Letters from the Past Chairs

Danielle Zawodny Wetzel, 2010-2011 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, dfz@andrew.cmu.edu

Dear SLWIS Members,

This year marks the fifth anniversary of our interest section. In 5 years, we have grown from 29 members in 2005 to 2,261 members in 2010. We have seen a community of practitioners and scholars form a presence within TESOL that is focused and effective. We have also been led by some remarkable people, including our outgoing chair, Chris Tardy, whom I thank for her careful work for our IS and for her mentoring of new SLWIS leadership.

For those of us who were able to attend the 2010 TESOL Convention in Boston in March, we experienced a full schedule of SLWIS sessions--so full that it became impossible for anyone to attend all of the sessions. Several members remarked how they were thrilled with the variety of sessions but also dismayed at the number of sessions they could not attend because of scheduling conflicts. In addition to the regular sessions, we also had five special sessions, including four InterSections and one Academic Session about exploring connections between reading and writing. Our business meeting was well attended, and participants expressed interest in exploring developmental issues for teaching writing, particularly across schooling contexts, as well as placement and assessment issues. Other topics were raised as well, and some of those were distributed to our membership through our email distribution list. At the meeting, we also reviewed some revisions to our Governing Rules document and then heard both Christina Ortmeier-Hooper and Paul Matsuda discuss a new Conference on College Composition and Communication position statement on second language writing and writers (NCTE, 2009) that TESOL can adopt over the next year.

We received a total of 170 submissions for next year's TESOL convention. This total decreased somewhat from last year's total number of just over 200 submissions. However, if we consider how the global economy has constrained some of our conference travel budgets, we might view this lower number as a consequence of economic hard times rather than a consequence of decreased interest.

If you or a colleague you know would like to attend the 2011 convention but cannot fund the travel to New Orleans, consider applying for special travel grants and awards through TESOL. While attending a leadership meeting at the 2010 convention, I learned that the grants and awards were not paid out fully last year because so few participants applied for them.

Several people reviewed proposals for the 2011 convention, and I thank them for helping me complete a vital process that can be difficult to manage over the summer months. These reviewers were

Rosa Bahamondes
Diane Belcher
Chung-Chien Chang
Martha Christiansen
Deborah Crusan
Angela Dadak
Luciana C. de Oliveira
Kira Dreher
Norman Evans
Karen B. Fields
Doug Flahive
Meg Gebhard
Lynn Goldstein
Jennifer Greer 		Matthew Hammill
Harry Harris
John Hedgcock
Alan Hirvela
Amanda Kibler
Ditlev Larsen
Paul Matsuda
Ryan T. Miller
Thomas Mitchell
Jessie Moore
Jennifer Mott-Smith
Amina Nihlawi
Christina Ortmeier-Hooper
Silvia Pessoa
 Allison Petro
Talinn Phillips
Bevin Roue
Todd Rueckers
Gladys Scott
Tanita Saenkhum
Chris Tardy
Gigi Taylor
Emily Thrush
Paige Ware
Saihua Xia
Youngjoo Yi
Maria Zlateva

Our community benefits from the service of its members. We are only as good as the voices who contribute. Please consider increasing your involvement, perhaps by contributing to the newsletter, consulting with colleagues through the e-list, submitting teaching materials to the TESOL resource center, or simply sending me an e-mail with comments or suggestions for how we might continue to grow and improve. I enjoy hearing from you.

I do thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve our interest section. It is a privilege!

References

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). (2009). CCCC statement on second language writing and writers. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/secondlangwriting.

SLWIS Newsletter 2010 Volume 5 Number 2: Table of Contents




Chris Tardy, 2009-2010 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, ctardy<AT>depaul.edu.

It has now been 4 years since the TESOL board approved the addition of the Second Language Writing Interest Section, and it's exciting to see how much the IS has grown in that short time. At TESOL 2009 in Denver, the SLWIS offered 58 sessions, InterSections with Applied Linguistics and NNEST, and an Academic Session on contexts of second language writing. We also continued the traditions of staffing our IS booth with well-known second language writing scholars and hosting our third annual SLWIS social evening, giving members the opportunity to catch up with old friends and to make new ones.

