The current chair, Dan Doorn, representing TESOL and the current associate Chair, Yvonne Freeman, representing NCTE, have completed three-year leadership commitments, but both will continue in their respective roles through the Fall, 2003, when new chairs will be selected.

One major activity of the Committee is soliciting nominations and approving featured speakers for the national conferences. This past year the committee sponsored two distinctive sessions: At NCTE 2002 in Atlanta, Pat Irvine and Sheila Marquardt gave a presentation on “Challenges and Critical Possibilities in Educating English Language Learners.” And at TESOL 2003 in Baltimore,Yvonne and David Freeman led a session with three other colleague educators on “Dual Language Models for Academic Success.”

For the coming year, the committee will be sponsoring another two sessions: At NCTE 2003 in San Francisco,we have invited Kate Kinsella to present a session on strategies that promote language development and reading comprehension for ESL students. At TESOL 2004 in Long Beach, committee member Katharine Samway will take the lead in developing a session focused on literacy development for ESL students. The committee staffed information display tables at both of the TESOL and NCTE conferences this past year, helping to promote publications and professional development opportunities, recruit membership, and collect current issue concerns in serving English language learners.The committee has continued developing strategies for taking on new initiatives and involving new members in more meaningful service roles for both organizations.

One new step involves identifying opportunities across other committees where our members can take an active advocacy role for the needs and interests of second language learners.Another supportive step involves the promotion of NCTE’s “CoLearn” project among members of the TESOL community.

Dan Doorn, Chair