From the Editors

Meredith Bricker, meredith.bricker@gmail.com, and Michael Lessard-Clouston, michael.lessard-clouston@biola.edu

Following the CETC meeting at TESOL 2006 in Tampa, Florida, we volunteered to work on editing the newsletter, along with Jean Simon, who was instrumental in some of the caucus activities at the convention. Because of the nature of Jean’s work, however, she will be helping us with special projects for the newsletter as her schedule allows. As the new coeditors, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Andrew Bowdler, our predecessor, who has served the caucus over the past couple of years by editing the volumes 9.1 and 10.1 of the newsletter. Thank you Andy! We hope to follow in your footsteps and build on your work.

One of our first tasks as coeditors was to draft a CETC Newsletter Mission Statement. We have included it in this issue. Essentially, we hope to continue the tradition of providing a forum for CETC members to exchange ideas and discuss issues relevant to Christian professionals working in ESL and EFL education. Our hope is to produce two or three issues a year, ideally one in late spring or early summer after the yearly conference, another in the autumn, and one during the winter, before the annual TESOL convention. We welcome your ideas for articles, news, and updates, and would be happy to correspond with you if you have suggestions (or offers to assist!).

Getting to Know Us

As this is our first issue as coeditors, we thought you might like to learn something about us, our experience, and interests.

Meredith: I graduated with a master’s degree in applied linguistics from Georgia State University in May 2005 and have been teaching ESL for 2 years. My husband and I live in Atlanta, Georgia, where I’ve been teaching English language learners in preacademic, college, and graduate-level settings at two universities in the area. I look forward to beginning work in the fall as a visiting instructor in the Intensive English Program at Georgia State University, teaching ESL students enrolled in a prematriculated, content-based EAP curriculum. My current research interests include second language writing, vocabulary acquisition, intercultural communication, and corpus linguistics.

Michael: I began teaching ESL at a high school in Montreal during the mid-1980s, and then worked in EFL and teacher education at universities in China. Later I did graduate studies and taught in various programs at a private language school and a community college in Toronto, my hometown. Next, until last August, I was a missionary EFL professor for 10½ years at a university in western Japan, where I also helped create a new graduate program and taught courses in linguistics, culture studies, and language education. That was good preparation for my current work at Biola University, where I teach applied linguistics and TESOL. Though it’s been an adjustment, my family and I enjoy life in the Los Angeles area, where we appreciate the diversity, weather, and opportunities of southern California. In terms of research, I am interested in vocabulary learning, English for specific purposes, second language acquisition, and other topics.

Jean Simon: Following three decades of homemaking, I am serving the international student population with a motherly approach. For 14 years, as coordinator of homestay for The Language Company, I was blessed by opportunities to introduce international students and visitors to the everyday life and care of exemplary American families. Presently, I am director of The Language Company – Orlando English Institute and the program coordinator of English Days at Walt Disney World, provided by The Language Company. As a newcomer to CETC, I hope to contribute to the development of special projects and event communications.

As coeditors, we hope that with our different backgrounds we can draw on the depth and breadth of experience in the caucus to create a newsletter that addresses a wide range of challenges, possibilities, and resources in TESOL from a Christian perspective.

In This Issue

As usual, the newsletter includes some CETC leadership updates and news. It is an exciting time for the caucus, and we hope you will sense this through the newsletter and the CETC Web site (www.cetesol.org). In terms of articles in this issue, we have a brief report on the most recent Christians in English Language Teaching (CELT) conference held in April in San Francisco, as well as a summary of the recent thread concerning church-based ESL on the CETC e-list. We are delighted to introduce an article by Jeff Stebbins based on his presentation in the caucus colloquium at TESOL in Tampa, and hope to include similar articles from other presenters in future issues. Finally, we are thankful to Mary Wong, whose article draws on a paper presentation she gave at TESOL this year, reporting on her current research.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and look forward to interacting with many of you as you read and contribute to the CETC Newsletter.

Blessings,

Meredith and Michael