Those of you who were unable to attend the 2009 convention will be able to get a glimpse of these events through the special reports in this newsletter and by visiting the IS’s Web site at http://secondlanguagewriting.com/slwis/. Thanks to Charles Nelson for revamping this webspace and turning it into an excellent resource! I would also like to give a special thanks to Gigi Taylor, chair of the SLWIS in 2008-09, for her outstanding leadership throughout the year and preparation for the convention.  A unique characteristic of the SLWIS is the active participation of and the strong sense of community among members. This year’s business meeting was again well attended and gave opportunities for participants to discuss areas of interest for future conventions. As the IS grows, a small group of SLWIS members is in the process of designing a survey of the TESOL membership to assess how our IS can contribute to TESOL in new ways, speaking to our mission of serving a broad population of the TESOL membership. Erik Johnson, Shawna Shapiro, Todd Ruecker, Gigi Taylor, and I will be working throughout the year on this project and look forward to sharing our findings at the 2010 convention.  The SLWIS now has over 1,800 active members and all signs point to continued growth and activity. Submissions to the SLWIS for the 2010 TESOL convention in Boston numbered just over 200—our greatest number of submissions since the IS was established. I would like to sincerely thank the following members for lending their expertise in reviewing these proposals:   

Kyun-Hee Bae
Tara Bartlett
Bradley Baurain
Sophie Bearen
Annette Bradford
SoYoung Baeks
Cherry Campbell
Pisarn (Bee) Chamcharatsri
Karen C.C. Chang
Cate Crosby
Deborah Crusan
Angela Dadak
Norman Evans
Lilian Faraq Allah
Doug Flahive
Jan Frodesen
Sue Lantz Goldhaber
Lynn Goldstein
Helena Hall
Havry Harris
Andrea Hellman
Alan Hirvela
 Raylene Houck
Suzanne House
Sunny Hyon
Angela Yi-ping Hsu
Atsushi Iida
Erik Johnson
Kyung Min (Kay) Kim
Sharlene Kiuhara
Ditlev Larsenn
Alice Lee
Joan Li
XiaoMing Li
John Liang
Alene Litvinskaya
Kate Mangelsdorf
Paul Kei Matsuda
Sharon McCulloch
Hedy McGarrell
Grazzia Mendoza
Jessie Moore
Mary Muchiri
Amina Nihlawi
 Silva Pessoa
Talinn Phillips
Lisa Ponzetti
Terry Pruett-Said
Margaret Redus
Laurel Reinking
Tanita Saenkhum
Lisya Seloni
Roxanna Senyshyn
Shawna Shapiro
Tony Silva
Sheryl Slocum
LuAnn Sorenson
Ivan Stefano
Emily Thrush
Yi-Ting Tu
Danielle Zawodny Wentzel
Mark Wolfersberger
Achara Wongsothorn
Ana Wu
Saihua Xia
Youngjoo Yi 

As the days of summer draw to a close (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere), I know that many of us are looking forward to beginning new projects, new classes, and new collaborations. I hope that you'll be able to make use of and contribute to the SLWIS community in various ways in these endeavors—through the electronic discussion list, Web site, newsletter, or TESOL's online resource center. If you have ideas of new ways in which the IS can help members connect or reach out to new members, I'd love to hear your thoughts!




Gigi Taylor, 2008-2009 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, .

Welcome to the new year of the Second Language Writing Interest Section! I'd like to open this newsletter by thanking our members for such enthusiastic participation over the past year, with special thanks to our Past Chair Deborah Crusan for her energetic leadership and to our officers and steering committee members for their tireless efforts.

As we move into our fourth year, we have a great deal of success to look back on. Although the New York City convention format was a day shorter than usual, the SLWIS was impressively represented on the program, hosting 35 sessions, including papers, workshops, poster sessions, reports, colloquia, demonstrations, and Discussion Groups on such topics as assessment, error correction, assignment design, teacher preparation, research, effective feedback, coherence, voice, verb tense, literacy development, world Englishes, publishing, and more. We also hosted an InterSection with the Teacher Education IS entitled "Nurturing Prospective Second Language Writing Teachers." We collaborated with the CALLIS on an InterSection entitled "Paradigms of Plagiarism" and with the Applied Linguistics IS on the "Textual Coherence and Learning Writing" InterSection. In addition, we hosted an Academic Session on "Writing Centers, Language Acquisition, and Global Contexts" with scholars from the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and once again we hosted a standing-room-only Evening With the Experts.

