Letter from the Chair
Miriam Moore, University of North Georgia, Gainesville, Georgia, USA
Dear Colleagues in the Applied Linguistics Interest Section (ALIS),
As I write this, I am in the third week of a busy fall semester: new students, an on-campus Writing Across the Curriculum workshop series on critical AI literacy, the development of an English language conversation club, and, of course, plans for the TESOL Virtual Convention and TESOL 2026 in Salt Lake City. I am indebted and grateful to our ALIS leadership for the time and energy they have invested in planning and leading us. Let me give you just a few of the highlights from the work we have done since May:
First, Andreea Cervatiuc (Chair-elect), Andy Jiahao Liu (Newsletter Editor), and I are developing an intersection session with the Second Language Writing IS for the Convention in Salt Lake City. Our topic is Supporting Multilingual Writers in Process-Oriented Pedagogies. In addition, Andreea and I have been working on our academic session, Multimodal and Translingual Literacy: Concepts and Strategies for Pedagogy.
Also, for the Virtual Convention in November, we will be hosting three pre-recorded panels:
- An academic session entitled Teacher and Learner Agency in the Age of AI Chatbots
- An intersection session with the Teacher Education IS: Knowledge of Language/Knowledge about Language: How Much Do PSTs Need to Know?
- An intersection session with the Higher Education IS: Making our Work Visible and Valuable Across Higher Education
Both the Virtual and the Salt Lake City Conventions require registration; you can find more information through TESOL.org or MyTESOL. Please consider attending one or both of these events and stay tuned for more details.
In addition to our preparation for the Conventions, our events coordinators, Dan Zhou and Nabiha El-Khatib, have hosted two virtual Coffee Chats, with more to come. They have also set up a schedule of webinars that will run from October 2025 until February 2026. Presenters from around the world will highlight our members’ expertise in pedagogy, second language acquisition research, and workplace language development. Although free, these events do require registration, so watch for announcements on MyTESOL and our social media platforms (kudos to Kaitlyn Forster, our community manager for MyTESOL, and our social media coordinators, Linda Merzougui and Fatemah Bordbarjavidi, for sharing information on all our events). Our webinars will also be recorded and available for members to view through MyTESOL.
As you can see, our interest section is actively engaged in professional development; our upcoming activities and the articles in this issue of the newsletter illustrate the breadth of our commitment to our TESOL scholarship, pedagogy, and professional connections. I thank Andy Jiahao Liu and Curtis Green-Eneix for their efforts to put this publication together.
Finally, I want to encourage our members to consider how they can give back to the profession through involvement in TESOL programs and opportunities. Beyond attending our conference sessions and webinars, you might consider submitting an article for the next edition of the newsletter or proposing a webinar. Other opportunities include reviewing conference proposals, submitting award applications, or volunteering for leadership in an interest section or community of practice. If you have questions about any of these opportunities, please reach out to me or another member of our leadership team.
I hope to see you in the coming months, whether that’s virtually at the November conference or a webinar, or in person in Salt Lake City.
Sincerely,
Miriam Moore
Chair
Miriam Moore is an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Georgia in Gainesville, Georgia, where she teaches undergraduate courses in writing, linguistics, and ESOL pedagogy. Her research interests include multilingual writing across the curriculum, metalinguistic awareness, online pedagogy, and written feedback.