Dear Readers,
Welcome to the 89th issue of TESL-EJ!
As usual, this issue offers a wide variety of feature articles spanning theory to practice, the various skill areas, testing & evaluation as well as sociological and psychological perspectives on the teaching and learning process. We hope that you will find them useful for both your current teaching as well as your professional development..
Our Book Review and Media Review teams have been hard at work. This issue features three reviews in each section, more than we have seen in quite a while. Also, we would like to thank Stacey Amling for her service as a Media Review editor and welcome Timothy Kochem, Iowa State University as her replacement.
On another front, all of the 1500+ TESL-EJ articles since its inception are currently being indexed on SCOPUS. We should be fully indexed in a few more months.
As a reminder, we have another “Special Issue” coming, this one on “Study Abroad in TESOL” to be edited by Laura Baecher (Hunter College) and Kristen Lindahl (University of Texas, San Antonio). The announcement follows below. If you have researched this area or have your own personal views concerning study abroad, Please consider submitting your prospectus by the June 1 deadline.
Enjoy!
Thomas Robb, Editor, for the TESL-EJ Team
Special Issue: Study Abroad in TESOL (to appear February 2020)
Guest Editors: Laura Baecher, Hunter College, City University of New York & Kristen Lindahl, University of Texas, San Antonio
Call for Abstracts
Research on study abroad in second language learning indicates that students gain more globally-informed and critical perspectives and improve their foreign language skills. This special issue of TESL-EJ will provide current insight into how study abroad experiences designed specifically for both learners and teachers of ESL/EFL are being conceptualized, theorized, implemented, and researched.
This special issue seeks articles focused either on students of English or teachers of EFL/ESL engaged in either short or long term study abroad programs. Participant type, countries of origin and destinations for the study abroad experience should be explicitly named in the abstract.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Impact studies of study abroad on participants’ English language development, for instance in the areas of pragmatics, pronunciation, academic discourse, vocabulary, learning strategies, etc. as well as impact on the host community
- Investigations of how factors such as age/stage of learners, feedback, anxiety, length of stay, socialization and other features interact with English learning in study abroad contexts
- Explorations of how study abroad shapes pre- and in-service English language teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, skills, identity, knowledge and practices before, during, and immediately after their participation, especially in regard to developing a critical perspective and enhancing teacher language awareness
- Examination of conceptual frames for the design and implementation of the study abroad program, such as critical language teacher education, service learning, cultural exchange, internationalization, and features such as World Englishes, Inner/Outer Circle, and English as an International language
- Contextual factors that contribute to English language learning, such as features of the host country, aspects of the program design, faculty facilitation and programmatic activities
Please send an abstract of no more than 350 words in length with at least ten references along with institutional contact information for all authors, as one MS Word document to lbaecher@hunter.cuny.edu by June 1, 2019. Abstracts will be reviewed for fit to the theme. You will be informed if the full manuscript is invited for review by June 10, 2019. Full manuscripts are due by August 30, 2019.
Submissions should conform to TESL-EJ’s ethical and stylistic guidelines, available at http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/sub_howto/ethics/ and http://tesl-ej.org/EJ_Style.pdf respectively.