Some thoughts to ponder...

This thread of messages was passed on from NNEST Caucus list-serv which I am putting here to remind me of things and issues to consider when I start writing my paper (God knows when...)
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I agree that Language Proficiency of NNESTs is an important issue to be considered. There are several related issues we can examine. One idea is to explore further the strategies that teachers can use most effectively with the level of language proficiency they currently have. The other is intervention and language training as part of our teacher education programs, which can be a longitudinal study with having control groups, and the most important of all is the relationship between language proficiency and teaching as Ahmar has brought up. Some very interesting ideas were presented in the TIRF research colloquium that Lia organized. Issues examined by TIRF researchers can be looked at and researched from a more global context including countries in Asia, Middle East, and Europe.

Best,

(name has been removed)

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Thank you for raising this question about teachers' language proficiency. It is one of great importance and relevance to the caucus and is only now beginning to be explored with academic vigor. In addition to the colloquium that you mentioned, concerns about language proficiency were also raised in the TIRF research colloquium that Lia organized, and in Zohreh Eslami-Rasekh's colloquium. The colloquium on World Englishes and TESOL also discussed similar concerns. While some initial thoughts were shared at this year's convention, this is definitely an issue that needs further work. The fundamental questions that we all need to ask is:
- What, if any, is the relationship between language proficiency and teaching?
And when we raise this question, we need to be willing to explore all possible options/answers - even those that some of us may not like.

(name of sender has been removed)

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Dear NNEST-Lers,

One suggestion for a research topic that might make a good colloquium theme was actually suggested by Juliam Edge as we prepared for our colloquium with him, Dilin Liu, Ahmar and myself: research into ways that NNESTs can learn how to do the most with the proficiency that they have. I know that Ahmar has some thoughts on some ideas. Such a topic could be of real interest and perhaps be a genuine benefit to those NNESTs teaching throughout the world who have not had the educational access that some of us have had.

(name of sender has been removed)