CU Boulder TESOL

Proposals are due June 8th! See you in Houston, