June 2012—Volume 16, Number 1
Greetings,
Welcome to our sixteenth volume of TESL-EJ. Some interesting statistics about our last year: we are averaging about 50,000 unique visitors each month, who are visiting nearly 150,000 pages. As you can imagine, this represents the work of many people on our staff, past and present. Thanks to all of them who have made TESL-EJ what is is today, and what it will become in the future.
Our Submissions Editor Abdollah Shahrokni has been working hard to catch up with our numerous submissions. We need more reviewers! We encourage anyone who has benefited from our journal, either as authors or as readers, to volunteer their time to review articles that are submitted to us. After you successfully review two articles, we will add you to the Board of Reviewers.
Aaron Campbell has also taken over nearly all technical editing duties now, and we are pleased (as always) with the result.
We are also now soliciting applications for guest editors for special issues. If you have an idea for a special issue, please send a letter of explanation, your credentials, and any other relevant information to: editor@tesl-ej.org.
Finally, to those in the second language and ESL/EFL community, we have a special plea on behalf of the International Research Foundation for English Language Education:
Dr. Russ Campbell was a mentor to almost everyone who ever studied TESL or Applied Linguistics at UCLA until his death in 2003. Among his many accomplishments, he and a group of equally dedicated senior colleagues in our field, had a dream of starting a foundation that would support research on the teaching and learning of English. After many years of service on TESOL’s Association Advancement Committee, Russ saw that dream come to fruition in June 1998, when the TESOL Board of Directors voted the invest the money to start TIRF — The International Research Foundation for English Language Education. Russ served on the Foundation’s Board of Trustees for many years, including a term as the founding Chairman of the Board.
Each year, TIRF support doctoral candidates in their research through the Doctoral Dissertation Grants program, and each year the author of the highest rated proposal has the distinction of being named the Russell N. Campbell Awardee, as well as receiving the scholarship funds. This year there are nearly twice as many applicants as there were last year. We hope those of you who knew and admired Russ will be moved to make a donation in his memory, and that those of you who were not able to meet him will appreciate his many contributions to our field and make a donation as well.
For more information about TIRF, its mission, and making a donation, see: http://www.tirfonline.org/.
Best wishes,
Maggie Sokolik
Editor
Thomas Robb
Co-Editor
Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni
Submissions Editor
Aaron Campbell
Technical Editor