SPLIS Newsletter - December 2021 (Plain Text Version)
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LEADERSHIP UPDATES LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Catherine E. Showalter, North Carolina State University, NC, USA
Dear SPLIS Members and Readers, Based on the names and (some) faces I’ve seen online at the 2021 TESOL Convention, webinars, field conferences, and other online gatherings, it seems we’ve all adapted and adjusted to the current situation. I do believe an online presence has allowed us to connect more than we may have otherwise had the opportunity when other aspects of life have competed for our attention and resources. The Speech, Pronunciation, and Listening Interest Section (SPLIS) open business meeting was held on March 27th. We had two out-going steering committee members, Matthias Maunsell and Shannon McCrocklin, who we thank for their service as As We Speak co-editors and the elements they introduced to the newsletter. The 2021-2022 steering committee includes Joshua Gordon (chair-elect), Sinem Sonsaat-Hegelheimer (past chair 2020-2021), Mara Haslam (newsletter co-editor), Brandon Cooper (newsletter co-editor), Pelin Irgin (community manager), and Nancy Elliot (member-at-large). Special thanks to Dr. Sonsaat-Hegelheimer for her guidance last year and assistance with the chair transition! As stated in the March newsletter and at the business meeting, there are several goals for this year. Among them, we want to continue involving and connecting our members and their interests through webinars, coffee hours, and social media; building connections with other organizations in the field and interest sections within TESOL; and providing opportunities for our members to share their research and/or teaching knowledge, obtain grants/apply to awards, and serve within the organization. We began the 2021-2022 year with a webinar in April from Dr. Solene Inceoglu and Dr. Ines A. Martin, who provided insight on bridges between research and practice in pronunciation. In June, Dr. John H.G. Scott and Lisa Süßenbach discussed their work surrounding aspects of phonological acquisition in foreign language learning, making connections across perception, production, mental representations, orthography, high-variability phonetic training and pronunciation instruction. These webinars, as well as previous ones, can be found on TESOL's YouTube page. Our next webinar, featuring Dr. Veronika Thir, will be held in early October and include discussion of pronunciation intelligibility in international settings. Be on the lookout for announcements about SPLIS webinars (and other events) on the SPLIS community page and social media platforms (including Facebook)! Our goal is to provide events that cover many topics of interest and are from many professionals; hopefully, all, if not many, of the events will be of some interest! In addition, SPLIS’s inaugural coffee hour was held on July 29th. This was a wonderful opportunity for attendees to speak with a smaller group and hear about/share personal experiences and approaches. There will be more coffee hours, during which we can informally and candidly chat on myriad topics within SPLIS’ domain. Feel free to suggest topics or attend just to listen (contributing if the mood should strike). Finally, thank you to all of those in the SPLIS community who have contributed in myriad ways over the last year. Thank you to those who attended events, written or been interviewed for the newsletter, presented at TESOL (in the academic session or interest section intersections, a research/teaching session, or a poster), presented at other conferences (e.g., PSLLT 2021), etc. SPLIS has seen considerable growth in member numbers; we thank the SPLIS community for their interest and involvement! From both familiar names/faces and new ones, we hope this year will no doubt see continued support and growth. Happy researching and teaching! Catherine E. Showalter |
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