout of SLWIS sessions will also be available at the
SLWIS booth in the Exhibit Hall.
In addition to these sessions, our members will have plenty of
opportunities to meet well-known scholars in the field, converse with
colleagues, and build research networks by (1) attending the Open
Meeting of SLWIS, (2) having a chat with us at our social event, and (3)
volunteering at the SLWIS booth. Please save the dates for the Open
Meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, March 21, 6:45–8:15 pm in the
Oregon Convention Center, Room B118. If you are a newcomer to our IS,
note that Open Meetings are important venues to meet scholars in the SLW
field, build new friendships while talking about IS-related issues, and
brainstorm proposal ideas for the next TESOL convention. I hope to see
many of you at our Open Meeting.
Please also note that, following tradition, a social will be
held right after the Open Meeting. This year we will meet at PINTS Brewing Company
after the Open Meeting on Thursday night. Full details about our social
will be circulated on the e-list and at our booth in the Exhibit
Hall.
Once again SLWIS has been granted its own booth in the Exhibit
Hall. The conditions for maintaining our own booth include keeping it
staffed during the Exhibit Hall open business hours—9 am to 6 pm
Thursday and Friday and 9 am to 2 pm Saturday. Volunteering at the booth
is another way of contributing to SLWIS as well as increasing our
visibility and reputation. Our goal is to staff the booth with at least
two members for every hour during opening hours. This means we have need
for 50 volunteer hours! I invite each of you to log into the booth schedule
and volunteer some of your time. This is the perfect place for
networking, collaborating, or just supporting the IS!
In closing, I would like to extend sincere thanks to the
Leadership Committee, which continues to make SLWIS as robust as it is
today. We will introduce our new chair, Todd Ruecker, and chair-elect,
Silvia Pessoa, during the Open Meeting on Thursday. I am confident that
SLWIS will continue to grow under their leadership. Serving as the chair
of SLWIS this past year has been an honor; I am proud and grateful to
be part of such a vibrant community of teachers and scholars.
I look forward to seeing you in Portland!
Sincerely,
Gena Bennett |
