Attendance at the 2017 TESOL International Conference

Attendance at the 2017 TESOL International Conference

Grant:
Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)
Academic Year:
2016 - 2017 (June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017)
Funding Requested:
$1,975.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
cfeak
Overview of the Project:
I am seeking funding to attend the 2017 International TESOL conference in Seattle, Washington from March 21 to 24. TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) brings together professionals from all academic and professional areas of teaching English as a second or foreign language, but most important for my professional development is that it us one of the few scholarly meetings where those of us involved in teaching international graduate students can meet. My main interest in participating in this conference is twofold. First, I am the lead lecturer for academic writing courses at the English Language Institute (ELI) author of textbooks on academic writing and lead instructor in the ELI writing clinic. The TESOL meeting will provide me an opportunity to learn about recent developments in second language writing pedagogy and research that is relevant to my curriculum development of advanced academic writing courses for Ph.D. students at the University of Michigan. Second, and prha[s more important, I am also the course coordinator for ELI 994 (College Teaching at the University of Michigan—Language, Culture and Pedagogy), which I co-teach with a CRLT instructional consultant, currently Michelle Majeed. The TESOL meeting is one of the very few conferences where those of us involved in Teaching Assistant/Graduate Student Instructor education can meet and exchange ideas. I offer more specific reasons underlying my funding request in this next section.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:

My aim was to attend the 2017 International TESOL conference in Seattle, Washington from March 21 to 24. My main interest in participating in this conference was twofold. First, the conference provided an opportunity for me to learn about recent developments in second language writing pedagogy and research that is relevant to my curriculum development of advanced academic writing courses for Ph.D. students at the University of Michigan. Second, I wanted to learn about recent ITA research and best practices in preparing prospective GSIs.

Project Achievements:

I was able to attend panel presentations and talks focused on a variety of GSI issues. Two presentations will clearly influence my work in ELI 994, a course designed to prepare LSA graduate students to be successful GSIs. The first of these presentations focused on the importance of helping graduate students understand how their identities and those of their students influence teaching success. The knowledge I gained will contribute to my development of new course materials on identity and inclusivity. The second presentation highlighted new technology that can support the work of providing student feedback after practice teaching. I will be introducing new online tools that can facilitators can use to provide oral or written feedback on video-recorded teaching sessions at the precise place where a teaching moment arises. I also attended research presentations on academic writing, specifically genre approaches to teaching. These presentations offered data driven suggestions for teaching stance and engagement in PhD level writing courses as well as for introducing new genres into academic writing courses. Very important was a panel hosted by journal editors, who gave an insider's view to publishing in their Applied Linguistics journals.

Continuation:
The project itself is finished, but will contribute to course development for ELI 994 and ELI 621.
Dissemination:
Since my return, I have been meeting with colleagues to discuss what I have learned about GSI and undergraduate student identity and developing materials to address issues of inclusivity and diversity. I will be meeting with specialists at the Language Resource Center to discuss the use of new computer tools for providing feedback to students in ELI 994. I will also be sharing the writing materials I will develop this summer.
Advice to your Colleagues:
This was a very successful project not only because of what I learned from the presentations, but also because of my ability to network with others involved in courses and other support for GSIs/TAs. I became aware of other small meetings focused exclusively on GSI/TA teaching and research. The only challenge I faced was deciding among interesting presentations offered concurrently. I also benefited greatly from networking with others teaching academic writing for Ph.D. students.
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