Milestones

TIRF Trustee Receives TESOL’s James Alatis Award

MaryAnn Christion, TIRF Trustee, Receives TESOL James Alatis Award

TIRF Trustee MaryAnn Christison, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Utah, was recently honored with the James Alatis award “in recognition of outstanding and extended service to TESOL.” In making the award, TESOL President Dr. Christine Coombe sited MaryAnn’s seven-year term of service on the TESOL Board of Directors, including being President from 1997-1998, as well as her many major responsibilities for chairing the organization’s Conventions over the years. MaryAnn was also recognized for her numerous publications and intellectual contributions to the field. Dr. Coombe also noted MaryAnn’s current role as the Chair of TIRF’s Research Advisory Committee.

Upon receiving the award, MaryAnn had this to say: “I have known Jim and Penny Alatis for years and am honored to have them as dear friends. It is wonderful for TESOL to recognize service to name the award after Jim Alatis as his commitment to TESOL is legendary.”

Bailey Receives Heinle Outstanding Achievement Award

Dennis Hogan (left), Kathi Bailey, and David Nunan at the Heinle Award Ceremony, March 17, New Orleans

At the 2011 TESOL Convention in New Orleans, TIRF President, Kathi Bailey, was honored with the Heinle Cengage Outstanding Achievement Award. This award is given annually to Heinle Cengage authors who have made a distinctive contribution to English language education – through authoring, teaching, research, and otherwise helping the field, in terms of reach, scope, and impact.

According to Heinle President, Dennis Hogan, previous recipients of this honor were Earl Stevick, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Donald Freeman, Rebecca Oxford, David Nunan, Neil Anderson, Anna Uhl Chamot, Marianne Celce-Murcia, Paul Nation, Lydia Stack, Mary Lou McCloskey, Barbara Foley, and Sandra Elbaum.

Commenting on receiving the award, Bailey said, “I was totally surprised by this wonderful award, and I am deeply honored to be included in this list of notable people in our field. I also appreciate David Nunan keeping the ‘roast’ relatively mild! There were several more outrageous things he could have said!”

Donna Christian Receives Prestigious Award

Donna Christian (right) poses with Sarah Thomason while accepting the Victoria A. Fromkin Prize

In January 2011, Donna Christian, TIRF trustee and senior fellow at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) in Washington, D.C., received the Victoria A. Fromkin Lifetime Service Award from the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). Originally presented in 2001 as the Victoria A. Fromkin Prize for Distinguished Service, this award was established “to recognize individuals who have performed extraordinary service to the Society and the discipline throughout their career.”

Christian has focused her career on the role of language in education, and has special interests in second language learning, dialect diversity, and policy. Commenting on receiving the award, Christian said, “I am deeply honored and grateful to receive this recognition from the Linguistic Society of America, especially in an award dedicated to Vicki Fromkin, whose leadership and service made such a difference to the field of linguistics and to the LSA.”

LSA Director of Membership and Meetings, David Robinson, said that Christian was awarded the Victoria A Fromkin Prize for her outstanding service to the LSA since joining in 1971. Over the years, Christian has served the LSA in a variety of ways, and helped navigate CAL through difficult financial times. Robinson commented that the Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics calls Christian “one of the ‘foremost authorities in the United States on language education and language in education.’” Christian’s work between CAL and the LSA helped to ensure a mutually beneficial and prosperous relationship between the two organizations for many years. Thus, as Robinson stated, “it is fitting that LSA recognize her long-standing service and contributions both to the linguistics profession and to the LSA as an organization.”

Tucker Named Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Interim Dean

G. Richard Tucker

Dr. G. Richard Tucker, a member of the TIRF Board of Trustees, has been named interim dean for the Qatar campus of Carnegie Mellon University, effective August 1.

Currently, Professor Tucker serves as associate vice provost for education for the Carnegie Mellon Qatar campus. In this position, he works with various university department heads to make sure the academic and student life experiences at the Qatar campus remain an extension of the high quality programs in Pittsburgh.

