Letter from the Chair: Recognition and with Appreciation
Andy Jiahao Liu, University of Iowa, USA
Dear Second Language Writing Interest Section colleagues,
Greetings from Iowa City! As I write this, I am in the third (and yet another hectic) month of my PhD journey, navigating the steady stream of readings, writings, and services. By services, I mean the assistantship-related duties (i.e., teaching, researching, and consulting) at my institution, and more importantly, my service to the broad TESOL and second language writing community. One of the most significant services, as I have the privilege of writing now, is becoming and being the Chair of the Second Language Writing Interest Section (SLWIS) this April. It is a great honor to take the helm for such a long-standing professional home in our field. I am also deeply humbled by the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants and to give back to this community.
In this role, I deeply appreciate and have been extremely fortunate to have so many incredibly committed and talented colleagues serving on the Steering Committee, including: Past Chair Svetlana Koltovskaia, Chair-Elect Ali Yaylali, Member-at-Large and SLW News Editor Stefan Vogel, Member-at-Large Katie Hibner, Member-at-Large Bakheet Almatrafi, Member-at-Large Fatemeh Bordbarjavidi, Member-at-Large James J. Riley, Community Manager Ryan Good, and Board Liaison Jorge Torres Almazan. I express my sincerest gratitude for their many hours of dedicated service and hard work in fostering community, opportunities, and connections for our field.
On October 8, Katie Hibner and Bakheet Almatrafi organized the webinar, Leveraging Learner Experiences: Asset-Based Pedagogies in the Literature and in the Classroom, featuring Alayna Klco Smith. Drawing on her dual role as a researcher and ESOL instructor for adult multilinguals, Alayna highlights space-making practices that amplify students’ voices. On November 18, Bakheet Almatrafi organized the book club event featuring Drs. Subrata Bhowmik and Marcia Kim, and their upcoming volume, Teaching Writing to English Language Learners in the Elementary Classroom. In this edited volume, Subrata and Marcia bring together research-informed approaches and practical techniques to support elementary writing instructors and their students.
The newsletter issue you are reading now could not have been available without the amazing work from Stefan Vogel, Bakheet Almatrafi, and Ryan Good. I deeply appreciate their effort in putting together this issue with a brave and successful attempt to revise the call for papers format, and their dedicated care and support for the authors during the publication process. Building on the legacy of previous SLWIS activities and our dedication to supporting graduate students and early career scholars in the field, James J. Riley and Fatemeh Bordbarjavidi have kindly accepted my invitation to launch the Inaugural Second Language Writing Interest Section Symposium for Aspiring Scholars. The submission closes on February 1, 2026, and I strongly encourage you to submit a proposal or share this opportunity widely within your community.
We are also excited to meet, connect, and talk with many of you at the TESOL 2026 International Convention & Expo in Salt Lake City, March 24–27. Ali Yaylali has planned an Academic Session entitled Self-Regulation and Autonomy in Second Language Writing to help us better understand the crucial question: How and why should teachers aim for self-regulation and autonomy in writing among multilingual learners of English? In collaboration with the Applied Linguistics Interest Section, our Intersection Session is themed Supporting Multilingual Writers in Process-Oriented Pedagogies. This intersection session aims to explore the conceptual foundations of a process-oriented constructive pedagogy for writing and practical strategies for implementing it in university-level writing classrooms. As of now, we are actively planning networking and social events for our members to gather and share during the convention. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months!
Behind the scenes, Ryan Good has amazingly managed our social media platforms and the MyTESOL community with timely event updates. Svetlana Koltovskaia and Jorge Torres Almazan have also kindly lent us their expertise and supported our events whenever needed.
Looking forward, we are deeply committed to serving and to strengthening our community and field in our current capacities. As the election season is approaching, we also invite you, our dearest colleagues, to consider running for these leadership positions. At the same time, your ideas and suggestions are vital. If you have thoughts on activities, events, or initiatives that could support our interest section, please do not hesitate to reach out by email. The future of SLWIS is shaped by us collectively, responsively, and inclusively.
Happy holidays, and happy reading!
With sincerest appreciation,
Andy Jiahao Liu
Chair, Second Language Writing Interest Section (2025–2026)
TESOL International Association
Andy Jiahao Liu is a Ph.D. student in Language, Literacy, and Social Studies Education at the University of Iowa. His recent projects include the JSLW 2025/26 Special Issue on Emotions in Teaching L2 Writing and a contracted volume, Emotions in Teaching Writing in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts, with Multilingual Matters.