From the Editors
Michael Lessard-Clouston, michael.lessard-clouston@biola.edu, and Meredith Bricker, meredith.bricker@gmail.com
Greetings from Los Angeles and Atlanta! We are happy to present you with another issue of the CETC Newsletter and are confident that you will find it informative reading. As CETC is an international community, it is great for us to be able to connect through the newsletter several times a year, whether or not we are all able to make it to the annual TESOL convention. As usual, we hope to provide you with some helpful information, some interesting food for thought, and articles that include practical ideas and insights.
In This Issue
This issue of the newsletter starts with some leadership updates, beginning with a letter from our chair, Gena Bennett, in which she discusses the importance of our call as Christian educators to be positive influences to our students and coworkers. We also have an article from CETC E-list moderator Anne Bruehler, who introduces herself and encourages us to become active contributors to the CETC e-list by providing guidelines and suggestions for postings and discussions. We also include several important announcements from various caucus members in our "News From CETC" column.
In our articles and information section, we are pleased to highlight a wonderfully diverse range of topics and locales that reflect the research and teaching interests of CETC members. We begin with two articles based on presentations in the CETC colloquium at TESOL 2007 in Seattle, namely Kitty Purgason's research on religion in ESL textbooks and Peggy Hull's reflections on Christian images and the use of film in ESL classes. We are grateful that we are able to share these insights with those who could not attend the convention, and we hope to have another article from that panel for you in our next issue. Next, Nancy Kelly Alvarez reports on her approach to EFL teacher training in the Philippines, and Cherie Rempel describes her experiences working with Iraqi Kurds and developing materials for a program she oversees in Iraq. Leopoldo Balayon then reflects on the topic of native speaker proficiency and how it relates to adult learners, and past chair Eleanor Pease reports briefly on the exciting CELT 2008 conference that she is planning at Nyack College to occur just before TESOL 2008 in New York. Also in this issue, Dana Ferris writes about living out her mission statement in a secular university setting, Suresh Canagarajah shares and then responds to some criticisms of evangelicals within TESOL, and Daniel Zagami reports on his experience using plays and oral culture among immigrant children in Illinois. Finally, Amanda Baker reviews CETC member Don Snow's revised More Than a Native Speaker book, and we close with our "Spotlight on CETC Members," which introduces three more CETCers (including Meredith!). If you would like to be "spotlighted" in the future, please let us know!
We are so thankful to each of these contributors for sharing their work with us all through this forum, and we hope that you will consider contributing to the newsletter as well. If you have an idea for an article that you would like us to consider, some news you would like to share with CETCers, or suggestions or comments about the newsletter, please feel free to contact us. We also still need a few people who would be willing to review books and materials for us. Our deadline to receive draft contributions for possible publication in our next issue (hopefully in February) is December 28. Happy reading!
Michael and Meredith
SLW & CALL October 2007 Volume 11 Number 3: Table of Contents