After joining the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1992, Dick became head of the Modern Languages Department in 1995 and held that post for 12 years. In 2003, he was named the Paul Mellon Professor of Applied Linguistics and in 2006 he was named a University Professor, the highest distinction a faculty member can achieve at Carnegie Mellon. Dick also received the university’s Doherty Award for Sustained Contributions to Excellence in Education in 2007, as well as the James Alatis Award for Service to TESOL in 1998.

Former TIRF Trustee Honored

Former TIRF Trustee Dr. Rick Jenks was recently honored in a ceremony at Florida State University, where the Center for Intensive English Studies was renamed in his honor. Follow the links to see a slide show of the ceremony and a write-up of the event.

TIRF Fellowship Recipient Receives Two Awards

Dr. Blair Bateman, Chairman of the ACTFL Awards Committee; Dr. Muhammad Abdel Latif; Dr. Leo van Lier, Editor of the Modern Language Journal.

Dr. Muhammad Abdel Latif, one of the three 2008 TIRF Sheikh Nahayan Fellowship recipients, has received two prestigious awards. He received the 2009 Canadian Modern Language Review Best Graduate Student Paper: “Toward a New Process-Based Indicator for Measuring Writing Fluency: Evidence from L2 Writers’ Think-Aloud Protocols.” He was also selected by ACTFL (the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages) as the winner of the 2009 ACTFL-MLJ Emma Marie Birkmaier Award for Doctoral Dissertation Research in Foreign Language Education.

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TIRF Board Endorses Two International Policy Statements

Editor’s note: In this piece, Trustee Joe Lo Bianco reports on TIRF’s endorsement of two important international language policy statements. As part of TIRF’s role to encourage language policies which promote best practices in English teaching and research around the world, the Board of Trustees monitors developments that have the potential to shape the [...]

British Council Releases “Culture at Work” Study

The British Council has released a new study regarding the role of intercultural skills in the workplace. The paper, entitled Culture at Work: The Value of Intercultural Skills in the Workplace, can be downloaded for free by clicking here. To provide a preview, the report’s executive summary is included below: The modern workplace is increasingly [...]

TIRF at 2013 TESOL Convention in Dallas, Texas

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TIRF’s Year-end Report

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TIRF Welcomes Marti Estell as New Trustee

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TIRF Event in São Paulo, Brazil (July, 2012)

Earlier this month on Wednesday, July 12th in São Paulo, Brazil, thanks to Trustee Lorraine de Matos and her wonderful team at the Cultura Inglesa there, we hosted our second “TIRF Event” in Brazil. (The first was in 2005, and you can read about it by scrolling down further on this page.) The event was [...]

English at Work Paper Now Available

We are pleased to announce that TIRF’s commissioned research paper, English at Work: An Analysis of Case Reports about English Language Training for the 21st-century Workforce, by Tony Fitzpatrick and Robert O’Dowd, is now available to download. The executive summary of the paper will continue to be available on TIRF’s website as well. The edited [...]

TIRF’s 2012 TESOL Talk Now Available on SlideShare

For any individual who missed TIRF’s presentation last month at the TESOL Convention, you may now watch the slidecast from the event. (In general, a slidecast features a PPT presentation with the speaker’s recorded voice to accompany the slides.) The entire presentation, which includes a question-and-answer session at the end of the talk, can be [...]

TIRF Board Elects Three New Trustees

At its board meeting in Philadelphia on March 28th, the TIRF Board elected three new Trustees. Here is some information about them. Andrew B. Sugerman is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Disney English in Shanghai, China. He received a Master of Business Administration with High Honors from The University of Chicago, Booth Graduate [...]

TIRF Presentation at TESOL 2012, Philadelphia

At the TESOL Convention in Philadelphia this past week, TIRF launched its latest commissioned study, English at Work: An Analysis of Case Reports about English Language Training for the 21st-century Workforce. After a brief “meet and greet,” the study was summarized by co-author Tony Fitzpatrick, who noted several high points of the analysis of twenty [...]