Dr. Lourdes Ortega, Linguistics Professor at Georgetown University, will be giving a lecture on “How Useful is Instructed SLA Research for Teachers, and What does Epistemological Diversity have to Do with it?” Professor Ortega will examine ways in which the blooming of cognitive, sociocultural, and sociocognitive theories of additional language learning has invigorated the capacity of SLA researchers to make meaningful contributions to knowledge about language teaching. Come join on Friday, May 17th, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm in McGowan 102.
Guest Lecture
on Arab Spring, organized by the Arabic Studies Program.
Prof. Alaa Eligibali from the University of Maryland will speak Thursday, April 4th, from 2:15pm to 1:15pm in McGowan 100.
A little more than two years ago, parts of the Arab world experienced what later came to be known as the Arab Spring. Initial world and domestic consensus of hope and optimism are turning into ambivalence and even skepticism. As chaos claims the day, many wonder if that spring has turned into a true Arab spring of sand storms and poor visibility. Was the imagery drawn for the Arab revolutions indeed prophetic?
In honoring our late Dr. Leo van Lier, the 2nd Annual Celebrating Foreign Language Education: A Monterey Bay Symposium will commence on Saturday, March 30, 2013. Our keynote speaker this year is Peter DeCosta speaking on “Scales: An Alternative Lens for Investigating Foreign Language Learning and Teaching.” In addition, we will have speakers for local institutions speaking on assessment methods, technological tools, and intercultural competency. 
MIIS alumna, Joyce Kling (MA TESOL ’88), was awarded one of eight doctoral dissertation grants awarded annually by The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF). Joyce is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Copenhagen writing her dissertation on “Teacher Cognition: English-medium instruction at LIFE [faculty of life sciences].” Her research project examines teaching behavior in English-medium instruction courses described by Danish professors of natural science. The project seeks to reveal underlying teacher cognitions about professional identity related to teaching through a foreign language in the multicultural, multilingual graduate classroom.
On a personal note, Joyce is married to MIIS graduate Daniel Kim Soren (MBA ’92). Kim had come to MIIS from Denmark on a FUHU scholarship to study business, and Joyce was teaching a summer ESL course. They have two daughters, aged 9 and 11.
The GSTILE Faculty have been busy as ever both on and off campus. Here are a few of the faculty’s recent and future exploits.
Russian TI Professor Rosa Kavenoki will be speaking at the Federov’s Readings International Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. This conference on Translation and Interpreting is held every other year and will take place at the St. Petersburg State University from October 17-20.
Visiting Researcher Anthony Pym recently presented a report entitled The Status of the Translation Profession in the European Union to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation. He also addressed the 20th Anniversary Symposium of the European Society for Translation Studies, of which he is the current president, in Vienna. On November 30th, he will give the annual Translation Studies Shreve lecture at the Institute for Applied Linguistics at Kent State University.
Peter DeCosta, a visiting TESOL/TFL Professor, was honored by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). His doctoral dissertation, “The Power of Language Ideologies: Designer Immigrants Learning English in Singapore,” was chosen as the dissertation of the year by the Second Language Special Interest Group of AERA. As a result of his selection, Dr. DeCosta will be featured presenter during the Business Meeting at the upcoming AERA meeting in San Francisco in April of 2013.
GSTILE faculty member Kathi Bailey gave two presentations in Japan in late October. One was a talk about using dialogue journals with university level EFL students, which was delivered at Kansai University.
The other was the keynote presentation about communication strategies, which she gave at the “e-LINC” conference. The conference was held at Kwansei Gakuin University. (The “e-LINC” organization is the electronic Language Instruction Network Consortium.)
Every year, the Monterey Institute’s Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) TESOL program sends students to serve 27 months abroad in the Peace Corps as language teachers and teacher trainers. As a part of the support for those students abroad, the Monterey Institute GSTILE collects snacks, classroom supplies, and other items as donations and mails care packages to the PCMI students abroad.
This year, PCMI student, Sky Lantz-Wagner (China 2010-2012), emailed Professor Kathi Bailey, head of the PCMI program, with his profound thanks for the packages,
I just received my care package in the mail today and wanted to send my sincere gratitude to you and everyone else who made the package possible. It has been a rough couple of weeks, having broken my finger, playing catch up with all the work I missed, and adjusting to the temperature that just dropped 20 degrees over night yesterday. Your package certainly brightened my day, my week, and my month!
Please send my regards to the MIIS community and especially the GSTILE family.
Best wishes from China,
Sky
Thank you on behalf of GSTILE for everyone who helped contribute to the PCMI packages and made their days a little brighter!
A wonderful opportunity for students in the MATESOL program has come up: The 2012 Graduate Student Forum is now accepting proposals for their meeting on March 28, 2012. The forum is accepting proposals for presentations in the following three categories:
1. Paper
“An oral summary, with occasional reference to notes or a text, which describes or discusses something that the presenter is doing or has done in relation to theory or practice.”
2. Demonstration
“Shows, rather than discusses, a technique for teaching or testing.”
3. Poster Session
“Short, informal discussions with other participants while a self-explanatory exhibit is on display.”
For those interested, here is some very important information:
If you are interested in guidelines for submission, please visit the 2012 Graduate Student Forum guidelines here.
Reminder: If you decided to go in March, MIIS offers conference funding. Find out more about conference funding here.
One more benefit to being a TESOL International Association member:
Did you know that the TESOL International Association offers two awards that are specifically for graduate students? You are invited to apply! The recipient gets a stipend and free convention registration.
The Marckwardt Travel Grants assist graduate students traveling to a TESOL convention. The grants include $500 and free convention registration. All TESOL members who are graduate students in TESOL/TFL programs worldwide are eligible to apply.
The Ruth Crymes Fellowship supports recent or current graduate students who are developing projects with direct application to ESOL language classroom instruction. The recipient receives $1,500 and free convention registration for a subsequent year, when the project is presented. All TESOL members who are or have been enrolled within the past year in a TESOL or TEFL graduate program that prepares teachers to teach ESOL are eligible to apply for this fellowship.
For more information about eligibility and other TESOL awards, please go to the TESOL Awards and Grants Web page or contact awards@tesol.org.
Deadline: November 1, 2011
