From the Editors: The Final Word?
Michael Lessard-Clouston, michael.lessard-clouston@biola.edu, and Meredith Bricker, meredith.bricker@gmail.com
We are pleased to present you with the final issue of the CETC Newsletter, which we hope you will find to be interesting and encouraging reading. As always, we have enjoyed working with contributors and corresponding with so many in the Christian Educators in TESOL Caucus. We are confident that you will find useful information in the newsletter, some practical insights or ideas for your teaching, and hopefully some good food for thought. In this issue we look back as well as ahead. CETC is in a time of transition from caucus (ending July 31) to forum status in TESOL (starting August 1), though that change is mainly so that this group will have a presence at the annual convention. It is appropriate, then, to reflect on the newsletter’s history.
A Brief History of the Newsletter
As an informal group, Christian Educators in TESOL was blessed to have Joan Dungey as the editor of the CETESOL Newsletter, which was published for 9 years through volume 9 in 1996. In those days there were ads as well as articles, and the printing and postage was paid for by Joan collecting a couple of dollars from those in attendance at the meetings at TESOL conventions, or sometimes a sponsoring organization would print and mail out an issue for us. In September 1997 Joseph Poulshock and Frank Tuzi edited and produced issue 1(1) of the CETC Newsletter from Japan, but it was mailed out by TESOL to caucus members after we became an official group. After three issues, Frank edited issue 3(1) himself before Tracy Henninger-Chiang took over in Wisconsin and produced the issues 4(1) through 5(1) (winter 1999 through winter 2001). The editorship then changed to Minnesota and Feng-Ling M. Johnson, who produced the May 2001 through June 2002 issues (there were some without any volume or issue numbers in there for some reason!). Feng-Ling worked with Jim Mischler (in Chicago) for the February 2003 issue, and Jim took over by himself for the final printed issue in June 2003, and then sent issue 6(3) via e-mail in October 2003. From issue 7(1) in March 2004 on, the e-mail edition of the newsletter had a “View as a Web Page” link, and by December 2004, our issues, from 8(1) — Jim’s last — on were completely online, though CETC members received e-mails with the table of contents and article web links, as we still do. Next Andrew Bowdler took over as editor from England for two issues, 9(1) in November 2005 and 10(1) in March 2006. As you can see from this brief history, we followed in good footsteps when we began our work as editors with issue 10(2), later published in June 2006.
Over the years the newsletter has offered many perceptive articles and discussions in print, e-mail, and online, as well as lots of information for Christian educators in TESOL. Thank you to all the editors listed above, as well as to every single contributor who put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard to share thoughts and ideas with other TESOL professionals through the CETC Newsletter. We are also grateful for and want to acknowledge the hard work of Valerie Borchelt and (more recently) Rodneikka Freeman in the TESOL central office, who have worked along with us (Michael in Los Angeles and Meredith in Atlanta) to produce what we would like to think of as eight enlightening issues of one of the organization’s best newsletters, if we do say so ourselves. 
In This Issue
This final issue of the newsletter begins with several leadership updates, starting with a letter from CETC Chair Michael Pasquale, who brings us up-to-date on the caucus becoming the Christian English Language Educators Forum (CELEF) in TESOL and calls for volunteers to work with him in various roles. Next we have a brief history of the caucus from Wes Eby, followed by reflections from former CETC chairs from their time in office. Finally, as usual we have a few updates in our News From CETC column.
Our articles and information section presents a delightful range of topics that reflect the interests and expertise of caucus members. We start with two paper presentations from the CETC colloquium in New York City during TESOL 2008: Yukako Ueno’s article on teaching the language of testimony and small group discussion, and Daniel Gingrich’s article on English for biblical and theological purposes. Next Sunny Song summarizes research on language anxiety and considers what teachers can do about it in their classrooms, while Russ Mason discusses conflict resolution and describes how to provide “a soft answer” in educational contexts. The final article offers a retrospective on bilingual language learning and use by Grace Wu Lee, who also offers some suggestions for teachers and parents who work with children who are or are becoming bilingual. As expected, these authors share wisdom from their own learning and teaching but also offer references for further reading. It is fitting to close this final issue with our Spotlight on CETC Members, which introduces and shares the backgrounds and experiences of five CETCers located in China and the United States.
Thank you for letting us serve you as CETC Newsletter editors. We have learned so much from you and have really appreciated working together. As we noted last time, we are both stepping down after more than 2 years, and we feel that the current transition is a good time to let others step up and lead us with whatever newsletter serves CELEF members, though we are happy to share our experience with one or more of you who are willing to do that. Thus far we are not aware of anyone who has volunteered, and we sincerely hope that this is not the final word on the newsletter’s history! We would like to end by stating how much we appreciate all the contributions during our tenure, and we want to encourage all caucus members to continue to contribute both to CELEF and to TESOL — through articles, presentations, and other opportunities to share. If you have any comments, please feel free to contact us. “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (Jude 24-25).
Blessings,
Michael and Meredith