As I reflect on our success, I must say that perhaps the most gratifying aspect, for me, of the SLWIS is the lively and genuine sense of community we have. Our membership spans the globe, spans the educational spectrum, and spans a tremendous range of research and teaching interests. But we show up and we talk to each other. We ask questions, we listen carefully, we respond thoughtfully, and although we may not always agree with each other, we respect the value of each contribution and we make a concerted effort to be counted among the contributors. I have attended conferences of other professional organizations where the superstars give their presentations and then cloister themselves away with their famous colleagues, rarely engaging with other participants. I have seen rank-and-file participants at other professional conferences stand back in awe-struck silence when their professional idols pass by and have heard them doubt their own ability to contribute anything of value because they are not famous themselves.

We are different.

Once again this year, our leading scholars generously shared their time by staffing the exhibition booth to promote interest in the SLWIS and by attending another enormously successful social event for the IS membership. Once again, our scholars, teachers, administrators, graduate students, and community members generously shared their professional insight through conference presentations, through engaging conversations at our social, and through very energetic participation in the SLWIS business and planning meeting. And once again, the SLWIS has submitted a record number of proposals for TESOL's 2009 convention in Denver.

Thanks to all of you, the vitality of the Second Language Writing Interest Section continues to increase. I hope that over the next year, each of you will feel welcome and encouraged to keep the conference energy alive through thoughtful posts to the electronic discussion list, through submissions to the SLWIS newsletter, and through interesting projects with your colleagues. We look forward to hearing all about it!

With best wishes for the coming year,

Gigi




Deborah Crusan, 2007-2008 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, deborah.crusan<AT>wright.edu.

Dear SLWIS Members,

I write this in the hope that you are refreshed and ready to head back to the second language writing classroom armed with ideas and innovations gleaned from your reading this summer.

We have a great deal of news. First, in our second year as an interest section, the Second Language Writing Interest Section (SLWIS) successfully exemplified second language writing at the 41st Annual TESOL Convention and Exhibit in Seattle. The IS presented a full schedule including our very well-attended two-part Academic Session: "Shifting Boundaries in ESL/EFL Writing Instruction," with Dana Ferris and John Hedgcock and "Responding to Students When Teaching with Technology" with Maggie Sokolik and Paige Ware and our equally well-attended InterSection: "Second Language Writing/Materials Writers: Using Corpus Findings to Develop Writing Materials" facilitated by Kelly Sippell and Margi Wald. Panelists included Gena Bennett, Pat Byrd, Jan Frodesen, and Diane and Norbert Schmitt.

We also presented three colloquia, four demonstrations, three posters, one report, one video theater, four workshops, twenty-one papers, and eleven Discussion Groups. And, we cohosted an InterSection with the Higher Education IS on writing support for graduate students. See Convention Updates in this issue of SLW News.

These numbers are amazing as we are such a young IS; however, they can be even better. Some of you might not be aware of the procedure used for deciding how many presentation slots will be allotted to each IS. Generally, each IS is awarded presentation slots based on the number of proposals received by that IS. These slots are used for colloquia, demonstrations, reports, workshops, and papers. Each of these formats represents a different amount of time, so we have to carefully choose the best proposals and strike a balance between different types of presentations. Please remember this procedure when you next submit a proposal (for TESOL 2009), taking care to send your proposal to the Second Language Writing Interest Section. The more proposals we receive, the more slots we'll be awarded at the convention. Let's work together to make our presence at the convention as great as it can be.
 
While I'm mentioning proposals, I would like to extend a sincere thank you to those who volunteered to adjudicate proposals for TESOL 2008.

Denise Alvarez
Kyung-Hee Bae
Subarna Banerjee
Barbara Dobson
Donna Evans
Norman Evans
Katya Fairbanks
Dan Fichtner
Tatjana Glusac
Anam Govardhan		 Jennifer Greer
Alan Hirvela
Jim Hu
Mark Labinski
Ditlev Larsen
Ilona Leki
Hedy McGarrell
Jessie Moore
Lucie Moussu
Herbert Pierson		 Margaret Redus
Gigi Taylor
Stephanie Vandrick
Don Weasenforth
Sara Weigle
Jennifer Shade Wilson
Mark Wolfersberger
Hongmei Wu
Youngjoo Yi
Sandra Zappa-Hollman

Thanks again to all of our proposal readers. They provide an incredibly valuable service to the IS.

