Joe McVeigh

In mid-December I was flying back to Burlington, Vermont from LaGuardia airport in New York. A couple with a small child, dressed in a slightly unusual fashion were in the wrong seats, and were properly relocated to the very back row of the 20-seat plane where I was sitting. The father had something very like a luggage tag attached to him. It turned out that they were refugees from Bhutan, who were being relocated by an international immigration organization, after having spent 18 years in Nepal. I was able to talk with them a little in their limited English. The man told me that in addition to speaking Drupal and Nepalese, that English was like a mother tongue to him. Then the twenty-something flight attendant got on the intercom and gave the safely briefing. The man looked at me and said, “She’s speaking two languages right? American English and something else?” I had to inform him that, although it may not have been a very good model of language, she was in fact speaking American English and nothing else. He sighed. I thought at that time what an important role ESL teachers play in the lives of people like this. A nice reminder during the holiday season that the opportunity to make a significant difference for people is why many of us teach ESL in the first place.

Congratulations to authors Jo McEntire and Jessica Williams on the publication of Making Connections Intermediate: A Strategic Approach to Academic Reading. This terrific intermediate level reading book has just been published by Cambridge University Press, and the whole editorial, marketing, and production teams deserve a hearty round of applause. You can learn more about this title at the CUP website. I helped with the development editing of this title and it’s great to see it in print!

I’ve only just learned of a new job posting by Middlebury College for a Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing—a renewable three-year position. The posting is listed on the TESOL online career center here. Note that though this may appear to a TESOL professional  like an ESL writing position, it is actually for someone to teach writing in content-based courses to both native and non-native speakers. The deadline is November 15th so don’t delay. Please spread the word to qualified candidates. Visit the links below for more information about the workplace.

• Middlebury College
• The Middlebury Writing Program
• More on the Middlebury Writing Program
• The Middlebury Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research

Researchers have long believed that individuals communicate as much or more through non-verbal communication as they do through the actual words that they use. Edward Hall and Erving Goffman have suggested that facial expressions, gestures, body language, and tone of voice can be responsible for more than two thirds of the meaning that is conveyed. Naturally, the experts have been called out to analyze the recent presidential election debates in the United States. This article in the Los Angeles Times outlines the ways in which candidates Barack Obama and John McCain either reinforce or undercut their message by their use of non-verbal communication. If this is true for native speakers of English, imagine the impact on non-native speakers, and the challenge of learning not only a new language, but also a new language of gesture and non-verbal communication.

We know that gender roles have changed over time and that, to some extent gender roles vary from one culture to another. Yet we usually think that as a culture becomes more “modern” the differences between genders become smaller. But some new studies, summarized in this New York Times article suggest otherwise. As John Tierney writes in his article, if these scientists are right, “men and women shouldn’t expect to understand each other much better any time soon.” Oh, well.

After careful deliberation, the 2008-2009 TESOL Nominating Committee (pictured at left) has put together the slate for elections for upcoming positions on the Board of Directors and the 2009-2010 Nominating Committee. View the slate and read the candidates’ biographies and positions on the TESOL web site here. Active TESOL members with voting rights will receive ballots by e-mail or mail in October 2008. The deadline for voting is January 12, 2009.

On Saturday, May 3rd, 2008, I’ll be at the Northern New England TESOL conference to give a talk about the Middlebury Slang Project. In January of 2008, students in a course I was teaching at Middlebury College collected slang from their fellow students. They then wrote dictionary definitions, winnowed the list, surveyed fellow students to determine frequency, and put it all together on a web site, complete with audio files for the ones that are more difficult to pronounce. You can see the resulting web site here. I’ll be joined in this presentation by one of the students in the course, Alexis Mussomeli. Warning, the contents of the site are definitely R-rated as befits the primary interests of college age students. See a photo of the presentation here: Download copies of the handout and PowerPoint presentation here.

