Outgoing Chair Letter

Sidury Christiansen, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

A Year in Review and Exciting Plans for the Future!

Dear SLWIS members,

As I leave the tenure chairing the Second Language Writing Interest Section (SLWIS), I'm excited to share a report of our achievements this past year and some exciting plans for the future.

Looking Back: A Year of Growth and Engagement

We set ambitious goals for 2023-2024, aiming to foster a vibrant community for second-language writing professionals. With the help of a very dedicated team, we accomplished many things including a smooth transition into myTESOL platform, a new, more active social media Instagram channel, and highly attended activities online.

This year, we continued our usual membership engagement through webinars and our book club. The first webinar we offered focused on the role of AI in the multilingual language classroom from a teacher’s perspective. Attendees were given interactive examples of how different AI tools were being used to help multilingual writers, and also how these writers could use different websites to improve their language skills and writing of research that teachers have to do in many non-US based institutions. The other webinar focused on the student’s use of AI. In this webinar, the focus was on the uses and applications that multilingual writers could use to further develop their language skills as well as format their writing. Finally, continuing with our goal of diversifying voices, the book club centered on discussing the different experiences of teaching writing that people in several countries had. We were so lucky to have been joined by many of the authors of the edited book we discussed.

Another goal was to revitalize SLW News, our newsletter. We were able to create newer genres that targeted less investigated areas such as K-12 and non-U.S. contexts. What is more, we began accepting multimodal entries and entries that focus on pedagogy more than theory only. To do this, we expanded our reach and recruited writers from all backgrounds including teachers in EFL contexts, teachers in elementary and secondary settings, and long-time teachers of multilingual writing. In terms of leadership, we are welcoming new editors that will continue this task while training other ones to take over when their time is up. In this way, we keep the vision and mission current and evolving with the field.

Finally, our increased presence in social media generated the support and help of members to make these changes possible. We actively shared second-language writing-related news and events on our Instagram (@SLWIS) and Facebook page. This year, we also secured a dedicated community manager, so we're exploring ways to further enhance our social media presence. We are really excited to see what is in store for us this coming year.

Building on Our Success: Strategic Goals for 2024-2025

Building on this momentum, we've outlined exciting goals for the coming year:

• Expanding our Reach: We'll continue to develop engaging webinars, workshops, and online discussions catering to diverse member interests. We're also exploring partnerships with other TESOL interest sections for collaborative events.
• Leadership Development: We're committed to fostering a diverse pipeline of future leaders within SLWIS. We'll be implementing clear role descriptions and accountability measures to empower our leadership team while ensuring a healthy workload distribution.
• TESOL Engagement: We'll actively participate in TESOL initiatives, contributing to the development of English language teaching content and research. We'll continue sharing knowledge and expertise through presentations, workshops, and online town halls.

We're excited to continue building a vibrant and supportive community for second language writing professionals. Together, we can empower writing educators worldwide.

Let’s keep in touch,

Sidury Christiansen

Immediate Past-Chair, Second Language Writing Interest Section

Sidury Christiansen is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is a Fulbright Scholar and English Language Specialist. Her research centers around issues of digital literacies, sociolinguistics, and transnationality in online spaces. Her publications have appeared in the journals such as Written Communication and TESOL Quarterly. She promotes technology for the enhancement of teaching and learning, especially of second language writing.