ACTA publishes the journal TESOL in Context

… and also some special issues and background papers

Publications

Tesol in Context For Writers Special Editions Background papers

Tesol in Context

TESOL in CONTEXT

TESOL in Context is the peer-reviewed publication of the Australian Council for TESOL Associations (ACTA) for teachers, researchers and others interested in TESOL within Australia and internationally. Normally two issues are produced each year.

The journal has moved online and following Vol 26, No. 1, hard copies are longer being produced. The move to open access is part of an initiative to make the journal more easily accessible by readers and members. The journal will continue to be peer reviewed and attract high quality articles from experts in the TESOL field.

The TESOL in Context Journal site is at http://tesolincontext.org.au/

If you would like to receive updates from TESOL in Context journal, please join our mailing list:

Recent Issue: Volume 31, No 2 (2023) Special Issue: Digital technology in language teaching and learning

The prevalence of technology in all aspects of life over the past few decades has dictated that schools prepare and equip students to live and work in a world where information is produced and disseminated rapidly. Schools have a further responsibility to train students to acquire critical digital literacy so that they can consciously and responsibly use technology not only for learning but also in all other spheres of their lives. This responsibility was further accentuated when the COVID- 19 pandemic significantly changed the role of instructional technology in schools. Homes became classrooms and teachers had to find innovative ways to impart knowledge and engage learners, especially in language teaching and learning classrooms. It is then very appropriate that TESOL in Context has dedicated this special issue to the ways in which technology is being used across a variety of classroom contexts, ranging from school to university and adult literacy settings. This special issue comprises five research articles and three book reviews expounding on how teachers, guided by particular pedagogical principles, have chosen and employed different technological tools in their language teaching to inspire student learning.

The editors of this special issue, Dr Shashi Nallaya, Dr Julie Choi and Dr Sue Ollerhead would like to express their immense gratitude to the reviewers, editorial board members and journal coordinator Skye Playsted for their time, expertise and dedication in bringing this issue to fruition.

Editors: Dr Shashi Nallaya, University of South Australia, Dr Julie Choi, Univerity of Melbourne, and Dr Sue Ollerhead, Macquarie University.

Click here to view the issue.

Past issues of TESOL in Context

Explore the wealth of ideas by browsing through back issues, going right back to the very first TESOL in Context issue that was published in 1990.

Volume 1 Issue 1 (1990) - Volume 26 Issue 1 (2017) are available on Informit (ISSN 1030-8385)
Volume 27 Issue 1 (2018) and onwards are available on the TESOL in Context website Archives and on Informit (ISSN 2209-0916)
List of past issues of TESOL in Context, including contents, 1990-2020

Journal Editorial Teams

TEAM 1: Dr Sue Ollerhead, Dr Julie Choi and Dr Sasikala (Shashi) Nallaya

TEAM 2: Dr Averil Grieve, Dr Sharon Yahalom and David Wei Dai

Contributing to TESOL in Context

Click to view the Call for Papers for our upcoming issues:

Teaching English language learners across the curriculum

If you would like to submit an article to be considered for publication in TESOL in Context, go to the "For writers" page for further information.

Copyright for all articles published in TESOL in Context is vested in the journal through the Australian Council of TESOL Associations. Permission to publish articles elsewhere should be sought from .

Please note: views expressed in contributions to TESOL in Context do not necessarily reflect those of ACTA.

For Writers

If you would like to contribute an article to TESOL in Context, please consider the following information:

Our audience

TESOL in Context is a refereed journal with a wide target audience, both national and international. Readership includes TESOL / EAL professionals working in all sectors of education; universities, primary and secondary schooling, early childhood settings, adult migrant programs, vocational training, ELICOS and TESOL teacher education, both in Australia and internationally. Articles published in TESOL in Context typically examine the nexus between theory and practice.

The aims of TESOL in Context are to:

provide professionals in the field with insights into TESOL issues in Australia and internationally
contribute to the development of classroom expertise through dissemination of current research and thinking around TESOL.

Peer review

All articles submitted will be blind peer reviewed by at least two reviewers.

Submissions

To register as an author and to submit a manuscript, please visit: www.tesolincontext.org.au

Contact for submissions: TESOL in Context Journal Coordinator:

Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

For guidelines on items submitted, please see: Notes for contributors

For guidelines on book reviews, please see: Book review guidelines

There is also information regarding Online Submissions, Author Guidelines, and a Submission Preparation Checklist on the TESOL in Context website Submissions page.

Special Editions

Special Issues

TESOL as a Global Trade: Ethics, Equity and Ecology

TESOL in Context Special Edition S3 (November 2012) ISSN 1030-8385

Special Conference Edition of TESOL in Context

Edited by Robert Jackson

Papers from the 2012 ACTA International Conference TESOL as a Global Trade: Ethics, Equity and Ecology’ held at Cairns Convention Centre

Contents:

Pedagogies of Connection

TESOL in Context Special Edition S2 (May 2009)

Special Edition S2 Pedagogies of Connection

Edited by Kate Cadman, Jenny Barnett & Cally Guerin

Released 2009

Tales Out of School: Identity and English Language Teaching

Special Edition

Tales Out of School: Identity and English Language Teaching

Edited by Kate Cadman & Kerry O'Regan

Released 2006

Learning a new language involves more than taking on a new vocabulary and new grammar. It involves experiences which challenge learners' identities and open up other possibilities. Much of the literature on this issue is by researchers, writing in the language of the academy. This book is by teachers, telling of their experiences for real classrooms, using the language of practising teachers. The writers come from all sectors, including primary, secondary and tertiary, and bring a range of perspectives on issues of language and identity that they face every day in their classrooms. This book is for their colleagues who may well see themselves in these stories as they are reassured, inspired and challenged by them.

