Purpose
The purpose of the ITA Interest Section Newsletter is to keep the membership informed about IS business and events that pertain to the TESOL convention. The newsletter also provides ITA specialists with a forum for sharing teaching practices, research, and programmatic and administrative issues related to the English language proficiency testing and training of international graduate teaching assistants for instructional responsibilities in university classrooms.
Audience
The ITA Newsletter addresses the concerns of ITA specialists, including instructors, program administrators, and researchers, who work with ITAs. ITA specialists are involved in the testing, training, and development of international graduate students who are teaching or preparing to teach mainly undergraduate students at universities in the United States and Canada.
Vision
The ITA Interest Section Newsletter provides various types of information, including IS news; announcements and proceedings of relevant conferences; reviews of video, print, and online resources and technology. In addition, the newsletter offer a forum for discussing practices and innovative pedagogies that enhance ITA training in areas such as language proficiency assessment for instructional purposes, communicative competence, intercultural communication skills, college teaching skills, constructive feedback, and program evaluation.
Submission Guidelines and Publication Schedule
The ITAIS newsletter encourages submission of articles and reviews on topics of significance to ITA professionals.
Articles, including program descriptions, course descriptions, best practices, teaching techniques, or editorials on any topic of interest to ITA practitioners are all welcomed. Collaborative authorship among ITA professionals and/or ITAs themselves is encouraged.
Reviews that provide analysis relevant to the practice and theory of ITA education are sought. Writers may review books, articles, resources, technologies, websites, or conferences.
Submissions are due to the editor by August 15 and January 15.
In an effort to make the submission process as easy and smooth as possible, the following submission guidelines have been formulated. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
- Submissions should begin with a brief abstract (approximately 50 words).
- Submissions should conclude with a one- or two-sentence bio about the author(s).
- Length can vary depending on the type of submission—articles should be no more than 1000 words, but other types of submissions will be shorter.
- Use the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (APA) guidelines for referencing all outside sources.
- Use Verdana 12 font.
- Use a space between paragraphs instead of indenting.
- Clearly distinguish the different level headings & use bold:
• THIS IS A LEVEL 1 HEAD
• This Is a Level 2 Head
• This Is a Level 3 Head
• This is a level 4 head
Readability
- Keep text short and bulleted, as online readers prefer well-chunked information, and put main ideas first.
- Use plenty of headings and sub-heads.
- Use clickable links (with http://).
- Try to add pictures, graphics, and tables. (They should be sent as separate “.jpg” files and their position in your document should be indicated by an “insert picture X here” statement).
Process
- Submit articles in Microsoft Word (as a “.doc” or “.docx” file) in an email attached to the editor.
- Include a picture of yourself as separate “.jpg” file, and indicate in the e-mail body that you give permission to publish your photo.
After You Send Your Submission
- After receiving a submission, the newsletter editor will review it, possibly revise it for readability, clarity, or formatting, and then if changes are made, send it back to the author for a final check.
- All articles then go on to TESOL for final editing and publishing.
- Articles will be printed as soon as they can, depending on scheduling and when the article is received.