SPLIS Newsletter - March 2020 (Plain Text Version)
|
||
|
In this issue: |
LEADERSHIP UPDATES LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Susan Spezzini, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Dear SPLIS members, All of us are learning to adjust to a new normal for our personal and professional lives due to COVID-19. We can surely agree that this is an unprecedented time, one of uncertainty and anxiety. Yet, perhaps this can also be a time for working together even more collaboratively than before, especially in support of TESOL. I would like to start by expressing our appreciation to the professionals who accepted our board’s invitation to deliver the SPLIS academic session and the SPLIS-supported intersection sessions. Listed below are descriptions of these sessions which, hopefully, we might still have an opportunity to attend through a virtual modality and/or at a future TESOL convention. SPLIS Academic Session Our thanks to Wayne Dickerson, Lucy Pickering, and Veronica Sardegna Materials and Strategies for Teaching Intonation to ESL/EFL Learners Intonation plays a critical role in successful interaction. Yet, it is often neglected in instruction due to lack of materials or knowledge of pedagogical approaches. This presentation equips teachers with information about effective teaching models, research-based materials, and pronunciation learning strategies for teaching intonation successfully in the ESL/EFL classroom. SPLIS/ITA-IS Intersection Session Our thanks to Rebecca Oreto, Sue Ingels, and Suzanne Franks Pronunciation Assessment Guidelines and Best Practices in ITA Programs A panel of experts shares assessment procedures, guidelines, and rubrics used at two American universities to assess the English oral proficiency of prospective international teaching assistants (ITAs). They also discuss the features that seem to impact ITAs' comprehensibility, ITAs’ perceptions of the testing experience, and program services to assist ITAs. ITA-IS/SPLIS Intersection Session Our thanks to Belinda Braunstein, Marsha Chan, Susan Gaer, and Veronica Sardegna Effective Practices for 1-on-1 Pronunciation Feedback to ITAs Do you hold one-on-one consultations as a complement to a course for ITAs? This panel discusses research on consultation efficacy and provides suggestions for assessing, teaching, and guiding pronunciation improvement in one-on-one instruction. Presenters also share online formative assessment tools with a comparison chart aligning online tools with targeted skills. EEIS/SPLIS Intersection Session Our thanks to Kelly Hill, Susan Spezzini, Mariah Weber, Jessica Burchett, Pamela Rose Enhancing Oral Language in PreK-8 English learners develop two languages simultaneously; however, due to the focus on reading and writing, oral language is often overlooked. Underdeveloped oral language has negative implications for literacy success. Guided research informing instruction, connected to strategies and techniques to address oral assessment, instruction, and intervention will be shared. On behalf of our SPLIS members, I would also like to thank our SPLIS board. During this past year, SPLISers have been served by Sinem Sonaat (Chair-Elect), Veronica Sardegna (Past Chair), Sezgi Acar (Secretary), Nancy Elliott (Member-at-Large), Holly Hubbard (Community Manager), Suzanne Franks and Matthias Maunsell (Co-Editors). These volunteers have dedicated their time and expertise to SPLIS and have been instrumental with upholding our well-earned reputation of being one of TESOL’s most vibrant interest sections. I would especially like to give a shout-out to our newsletter editors, Suzanne and Matthias. They met our board’s goal of having the SPLIS newsletter’s semi-annual issues published in August 2019 and March 2020. Suzanne served as the main editor for the August issue, and Matthias has done so for this March issue. As co-editors, they began working on these issues while still at the 2019 TESOL convention. Their tireless effort was instrumental in meeting our publication deadlines. They started by identifying SPLIS-related presentations in Atlanta that seemed newsworthy for publication. They then divided their efforts, with each co-editor attending half of the selected sessions. After the convention, Suzanne and Matthias stayed in contact with the presenters whose sessions they had attended and encouraged them to convert their presentations into newsletter articles. Unfortunately, this year our newsletter co-editors will not be able to attend your SPLIS sessions in person. I strongly encourage you to take the initiative of emailing them and requesting their guidance in preparing an article based on the presentation that you were supposed to present in Denver. And finally, I would like to share that TESOL will be providing an online forum for our annual SPLIS business meeting during the week planned for the annual convention. We invite you to join us. If we have not yet shared the specific time and date via the myTESOL community by the time you read this newsletter, we will soon be doing so. In closing, I encourage everyone to demonstrate resilience and compassion as we learn to live and work within our new normal. To move forward day by day, we must model courage, patience, and kindness for each other and for our respective students—from early childhood to adults and from preschool to graduate school. We also need to demonstrate our care for TESOL. We are indeed fortunate to have a professional organization like TESOL with leaders and staff dedicated to serving the diverse needs of teachers, researchers, and students. However, given the cancelation of the 2020 convention, TESOL is stripped of its major funding source and yet still faces convention-related expenses. TESOL now needs everyone’s support. So, please consider contributing to the TESOL Resilience and Recovery Fund. Stay well and continue helping each other and our students, but from a healthy distance. Susan Spezzini SPLIS Chair, 2019-20 |
|