SLW-IS


	Letter from the Chair Gigi Taylor, 2008-2009 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, vgtaylor<AT>unc.edu Welcome to the new year of the Second Language Writing Interest Section! I'd like to open this newsletter by thanking our members for such enthusiastic participation over the past year, with special thanks to our Past Chair Deborah Crusan for her energetic leadership and to our officers and steering committee members for their tireless efforts. As we move into our fourth year, we have a great deal of success to look back on. Although the New York City convention format was a day shorter than usual, the SLWIS was impressively represented on the program, hosting 35 sessions, including papers, workshops, poster sessions, reports, colloquia, demonstrations, and Discussion Groups on such topics as assessment, error correction, assignment design, teacher preparation, research, effective feedback, coherence, voice, verb tense, literacy development, world Englishes, publishing, and more. We also hosted an InterSection with the Teacher Education IS entitled "Nurturing Prospective Second Language Writing Teachers." We collaborated with the CALLIS on an InterSection entitled "Paradigms of Plagiarism" and with the Applied Linguistics IS on the "Textual Coherence and Learning Writing" InterSection. In addition, we hosted an Academic Session on "Writing Centers, Language Acquisition, and Global Contexts" with scholars from the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and once again we hosted a standing-room-only Evening With the Experts. As I reflect on our success, I must say that perhaps the most gratifying aspect, for me, of the SLWIS is the lively and genuine sense of community we have. Our membership spans the globe, spans the educational spectrum, and spans a tremendous range of research and teaching interests. But we show up and we talk to each other. We ask questions, we listen carefully, we respond thoughtfully, and although we may not always agree with each other, we respect the value of each contribution and we make a concerted effort to be counted among the contributors. I have attended conferences of other professional organizations where the superstars give their presentations and then cloister themselves away with their famous colleagues, rarely engaging with other participants. I have seen rank-and-file participants at other professional conferences stand back in awe-struck silence when their professional idols pass by and have heard them doubt their own ability to contribute anything of value because they are not famous themselves. We are different. Once again this year, our leading scholars generously shared their time by staffing the exhibition booth to promote interest in the SLWIS and by attending another enormously successful social event for the IS membership. Once again, our scholars, teachers, administrators, graduate students, and community members generously shared their professional insight through conference presentations, through engaging conversations at our social, and through very energetic participation in the SLWIS business and planning meeting. And once again, the SLWIS has submitted a record number of proposals for TESOL's 2009 convention in Denver. Thanks to all of you, the vitality of the Second Language Writing Interest Section continues to increase. I hope that over the next year, each of you will feel welcome and encouraged to keep the conference energy alive through thoughtful posts to the electronic discussion list, through submissions to the SLWIS newsletter, and through interesting projects with your colleagues. We look forward to hearing all about it! With best wishes for the coming year, Gigi To see letters from past chairs, click here.

Letter from the Chair

Gigi Taylor, 2008-2009 Chair, Second Language Writing IS, vgtaylor<AT>unc.edu

Welcome to the new year of the Second Language Writing Interest Section! I'd like to open this newsletter by thanking our members for such enthusiastic participation over the past year, with special thanks to our Past Chair Deborah Crusan for her energetic leadership and to our officers and steering committee members for their tireless efforts.

As we move into our fourth year, we have a great deal of success to look back on. Although the New York City convention format was a day shorter than usual, the SLWIS was impressively represented on the program, hosting 35 sessions, including papers, workshops, poster sessions, reports, colloquia, demonstrations, and Discussion Groups on such topics as assessment, error correction, assignment design, teacher preparation, research, effective feedback, coherence, voice, verb tense, literacy development, world Englishes, publishing, and more. We also hosted an InterSection with the Teacher Education IS entitled "Nurturing Prospective Second Language Writing Teachers." We collaborated with the CALLIS on an InterSection entitled "Paradigms of Plagiarism" and with the Applied Linguistics IS on the "Textual Coherence and Learning Writing" InterSection. In addition, we hosted an Academic Session on "Writing Centers, Language Acquisition, and Global Contexts" with scholars from the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and once again we hosted a standing-room-only Evening With the Experts.

As I reflect on our success, I must say that perhaps the most gratifying aspect, for me, of the SLWIS is the lively and genuine sense of community we have. Our membership spans the globe, spans the educational spectrum, and spans a tremendous range of research and teaching interests. But we show up and we talk to each other. We ask questions, we listen carefully, we respond thoughtfully, and although we may not always agree with each other, we respect the value of each contribution and we make a concerted effort to be counted among the contributors. I have attended conferences of other professional organizations where the superstars give their presentations and then cloister themselves away with their famous colleagues, rarely engaging with other participants. I have seen rank-and-file participants at other professional conferences stand back in awe-struck silence when their professional idols pass by and have heard them doubt their own ability to contribute anything of value because they are not famous themselves.

We are different.

Once again this year, our leading scholars generously shared their time by staffing the exhibition booth to promote interest in the SLWIS and by attending another enormously successful social event for the IS membership. Once again, our scholars, teachers, administrators, graduate students, and community members generously shared their professional insight through conference presentations, through engaging conversations at our social, and through very energetic participation in the SLWIS business and planning meeting. And once again, the SLWIS has submitted a record number of proposals for TESOL's 2009 convention in Denver.

Thanks to all of you, the vitality of the Second Language Writing Interest Section continues to increase. I hope that over the next year, each of you will feel welcome and encouraged to keep the conference energy alive through thoughtful posts to the electronic discussion list, through submissions to the SLWIS newsletter, and through interesting projects with your colleagues. We look forward to hearing all about it!

With best wishes for the coming year,

Gigi

To see letters from past chairs, click here.