Are you an active member of TESOL? Want to do more for the association? The 2008 Nominating Committee is accepting applications from members of TESOL who wish to run for positions on the Board of Directors as President-Elect or as Directors (4 positions.) We are also looking for applicants interested in running for positions on the 2009 Nominating Committee (8 positions). Interested? To be considered, members need to complete and return an Expression of Interest Form by June 6, 2008. Please get in touch if you have questions, and pass this information along to others that you think would be good leaders.

Download the Expression of interest form. See a photo of the 2008-2009 Nominating Committee.

I’m looking forward to the TESOL conference in New York April 2-5th, 2008. It’s always a great time to reconnect with old friends, meet new friends, and get caught up on the latest happenings in the field. If you’ll be there, feel free to join me for the presentations listed below. Handouts and PowerPoints will be available the day after the presentation. Check the Resources page for teachers, trainers, and consultants. I hope to see you there.

• Achieving Personal Fulfillment Through Career Transitions

Thursday, 4/3/2008, 10:30 AM - 12:15 PM

Hilton - Murray Hill Suite B

Mary March, Daphne Mackey, Jennifer Bixby, Joe McVeigh, and Nancy Ackles

Seasoned ESL professionals present their experiences working in ESL-related professions, such as authoring materials, editing, consulting, and working abroad. They share ideas for using their career expertise to springboard into related fields as a way to achieve personal fulfillment. Participants at any career stage can benefit from this discussion.

See a photograph of the presenters.

• The Business End of Teaching Business English

Friday, 4/4/2008, 7:30 AM - 8:15 AM

Hilton - Murray Hill Suite B

Joe McVeigh and Andrea Koehler

How can ESP practitioners best position themselves to interact and serve clients in the business world? The presenters share ideas and tips to maximize the effectiveness of workplace language programs while working within the operating framework of client businesses.

See a photograph of the presenters.

• From Manuscript to Published Textbook

Friday, 4/4/2008 9:30 AM - 10:15 AM

Sheraton - Liberty Suite 1

Joe McVeigh, Valerie Kelemen, and Brenda Wegmann

What happens to a completed textbook manuscript after an author submits it to the publisher for production? Two editors and an author describe the process of turning a manuscript into a book. They outline key decision points in the editorial process and discuss the balancing of competing concerns.

• Avoiding Death by Meeting

Saturday, 4/5/2008 7:30 AM - 8:15

Hilton - Beekman Parlor

Joe McVeigh

Many teachers and administrators spend endless hours in unproductive meetings which waste time and energy. In this demonstration participants learn ten techniques to make meetings function better for all.

The deadline for the RFP below has now passed.

I’m presently engaged in a consulting project for a large group of for-profit universities called Laureate Education, Inc. This organization is based in Baltimore and comprises a network of about 25 universities in 15 countries including 280,000 non-native speakers of whom about 100,000 are EFL learners. Laureate also owns the online institutions Walden University and Capella University. On March 22, 2008 Laureate published an RFP, of which a significant part seeks providers of teachers for their EFL programs and providers of teacher-training for their existing faculty. Other portions of the RFP relate to testing, certification of both teachers and students, a blended curriculum of online and classroom-based course, and a study and travel abroad component. Laureate hopes to begin a pilot program with about 4,000 students in the fall of 2008, broaden to 25,000 students in January of 2009, then work with all of their students beginning in January 2010.

They would also like to add teachers to their existing faculty. They hope to add about ten next fall, another 40 in January 2009 and about 100 more by January 2010. Their teacher-training needs are similarly large. They hope to have a training program roughly equivalent to a CTEFLA-about 120 hours of instruction-for their teachers who are in many countries around the world. They envision a program that would be a combination of online and face-to-face instruction. The initial training would be for about 75 teachers, the next group about 475, and ultimately for about 1875 teachers.

Laureate is seeking potential partners with the capabilities to help them with their significant EFL needs. If you or your organization might be interested, check out the initial call for proposals If you’d like more information, you’ll need to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further details will follow upon receipt of that agreement. The deadline for receipt of proposals is April 22, 2008.

Download the preliminary request for proposals.