Dear SPLIS members,

I hope you had a relaxing holiday season and that you are back in the full swing of things in your teaching and learning contexts. The 2013 TESOL Convention is just around the corner; hence, I would like to mention a few important points in light of the annual event.

As you have probably seen, the Advance Program is now available online. Also, you can now begin to pre-plan your conference days by using the Itinerary Planner here. Many excellent SPLIS sessions are going to be featured, and this planner allows you to select, choose, and coordinate everything accordingly.

SPLIS is going to have its own interest section booth. Please consider signing up to be at the booth for an hour (or more) at some point during the three convention days. Meeting many interesting convention attendees at the SPLIS table is an invaluable experience, and it was something I really enjoyed last year. A sign-up sheet will be emailed out once we are closer to the convention.

Lastly, I hope to see many of you at the SPLIS Open Meeting held on Thursday, March 21, 5–6:30 pm, in room D226 at the Convention Center. Several SPLIS-related topics will be discussed at the meeting, but most important, we will welcome our new chair, Tamara Jones. In fact, I would like to urge all of you to consider taking on a leadership role in SPLIS. Serving as the SPLIS chair has been a tremendous privilege, and the experience has allowed me to obtain new and valuable insights into a variety of issues in our field. SPLIS is always in need of volunteers, therefore, please send me an email or talk to me at the convention about how you can get involved.

I look forward to seeing you in Dallas.

With kind regards,
Michael Burri
SPLIS Chair 2012–2013

Michael Burri is a PhD student at the University of Wollongong, in Australia. His research focuses on pronunciation teaching, student intelligibility, comprehensibility, and listening comprehension.