Letter from the Editor
Kevin Knight, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan [1a_KK.author]
Hello, ESPers worldwide!
The TESOL International Convention & Expo 2025 will be held in March! Please read the Letter from the Chair, Jennifer Roberts, and the Letter from the Chair-Elect, Gerlinde Koppitsch. Both Letters are packed with information about TESOL 2025, including sessions, meetings, networking opportunities, etc.! I look forward to seeing you there!
The four articles in this issue of ESP News are related to international scholars and graduate students at universities in the U.S. Two authors are from Washington University in St. Louis. Two authors are from Northeastern University in Boston, and the featured leader in the ESP Project Leader Profile is from Emory University in Atlanta. It was extremely interesting to me to see how well these articles complement each other.
In the first article, Katie Blackburn Brown, Director of English Language Programs at Washington University in St. Louis and English for Academic Settings (EAS) Representative in the ESPIS, addresses the challenge of empowering excellent researchers to be equally proficient at public speaking. In her article, she describes a curriculum that increases scholars’ confidence and competence in delivering public research talks, resulting in Excellence in Communication and English Language Skills or the ExCELS Program.
In the second article, Karen Schwelle, Senior Lecturer in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, former Chair of the ESPIS, and a featured leader in the ESP Project Leader Profiles, discusses the need to teach relational talk to international graduate students in engineering. In her article, she outlines research about the value of relational talk and then describes activities and assignments she uses to teach and assess these students’ skills at relational talk.
In the third article, Natalya Watson and Veronika Maliborska, Associate Teaching Professors at Northeastern University of Boston, describe a Project-Based Language Learning (PBBL) program to support graduate students. In the PBBL program, the instructor acts as a research supervisor who guides a student through all steps of the research process, including presentation and publication of the research outcomes, thereby preparing the learners for their actual graduate studies and professional activities.
The fourth article is the 64th ESP Project Leader Profile, and the featured leader is Jack Hardy, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Oxford College of Emory University in Atlanta, a current leader on the ESPIS Steering Board, and TESOL CPC and Convention Chair in 2022. In his profile, he explains how communication was at the core of his leadership, which enabled him to bring multiple stakeholders together for a study of discipline-specific academic writing for his doctoral dissertation.
We continue to have an amazing international leadership team, and I highly encourage you to become more involved in the activities of the ESPIS! If you have an idea for an article, please contact me. I look forward to seeing you at the conference, which I will be attending in person this year!
All the best,
Kevin
PS – See the About This Community Section of ESP News to learn about the history of the ESPIS (including the names of all of the Chairs) and to see the names of the featured leaders in all of the 64 ESP Project Leader Profiles. The first 55 profiles have been published in one volume (and the PDF version is free to download at the publisher’s website: https://www.candlinandmynard.com/ESPprofiles.html).
Kevin Knight (PhD in linguistics, MBA, MPIA) is Professor in the Department of International Communication of Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan. His research interests include leadership conceptualization and development, ESP, and professional communication. He is series editor of Leadership in Language Education (learn more here).