Just last month, TIRF announced its new TIRF Masters Research Grants (MRG) Program. In 2019, the Foundation will consider masters-level research proposals from individuals enrolled in masters programs at universities in Chinese-speaking contexts. During the pilot year, applications will be accepted from masters students in Chinese-speaking contexts, including individuals living

Editor’s Note: In this piece, two current and one former TIRF Board members share memories of TIRF Trustee Emerita Professor Antonieta Celani. Lorraine de Matos, General Manager of Cultura Inglesa in São Paulo, Brazil and TIRF Trustee, as well as a close personal friend of Prof. Celani, has shared the

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 TIRF James E. Alatis Prize for Research on Language Planning and Policy in Educational Contexts. Dr. Nelson Flores, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Sofía Chaparro, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, have been named

As December draws to an end each year, TIRF is busy preparing to launch a new competition for its Doctoral Dissertation Grants (DDG) program. And this year is no different – we are happy to announce that, as a result of the wonderful support from Cambridge Assessment English, the British

We are very excited to announce a new partnership TIRF has formed with Words Up Your Way in The People’s Republic of China. Over the next three years, the Foundation will be offering the TIRF Masters Research Grants (MRG) Program to masters-level students in specific Chinese-speaking regions of the world.

Beginning in 2019, there are two changes made to TIRF’s research priorities. The first change is that the former list of priorities has been restructured and relabeled as “topics” under three macro categories: (1) Language Planning and Policy; (2) Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Preparation; and (3) Language Assessment. So, for example,

Editor’s note: In this piece, TIRF Trustee Michael Carrier highlights his activities at the IATEFL BESIG Conference in Romania last month. TIRF Trustee Michael Carrier was able to promote the work of TIRF in recent talks in Romania. Michael gave lectures at the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine in

Paper Airplanes is an organization that sets up online English tutoring for language learners affected by conflict. The students are young adults, primarily in the age range of 18 to 35, who have been affected by conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. Most of the students are native

I am sure that most of our readers have explained idioms to language learners. I was thinking of an idiomatic expression the other day (perhaps because we’ve finally gotten some rain in California): a drop in the bucket. YourDictionary.com explains “a drop in the bucket” this way: “An effort or

According to the #GivingTuesday website, “GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the US) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus

Editor’s note: In this piece, TIRF Trustee Dr. Andy Curtis shares information about his and Dr. Liying Cheng’s recent conference activities in Japan at the IAFOR conference. Last month, from October 13th to 15th, the International Academic Forum, or IAFOR, held its 10th Annual International Asian Conference on Education, together

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Tony Acevedo has been elected as TIRF’s newest Board of Trustees member. In this piece, we provide background information about him. Mr. Anthony Acevedo is Academic Manager at Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (ICPNA), an accredited binational center in Lima, Peru. ICPNA promotes cultural

This is the season when I normally use the Chair’s Report as a vehicle to push our year-end appeal – asking people to support TIRF with financial gifts to keep the Foundation going. But this year, I’ve decided to take a different approach. This year I’m going to share TIRF’s

Editor’s note: In this piece, Allyson Niitani, a full-time student at the University of Puget Sound majoring in International Political Economics and Comparative Government, shares information about RILAE. Allyson is currently studying abroad at the Kanda University of International Studies in Japan and is an intern at the university’s Self-Access