A Note from the Director

This year has flown by and I can hardly believe it’s been a year since I wrote my first letter to you all as director. We’ve seen a few changes in our department this year, the saddest of which was saying goodbye to two of our TEFL department members. Jeffrey has made a new life in DC, and Owen has moved permanently to LA. We all wish them both well and for those of you on the other side of the continent, do go and see Owen in concert if you get the chance. You won’t be disappointed!

Many of you may remember receiving information about TESOL at the beginning of your TEFL course. This newsletter I would like to share with you some of the highlights of this year’s TESOL conference in Florida. TESOL is the only international organization that exists solely for English teachers and as such provides a myriad of services to its 13,500 members in more than 120 countries.

TESOL offers some top-notch, well researched programs, issues a very interesting magazine, and administers an excellent Career Service through its JobFinder website. But for me, the best benefit TESOL provides its members with is its yearly conference. This year, Aga and I were fortunate enough to go on behalf of the Institute in order to see what innovative new ideas are out there in the world of ESL and teacher training and development. More than 20 different workshops were in progress at any one time which meant getting up with the birds to plan our very long days over breakfast. Once at the conference center, we made a mad dash to the workshop of choice, often cramming in three or four sessions before lunch! We had barely enough time for a quick sandwich and exchange of news before more of the same in the afternoon. Workshops ended at 7 pm for the devoted among us!

Among the workshops I attended were those concerned with the new internet TOEFL, new practices in teaching Vocabulary, and Global Issues for EFL learners. Agnieszka, our Senior Trainer, attended various workshops on teaching reading skills. Being a NNEST herself, she was interested in the issues facing Non-Native Speaker Teachers; so she made a beeline for a number of workshops and seminars devoted to this hot topic (e.g. Non-Native English Speaker Teacher Dichotomy and Daring NNEST to Lead in Teacher Preparation Programs). Staying current with such issues can only improve our own Non-Native TEFL Certificate program.

In addition to the workshops were discussion group sessions, video presentations, exhibitor sessions, as well as a permanent “electronic village” exhibition featuring a different group of educators each day demonstrating how they use the Internet in the classroom.

Particularly inspiring was the Plenary Session given this year by Liz Murray titled “From Homeless to Harvard.” Liz held the attendees spellbound with the recounting of her triumph over adversity and the importance of dreaming big. Born into a life of poverty and drugs, Liz turned her life around at age 15 eventually going on to earn a scholarship to Harvard. The message of her presentation was clear to both the teacher and the individual in all of us: Life is a precious gift full of opportunity and hope for anyone and everyone regardless of the impossibility of the moment. It is truly never too late or too early to take control of your destiny.
Of course no ESL gathering would be complete without a book fair, and having every major ESL book publisher in one hall was for us akin to children being let loose in a candy store! The book fair presents participants with the opportunity to page through and compare countless publications. Many authors were on hand to discuss their books and there were often demonstrations to attend with the opportunity to win prizes from the publishers.

The TEFL team welcomes on board Peter Ruggiero, Sue Bippus and Gef Fahey.

Owen departs, after 8 ½ years with The Boston Language Institute, to pursue his music career in California.
We'll sure miss you.

If you are planning on going to next year’s TESOL conference in Seattle, don’t wait till the last minute to make your reservations, book well in advance as hotels often offer discounts for conference attendees. Make sure your hotel is in the vicinity of the conference center too – some sessions go on to 10 pm, but conference transport often ends at 6pm; similarly, some morning sessions begin at 7.30am, before transport begins. Decide what area you want to concentrate on and plan your workshops accordingly, but do have a back up plan as occasionally you may arrive too late for seating or decide after a few minutes that the session is not what you were expecting.

I can’t say enough about TESOL and its benefits to you as teachers in whatever sphere you have chosen to teach in, whether it is Young Learners, the corporate world or adult education. And, if you decide to go to Seattle next year – I might see you there!

Best wishes,


Kym Perkins
kym@boslang.com