Background papers

In 1998 and 1999 ACTA produced a series of papers focussing on key issues in teaching English as a second language at the time. The papers are still relevant today. ACTA Presidents Chris Howell (1998) and Penny McKay (1999) commissioned the papers from leaders in the field. ACTA has recently scanned and uploaded the papers here. We encourage you to read them!

ACTA Background Paper No.1 (1998)

Finding and showing the Way: Teaching ESL in the late 1990s

Alan Williams

This essay examines the role of the ESL teacher in the context of today’s sociopolitical culture. Williams begins by describing the conditions that pertained in the late 1980s, then compares this picture with the state of the discipline today. What is clear is that the circumstances have changed: multiculturalism has been politicised, ‘corporatisation’ is everywhere, and many ES:L teachers feel that their work is not appreciated as much as it once was. Williams argues that the profession may need to adjust its approach, though not its core values, if it is to continue to progress into the next millennium.

View and download the paper: Finding and showing the Way: Teaching ESL in the late 1990s

ACTA Background Paper No. 2 (1998)

Literacy ESL Broadbanding Benchmarking - Papers by:Penny McKay, Joseph Lo Bianco and Dorothy Hoddinot

The Literacy Benchmarks and ESL
Penny McKay

McKay examines the impact that the federal government¹s Literacy Benchmarks will have on the ESL profession. She identifies the Benchmarks themselves as a manifestation of the government's desire to foster a managerial culture in our public institutions, whereby financial accountability is the overriding goal. McKay draws attention to the dangers that are inherent in the subsuming of ESL under the general heading of Literacy, and suggests possible ways of avoiding or minimising these dangers.

ESL Is it Migrant Literacy? Is it History?
Joseph Lo Bianco

Prof. Lo Bianco argues that the government policy of broadbanding specifically the focus on literacy as the main issue is effectively talking ESL into subordination. Lo Bianco makes several important points: for example, students whose mother-tongue is English will in effect have been learning the language for eight years by the time they reach year 3, whereas ESL students will probably only have been learning it for three years. Further, Lo Bianco argues, the errors an ESL student makes may be creative errors, which are a natural part of the learning process. The ESL program, Prof Lo Bianco concludes, is becoming lost in a haze of administration politics.

Literacy - meeting the needs of all learners
Dorothy Hoddinott

Like many of her colleagues, Hoddinott fears that broadbanding will lead to a loss of focus on ESL students and their particular needs. Under the government¹s broadbanding policy, ESL students are being subsumed into the general category of under-performing students, whereas they may not be under-performing at all. Hoddinott stresses the importance of recognising the differences between ESL students and ESB students, and argues that new benchmarks should be established that acknowledge and cater for these differences.

Discriminatory Features for ESL Learners in the Literacy Benchmarks
Penny McKay

In this paper McKay draws attention to some specific problems that the Literacy Benchmarks may present to ESL students (and their teachers). McKay discusses these issues, and offers suggestions relating to ESL learners that Benchmark developers may wish to consider.

View and download the paper: Literacy ESL Broadbanding Benchmarking - Papers by:Penny McKay, Joseph Lo Bianco and Dorothy Hoddinot

ACTA Background Paper No. 3 (1999)

The Distinctiveness of English as an Additional Language: a Cross-Curriculum discipline. A handbook for all teachers

A paper prepared by the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC) UK. Reprinted with kind permission.

Our ESL colleagues in the United Kingdom are facing a similar situation to ours in Australia - that of the reconceptualisation of our field of education. In Australia ESL is becoming increasingly subsumed into wider issues of ‘literacy' and the particular learning needs of bilingual learners are becoming increasingly invisible. This paper sets out to describe the distinctiveness of ESL as a field of education by defining its knowledge base, describing the range of learners, providing a perspective on the tasks that face ESL learners, by setting out teaching strategies that have been established by practitioners and outlining some of the key theoretical perspectives that inform the field. The information contained in this paper provides a well reasoned rationale for Australian ESL educators' claims that English as a second language is a field of education in its own right and not merely an aspect of the teaching and learning of literacy.

View and download the paper: The Distinctiveness of English as an Additional Language: a Cross-Curriculum discipline. A handbook for all teachers

ACTA Background Paper No. 4 (1999)

ESL Teaching in the Global Hypermedia Environment

Chris Corbel

This paper examines the social, institutional and education changes that have occurred towards the end of the twentieth century, particularly those brought about by the increased use of technology and in particular computers. Corbel examines the impact these changes have had on the ESL field and reports on the findings of his research in this area. He argues that ESL teachers are ideally placed to make use of the emerging global hypermedia environment for ESL instruction and urges members of our profession to address the challenge to "redescribe" ourselves and take on additional roles as online teachers and learners.

View and download the paper: ESL Teaching in the Global Hypermedia Environment

ACTA Background Paper No. 5 (2000)

Casualisation of the ESL workforce in Australia

Santina Bertone

This paper focuses on casual and temporary employment in the ESL (English as a Second Language) profession. It investigates the implications for the quality, range and accessibility of services when a significant proportion of teachers are employed und casual or temporary contracts.

[published in TESOL in Context, Vol. 10 Iss. 1 (June 2000)]

View and download the paper: Casualisation of the ESL workforce in Australia

Australian Council of TESOL Associations