News and Events

Spring 2026

ITBE 

NEIU TESOL is proud to exhibit at the ITBE Annual Convention once again! Visit our booth on 02/27 and 02/28 to learn more about our program, chat with our faculty, and enter a raffle for a chance to win SWAG items! 

NEIU's own Dr. Gina Johnson Wells is serving as President and Advocacy Co-Chair for ITBE and Dr. Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov will be co-presenting with a former TESOL Alumni.

Annie Gill Bloyer, Director of NEIU SAELL and Anne Kang, NEIU SAELL Facilitator will host a workshop titled, "Teaching AI Digital Literacy: Developing Curriculum for High-Beginner and Low-Intermediate IEP Students"

TESOL Lecture Series 

Series Overview

The TESOL Department is pleased to announce our comprehensive lecture and workshop series, designed to address the most pressing contemporary issues facing English language educators. This dynamic series brings together leading experts, innovative scholars, and experienced practitioners to share cutting-edge research, evidence-based practices, and practical strategies that directly impact English language learners (ELLs) and their educational success.

What Participants will Gain

• Research-to-Practice Connections: Access to the latest scholarly research translated into actionable classroom strategies
• Expert Insights: Direct interaction with renowned specialists and thought leaders in TESOL
• Professional Networks: Opportunities to connect with colleagues facing similar challenges and sharing innovative solutions
• Reflective Practice: Structured opportunities to examine and refine teaching approaches through evidence-based lenses
• Practical Resources: Take-away materials, assessment tools, and curriculum frameworks ready for immediate implementation

Format and Structure

The series features a blend of:

• Keynote Lectures: In-depth presentations by leading experts
• Interactive Workshops: Hands-on sessions with practical application
• Panel Discussions: Multi-perspective conversations on complex issues
• Virtual and In-Person Options: Flexible participation to accommodate diverse schedules and locations
• Collaborative Sessions: Peer learning and resource sharing opportunities

Professional Development Recognition

Participants may earn continuing education credits and receive certificates of completion. Sessions align with TESOL International Association professional development standards and state certification requirements. CPDUs and CEUs available upon request.

Senyung Lee, Ph.D. 02/11/26 

Title: Validity in Language Assessment: Key Considerations for Language Teachers

NEIU TESOL will host a talk with special guest Senyung Lee, Ph.D. on February 11th from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in SU 103!

In this talk, Dr. Lee will discuss the concept of validity in assessment. Drawing on real-world examples, she will show how threats to validity in language assessment can influence students’ learning and their performance on assessments. Dr. Lee will also discuss key considerations relevant to language teachers.

Bio: Dr. Senyung Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Chonnam National University in South Korea. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the TESOL program at Northeastern Illinois University. Her research focuses on second language assessment and second language vocabulary. Her work has been published in journals including TESOL Quarterly, Language Testing, Language Assessment Quarterly, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, and International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. She is the recipient of the 2020 Jacqueline Ross Dissertation Award from Educational Testing Service.

We encourage everyone to attend in person if you can. Please use the Zoom link below if you cannot attend the event at NEIU's north campus.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://neiu-edu.zoom.us/j/84116584014?pwd=DsBa9luYZhFE40pf19kRFW7bcKRkiF.1

Meeting ID: 841 1658 4014
Passcode: 954880

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Lizzy Hanks, Ph.D. 03/25/26 

Title: Teaching the art of conversation: Insights from a corpus of American English conversation

NEIU TESOL will host a talk with special guest Lizzy Hanks, Ph.D. on March 25th from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in SU 103!

Conversation is integral to daily communication; however, engaging in natural conversation can be quite challenging for native and non-native English speakers alike (Warren, 2006). This is due in part to the scarcity of resources that may afford researchers, teachers, and learners insight into the patterns of conversational language (e.g., Linell, 2005). In this talk, Dr. Hanks will introduce a new corpus of American English conversation, the Lancaster-Northern Arizona Corpus of American Spoken English (LANA-CASE) and illustrate how it may be used to teach the art of conversation more effectively. Specifically, she will discuss the following:

• Design and sampling: LANA-CASE is designed following methods proposed in Egbert, Biber, and Gray (2022), including describing the domain, operationalizing the domain, and planning the sample. Hanks et al. conducted several rounds of data collection, drawing on social media, public outreach efforts, and market research panels to recruit participants from diverse regions, race/ethnicities, ages, and settings (Hanks et al., 2024);
• Composition: The corpus contains about 10,000,000 words of spoken conversation across 1,000 texts and 1,225 speakers. Dr. Hanks evaluates LANA-CASE composition, revealing both strengths and weaknesses in terms of how well the corpus represents everyday, private conversation exchanged between diverse speakers of American English (Hanks et al., in preparation); and
• Applications for language teaching and learning: She describes several case studies from the corpus that demonstrate how it can be used as a resource for teaching and learning how to converse effectively in American English.

Bio: Elizabeth Hanks is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of South Florida, where she teaches courses on second language acquisition, TESOL, quantitative research methods, and corpus linguistics. Her research uses corpus methods to analyze register, pragmatics, and vocabulary. Some of her recent work has appeared in Applied Corpus Linguistics, Journal of Pragmatics, and the Modern Language Journal.

We encourage everyone to attend in person if you can. Please use the Zoom link below if you cannot attend the event at NEIU's north campus.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://neiu-edu.zoom.us/j/81789238509?pwd=SL1uDKHDzljwDA6Q8H3IYaCrrO4igQ.1

Meeting ID: 817 8923 8509
Passcode: 611290

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