SIT faculty, alumni featured at 2019 International TESOL Convention

Announcement Date: March 20, 2019

SIT and its groundbreaking MA in TESOL program are well-represented this week at the 2019 TESOL International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, where at least 12 faculty and alumni are featured as panelists and program presenters.

“As always, I am excited to see the number of SIT alumni who are presenting at the International TESOL conference,” says Dr. Leslie Turpin, chair of SIT’s MA in TESOL program, which began 50 years ago this academic year. “MATs across the decades have had so much to contribute to TESOL’s work to better understand the role that learning and teaching play in moving the world toward a more just, inclusive and hopeful future.”

SIT’s TESOL program is designed to address both the inner work of teaching in the classroom and the outer work of participation in communities of practice, notes Turpin, who helped to pioneer SIT’s low-residency format. Her presentation, at 3 pm on Friday, March 15, is titled “Rethinking Teaching and Learning Relationships in a MATESOL Hybrid Program.”

SIT’s low-residency format allows teachers to continue to work in their professions as they complete their master’s degree. Students come to Vermont’s campus at the beginning of each semester for approximately two weeks, where they build bonds with their professors and fellow cohort members. They complete the remainder of their coursework online.

In a shift this year, SIT is incorporating a more plurilingual pedagogy that recognizes linguistic and cultural diversity of learners. Also starting this year, students may choose to focus on one of four emerging challenges in the field: teacher training; plurilinguistic pedagogy; teaching refugees and displaced persons; or teaching young learners.

SIT’s program was recently ranked among the nation’s top online programs for 2019 and was named “most collaborative.”

The SIT curriculum is also delivered by World Learning, SIT’s parent organization, as a 130-hour certificate program at centers and universities worldwide.

More than 5,000 educators from 110 countries are expected to attend this year’s convention, billed as the largest event of its type in the world. The event is organized by TESOL International Association, the professional association for more than 10,000 teachers of English to speakers of other languages.

SIT and World Learning faculty and staff can also be found this week as booth #938 at the convention expo.

In addition to Turpin, SIT alumni presenters at the convention include:

Geoffrey Butler and Lara Kurth
Presentation: “From practice to publication: Guiding teachers and graduate students”
11 am-12:45 pm, Friday, March 15
Omni – Grand Ballroom C

Ray Clark, former SIT MAT faculty member
Presentation: “Teaching Vocabulary with Semantic Fields and Lexical Sets”
11-11:45 am, Wednesday, March 13
GWCC – A407

Beatriz Erazo
Presentation: “Dynamic Collaborative Writing: Making the academic writing process amicable”
9:30-10:45 am, Wednesday, March 13
GWCC – Poster Session Area, Expo Hall

Betsy Gilliland
Presentation: “Preservice EFL Teachers’ Reflective Writing Assessed through e-Portfolios”
11:30 am-12:15 pm, Thursday, March 14
GWCC – A404

Chairing/Organizing: “Response to Writing: Enduring Issues and New Frontiers”
1-2:45 pm, Thursday, March 14
GWCC – A301

Panel: “L2 Writing Pedagogy in Global Contexts: Challenges and Possibilities”
9:30-11:15 am, Friday, March 15
GWCC – A406

Eileen Kramer
Presentation: “Context-Based Lesson Plans for Teaching TOEFL and SAT”
1-1:45pm, Thursday, March 14
Omni – Sycamore

Stephanie Marcotte
Presentation: “PD Exploration for New and Seasoned TESOL Professionals”
10-10:45 am, Friday, March 15
Omni – Cypress

Mary Scholl
Panel: “ELT PD in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities”
11:30 am-1:15 pm, Thursday, March 14
Omni – Grand Ballroom B

Judy Sharkey
Presentations: “A Turn to Self: Illuminating Teacher Educators’ Identities & Pedagogies”
1-2:45 pm, Thursday, March 14
GECC – A411

“Being a Reflective Practitioner and Scholar in TESOL: Methodological Considerations”
4-5:45 pm, Thursday, March 14
Omni – International Ballroom