This past week, language teachers, researchers, program administrators, and educators from around the world convened in Chicago for the 2018 AAAL Conference and the 2018 TESOL Convention. TIRF supporters had a visible presence at both conferences.

Dr. Sara Kangas’ Acceptance Speech

At the first conference, TIRF Trustees convened a panel consisting of four Doctoral Dissertation Grant (DDG) recipients (Ron Darvin, Angelica Galante, Nic Subtirelu, and Yu-chi Wang) and Shondel Nero, the 2016 recipient of the TIRF James E. Alatis Prize for Research on Language Policy and Planning in Educational Contexts. Each of the panelists provided a summary of his/her work from TIRF’s most recent publication, Global Perspectives on Educational Language Policies (Crandall and Bailey, eds.).

At the TESOL Convention, participants enjoyed listening to presentations by DDG recipients Sarah Braden, Laura Hamman, Tomoyo Okuda, and Nicole Pettitt. Their presentations were also based on their chapters in the Global Perspectives volume. TIRF Trustee Jun Liu was the final panelist and Jodi Crandall was the panel moderator. Before these panel presentations, audience members heard a moving video commentary from the 2018 Alatis Prize recipient, Dr. Sarah Kangas.

In a symposium about research priorities, TIRF President Kathi Bailey and former TIRF President Donald Freeman gave presentations, as did Polina Vinogradova and Tabitha Kidwell. Both of these DDG awardees had received mini-grants from TESOL.

In 2019, both the AAAL Conference and the TESOL Convention will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. We hope to see you there!

 

 

(Left to Right): Ana Sylvia Ramirez, Tomoyo Okuda, MaryAnn Christison, Laura Hamman, Jodi Crandall, Donna Christian, Nicole Pettitt, Lorraine de Matos, John Knagg, Sarah Braden, David Nunan, and Jun Liu