TNTESOL (Tennessee) Affiliate News
Teresa Dalle, The University of Memphis, tsdalle@memphis.edu
TNTESOL celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2008. In its planning for the event, two special publications were planned. One was the 30-year history of the organization. Compiled by a committee of members and reconstructed from minutes and old newsletters, the history, ‘A 30-Year History: Tides of Change 1978-2008’ was unveiled at the 2008 conference in Memphis. The other project, the TNTESOL Journal , saw its first issue appear in October.
The organization has seen itself grow from a small group of mostly university faculty in 1978 to an organization that represents all aspects of ESL teaching in 2008.In that evolution, the organization has become a well-run, professional group that represents the needs and concerns of its constituency. Somewhere in that evolution, TNTESOLhas moved to sponsoring regional conferences across the state, a once-a-year conference with several hundred participants, a quarterly TNTESOL Newsletter with strong sponsorship, and finally the TNTESOL Journal . This journal is the latest accomplishment of TNTESOL, one that has garnered many compliments and much praise.
The TNTESOL Journal consists of articles reporting on research in the field of second language acquisition as well as “best practices.” Since so many of the readership are K-12 and adult ed teachers, the decision to include practical articles as well as research-based articles that inform teaching was a natural one. This led to the first edition’s theme of “Generating Usable Knowledge.” Although a state journal, it is truly international in appeal. Included in the first edition are articles from authors across Tennessee and from Alaska and Taiwan. The editorial board, made up of ESL professionals in various Tennessee universities, also includes a professor at Penn State and one in the Czech Republic.
The executive board and the membership of TNTESOL are proud to sponsor the journal and hope to see it develop into one recognized for the quality of the articles and its appeal to ESL teachers.
The TNTESOL Journal editorial board is now seeking articles for the 2009 edition. For information on the guidelines, those interested should contact Professor Teresa Dalle at tsdalle@memphis.edu.