TESOL International Association

Talha MalikPost University

Educational Importance

• The TESOL International Association (TIA) is the largest organization in the world dedicated to charitable, educational, and scientific purposes relating to teaching and learning English as an additional language

Annual conferences Professional development seminars Grants Job placement Peer-reviewed academic journals - TESOL Quarterly and

TESOL Journal

Current Technologies

1: BYOD: Allows students to use virtual programs to improve the four core concepts of ESL: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. BYOD is currently used as students use laptops to develop English Podcasts and upload them to be reviewed by a community of online native English speakers2: Adaptive Learning Technologies: ALT is used in second-language pedagogy when an ESL student is focusing on the linguistic component of the language. ALT programs such as Randall’s Cyber Learning Lab can help improve English comprehension and retention skills for students.

ScenariosPros Cons

- Several ‘realisable or desirable’ futures are created and compared side by side -Scenarios can recognize ‘weak signals’, or inefficiencies in the organization and prepare better ways to solve them in the future -Organizational decision process making is improved because “aims, opportunities, risks, and strategies are shared between participants” -Scenario creating can be based on previous historical data

-It’s hard to find experts for this qualitative approach -The practice of creating scenarios is very time consuming -It is easy to think about black-and-white scenarios rather than alternative futures during this task -It’s difficult to predict future environmental or political situations in particular regions which can hinder predictions based on previous data.

ScanningScanning is assuring that, social, economic, political, environmental, and technological changes are analyzed using existing county, state, and national data centers

Past trends can be analyzed to show future projections

Turns usable data into ‘data-driven intelligence’

Creates scenarios, forecasts, and issue briefs

Cannot be used to identify critical indicators of change

Technology Trend: Hybrid Classes

Hybrid learning replaces 20%-80% of face-to-face interactions with online learning. Here are some advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages: -Cost Effective-Self-Paced learning-Schedule Flexibility -Easy access to resources

Disadvantages: -Isolated Interactions -Computer Competency -Speaking issues in Pedagogy learning-Lack of conversation practice

Common Core State Standard Initiative in K-12 ESL classrooms

31 States have adopted WIDA consortium resources for their English language development programsK-12 ESL classrooms must

meet CCSS guidelines, but no clear implementation of said guidelines were

given. Instead, CCSS implementation in ESL

classrooms was left to be determined by each state

respectively.

Policy Cause Policy Effect

Demographic Trends

This chart shows the number of ESL students in each

state in 2013. California ranks as the highest with

1.521 million students and Texas has 773,00. Utah

ranks 26th and has 39,200 students.

In 2010, there were

approximately 5 million ESL

students enrolled at the K-12 Level.

From 1997 to 2007, ESL student enrollment had

increased by 53.2 percent

Graph from Migration Policy Institute

Vision for Short-term FutureIn the next 5 years, TESOL International Association will be a

leading source of policy and influence in the following three areas: 1

Creating a comprehensive state wide ELL policy that is

in compliance with Common Core Standard Initiative for

the remaining 19 states who have not adopted the WIDA

consortium

2Providing ESL

teachers/instructors with new classroom practices,

policies, and strategies that are adaptive to the rapidly changing ELL demographic.

3Increasing the use of service-learning as a method for ELL language acquisition

5 Preparations for the Future • Create a task force that guides and assists the remaining 19 states with an ELL state

policy that is compliant with the Common Core Standards and the WIDA consortium.

• Investigate and research whether there are other states considering ‘English-only’ policies such California Proposition 227 and Arizona Proposition 203.

• Allot a research budget for further case studies on the effectiveness of service-learning for ELLs among different socio-economic communities.

• Publish new recommendations for ELL teachers via TESOL website or another popular online medium for the ESL community. Among these recommendations, new technology practices should be mentioned and analyzed.

• Hold annual or biannual conferences on the status of K-12 ESL policy on both WIDA consortium compliant and non-WIDA consortium states. Conferences should debrief how efficiently or inefficiently state policies are working in relation to the Common Core Standards.

CALL TO ACTION1) Establish A Task Force:

• The most appropriate action for assessing ELL policy in relation to the Common Core Standard as we step into the future would be to establish a panel of experts who are specialized in ESL policy. The panel of experts should be familiar with TESOL International Association’s work with the WIDA consortium. The primary task of the panel would be to determine what kind of differing policies the remaining 19 states use and how they are different from the WIDA consortium. Furthermore, the task force would be responsible for bridging the gap between state and WIDA policy and researching how effective implemented policies have been.

2) Create An Online Forum for ESL/ELL Educators: • Recommendations for ELL educators are spread out through different policy briefs, journals,

and white papers on the TESOL International Association website. However, a forum for registered members (that would mostly be ELL educators) that displays a list of recommendations by category would be incredibly useful. Policies, practices, and strategies for ESL teachers in the classroom vary greatly and have changed on numerous occasions over the last 30 years. Therefore, an updated and accessible list of recommended practices by categories via an online forum on the TESOL International Association website would prove to be incredibly useful.

Reference Coombe, C. (2014, January 1). Research Agenda 2014. TESOL, 9-14.

ELL Information Center. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/ell-information-center

Guadalupe, V. (2014). Changing in the Expertise of ESL Professionals: Knowledge and Action in an Era of New Standards. TESOL International Association, 17-28.

Harrington, A. (2010). Problematizing the Hybrid Classroom for ESL/EFL Students. The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 1-13.

James, A. (2005, January 1). The Early History of TESOL. Retrieved March 15, 2015, from http://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/association-governance/tesol's-

history/the-early-history-of-tesol

Johnson, C. (2009, June 1). EFL and the Deaf: Teachers Making a Difference. Essential Teacher, 6(2), 40-45

Mahboob, A. (2012). A Principles-Based Approach for English Language Teaching Policies and Practices. TESOL White Paper

Mietzner, D., & Reger, G. (2005). Advantages And Disadvantages Of Scenario Approaches For Strategic Foresight. International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 1(2), 220-238

Moore, J. (2013). Preparing Advocates: Service Learning in TESOL for Future Mainstream Educators. Language Teacher Research, 4(3), 555-570.

Perren, J. (2013). Strategic Steps to Successful Service-Learning in TESOL: From Critical to Practical. TESOL Journal, 4(3), 487-513.

Rosemead, M. (2013, January 17). Adult School Offers Hybrid ESL Classes. Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://www.midvalleynews.com/news/2013/01/17/adult-school-offers-hybrid-esl-classes/

TESOL International Association. (2013, March). Overview of the Common Core State Standards Initiatives for ELLs. Alexandria, VA: Author

TESOL International Association Strategic Plan. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 15, 2015, from http://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/association-governance/strategic-plan

Sacharow, S. (2009). Libraries for the English Language Learner. Essential Teacher, 6(1), 37-39.

Sobrero, P. (2004). The Steps for Futuring. Journal of Extension, 42(3), 1-2

Uro, G. (2013). English Language Learners in America’s Great City Schools: Demographics, Achievement, and Staffing.