Editor’s note: In this story, we share an interview between TIRF Trustee, Dr. Kathi Bailey, who works on TIRF’s collection of reference lists, and Ryan Damerow, TIRF’s Chief Operating Officer.
Ryan: Kathi, there are currently 251 reference lists available on TIRF’s website – all of which are Word documents that can be downloaded for free by anyone who wants to use them. Please tell our readers how this TIRF resource got started.
Kathi: Well, I began making reference lists as a teaching tool for my MA students about 30 years ago. At that time, I was teaching a seminar on applied linguistics research and another on language assessment, as well as our practicum. I wanted to guide my students to appropriate readings and make it quick and easy for them to find resources that would support them in doing their projects and planning their lessons. Then, when TIRF updated its website, I decided to expand the list of topics and share the reference lists for other people. A few years later, I was reading the minutes of early TIRF Board meetings and I found that one of the founding Trustees had suggested sharing reference lists on important research topics.
Ryan: Where do you get the ideas for starting reference lists on new topics?
Kathi: Sometimes from new books or new issues of journals – especially theme-based special issues of journals. They are really good sources of information on emerging topics. Whenever I get an announcement about a new issue of a journal, I try to include the citations of the articles. The same with a new book – especially an edited book on a topic of current interest. And sometimes people suggest new topics and share resources with us.
Ryan: Do you actually type all these new citations yourself?
Kathi: Sometimes, or else I look up topics on Google Scholar, but I get a lot of help too. For example, when our Doctoral Dissertation Grantees finish their dissertations and file their final reports with TIRF, they share the citations from their dissertations with us. And also, the authors who contribute chapters in the edited books in the TIRF-Routledge series share their reference lists as well. Sometimes colleagues send me the citations for the chapters in new books that they’ve edited. For example, TIRF Trustees Joan Shin and Polina Vinogradova provided the citations for all the chapters in their new book, Contemporary Foundations for Teaching English as an Additional Language. It was really helpful because they used perfect current APA format, so I didn’t have to do any corrections!
Ryan: I know you are currently updating the reference list collection by adding new citations to the lists that were posted last year.
Kathi: Yes, that’s right. I try to do about an hour of updating most mornings. Now that I’m retired from teaching, it’s a peaceful and productive way to start the day.
Ryan: What is the process that you use?
Kathi: I have a big Word doc – my “macro” list – of citations. It’s about 400 pages long. I search it for key words in the titles. For example, right now I’m updating the list on teaching, learning, and assessing vocabulary. After I’ve copied and pasted all the relevant citations from the macro list into the vocabulary list, I’ll go to Google Scholar and search for items published in 2023 or 2024.
Ryan: Isn’t it kind of tedious?
Kathi: No, not really. It’s interesting to learn about new research projects, and I often come across publications by our DDG recipients or my friends or former students. I find citations for things I’d like to read myself, or items I can recommend to someone who is doing research on a particular topic. For instance, last week I came across two new citations on language learning and dyslexia, which I shared with a young scholar who’s trying to learn about that issue. It’s rewarding!
Ryan: Okay, I can understand that. What else do you get out of this whole process?
Kathi: Oh, in addition to learning about new publications, I have the satisfaction of doing something good for TIRF and for the people who use the citations. I sometimes hear from teacher educators and doctoral candidates, thanking TIRF for making these resources available for free. My favorite example is when I first met Harry Kuchah Kuchah (now an Associate Professor of Language, Social Justice and Education at the University of Birmingham). When we were introduced, he said, “I LIVE in the TIRF reference lists!”
Ryan: What are your future plans for this project?
Kathi: My goal is to have all the 2023 lists updated by the end of October of 2024. And to make sure people know about this free resource. I hope everyone who reads this newsletter will tell two or three other people about the reference lists. And, of course, we will continue to add new reference list as relevant topics arise.
Ryan: Is there anything else you’d like to share about the reference lists with the readers of TIRF Today?
Kathi: Just that I’m grateful for all the people who’ve sent their reference lists to us, to share with teachers and researchers from around the world. TIRF stakeholders can see a list of those contributors in the purple box on the Reference List webpage. And also, I hope that researchers and teacher educators reading this interview will share the link with their students and colleagues.
Ryan: Thank you for keeping up on this important activity for TIRF, Kathi! It’s certainly no small undertaking!