Possibly the most exciting event at TESOL 2007 was our Special Event. The Second Language Writing IS hosted "An Evening With the Second Language Writing Interest Section: Answering the Needs of Second Language Writers and Their Teachers" on Thursday, March 22, 2007.  

The Second Language Writing Interest Section used this event to introduce itself to TESOL and introduce what the SLWIS sees as vital concerns for all TESOL professionals involved in second language writing teaching and research. Our fundamental goals for this event were

  • To introduce the newest IS to TESOL
  • To create a friendly and informal environment in which those concerned with second language writing can network, explore, and share

The evening brought together scholars, teachers, administrators, and publishers interested in second language writing in a relaxed, social atmosphere so that those in attendance could mingle and discuss pressing second language writing issues. See the TESOL 07 photos on the SLWIS web page at http://condor.depaul.edu/~ctardy/SLWIS/TESOL.htm.

The session provided participants with the opportunity to discuss second language writing and writers from the multiple and diverse perspectives of a group of scholars whose collective experience of researching and teaching second language writing  spans a wide spectrum of interests.

The forum also initiated discussion about institutional policies concerning second language writers and how participants might effect change at their institutions if change is needed; it is our hope that the event facilitated ongoing discussions centered on these issues.

Because the event was such a success, many IS members have asked for a repeat session at TESOL 2008 in New York City. Please watch the newsletter and the e-list for details as they become available and as we gear up for New York City.

All the best,

Deborah




Jessie Moore Kapper, 2006-2007 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, jkapper<AT>elon.edu.

In the last year, our interest section has reached many milestones. After our official recognition in June 2005, C hr istina Ortmeier-Hooper spearheaded our efforts to have an identifiable presence at TESOL 2006. At the convention, the Second Language Writing IS hosted an outstanding academic session (“Broadening Perspectives on Second Language Writing”), an intersection with SPL-IS, and eight discussion groups. We also had a constant presence at our IS table in the exhibitors hall, with several new members volunteering an hour or two of their time. Equally significant, by the convention, our membership had surpassed that of a few older interest sections, speaking volumes about the need for this IS.

This year, we are witnessing the continued growth of the SLW-IS, and I invite you to participate in its development.

In Seattle in 2007, we will add 35 slots for papers, demonstrations, colloquia, and workshops, as well as an additional InterSection, to our already strong presence. If you missed the deadline for these events, watch for information from past chair, C hr istina Ortmeier-Hooper , on how you can participate in one of twelve discussion groups. You'll hear more exciting news about our activities at TESOL 2007 in the coming months, but for now, I encourage you to make plans to attend the convention in Seattle , March 21-24, 2007.

Of course, members have many additional opportunities to participate in the SLW-IS. I hope you will:

  • Contribute to the SLW-IS Newsletter,
  • Participate in SLW-IS e-list discussions,
  • Run for a SLW-IS leadership position, and
  • Seek other members to collaborate on teaching, research, or scholarship projects.

Watch the SLW-IS e-list for calls to contribute to future issues of this newsletter. Our esteemed editor, Margi Wald, invites submissions on second language writing theory, research, and pedagogy in all settings. She also frequently solic its book reviews for upcoming issues.

If you are missing these and other announcements on the SLW-IS e-list, check your subscription options on the TESOL website. Log into the site, using your Member ID and password, and click My Profile. Choose Edit Profile at the bottom of your profile window and click “Join Your IS E-List(s)” to receive all SLW-IS messages. For more details, click here .

Later this year, e-list subscribers will receive information about the upcoming elections for 2007-2008 leadership positions. Open positions will include the Discussion Electronic-List Manager and the 2007-2008 Chair-Elect. Watch for details and consider nominating yourself or other members who you think would make a positive contribution to the SLW-IS.

Finally, I invite you to network and collaborate with other members. One goal of the SLW-IS is to provide forums for partnerships among SLW scholars, teachers, and researchers. Our interest section received over 150 proposals for TESOL 2007. While we will see only a fraction of these papers and colloquia in Seattle , I encourage you to partner with other members to build on these exciting projects and to consider submitting short articles about your work to this newsletter.

Thank you for your support of TESOL's newest interest section! Please contact me if you would like to be more actively involved in the interest section, or if you have suggestions for its development, as we continue to grow.

Best wishes,

Jessie




Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, 2005-2006 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, ortmeier<AT>unh.edu.

From my desk, I can see the snowy branches testifying to yet another New Hampshire winter, and this year's TESOL convention in Tampa looks all the more inviting. It is hard to believe that this will be the inaugural year for the new Second Language Writing Interest Section (SWLIS) at TESOL. The past year has brought together a great many wonderful colleagues and supporters from throughout the L2 writing world, and I would like to thank all of you who supported the creation of this Interest Section through petitions, letters of encouragement, and a great deal of hard work. The establishment of a formal L2 writing group at TESOL is an important step as the field continues to grow and flourish.

In July 2005, the TESOL board approved the addition of a new Interest Section (IS) on writing. As Jessie Moore Kapper, our incoming chair, has eloquently noted, “The Second Language Writing IS provides a space to build bridges in our discussions on writing—between academic levels, across settings, and over oceans.” As we look forward to the TESOL convention in March, the presence of the SLWIS is beginning to take shape. In Tampa , discussion groups sponsored by the SLWIS will cover topics including “Alternative Placement Methods for Second Language Writers,” “Issues in Technologies for L2 Composition Classrooms,” and “Crossing Bridges With Second Language Writing Partnerships.” We will also be holding our first Academic Session, entitled “Broadening Perspectives on Second Language Writing.” This session will be a chance to take stock of where L2 writing has been as a discipline, to share current research and trends in the field, and to discuss the future of L2 writing studies. It will also be a chance to share the work of L2 writing specialists with the larger TESOL audience.

As these topics suggest, the new SLWIS provides a forum for researchers and educators to discuss and exchange information in the area of second language writing. Specifically, our goals are

  • to increase awareness of the significance of writing in teaching ESL/EFL
  • to encourage and support the teaching of writing to ESOL students at all levels
  • to provide a forum to discuss issues of writing assessment and the placement of second language writers
  • to disseminate and promote research on second language writing

The hope is that SLWIS will facilitate communication about writing across teaching levels and settings. Recent research on the scope of second language writing scholarship suggests that most of the field's nationally (within the United States ) and internationally circulated scholarship is produced by scholars in postsecondary education at research-intensive institutions. Other contexts for writing (pre-K through 12, 2-year colleges, community programs, international K-12 schools, etc.) often have much larger populations of ELL/EFL writers, but scholars, particularly teacher-researchers, in these settings do not often receive support for researching and writing.

In light of that, the new SLWIS provides us with the opportunity to initiate more research and scholarship in these underrepresented contexts by supporting new collaborations and partnerships across levels and by providing a forum for discussing shared experiences. Indeed, the SLWIS will hopefully bring teachers, teacher-researchers, and second language writing specialists together, from across nations, across institutions, and across grade levels, to discuss the unique needs and concerns of ESL/EFL writers. Along with the Symposium on Second Language Writing and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Committee on Second Language Writing, the SLWIS at TESOL hopes to broaden the scope of L2 writing research and to help teachers and administrators further their understanding of second language writers.

The Tampa convention will also be an opportunity to introduce new and current TESOL members to the SLWIS. We will also begin to set our agenda for 2006-07, which will include an increased number of SLW sessions at TESOL 2007. These sessions will provide a new venue for the many promising L2 writing researchers and educators who are eager to share their insights, and I hope that many of you will consider submitting proposals for TESOL 2007 in Seattle , Washington .

People at TESOL are interested in second language writing issues, and I hope that you will consider adding the SLWIS to your membership, joining the SLW e-list, and attending our open meeting on Wednesday, March 15, 5-7 p.m., in Tampa . We also encourage TESOL members to stop by our booth in the convention hall. Join us in charting the future for this new IS. I look forward to seeing you in Tampa !

Best wishes,

Christina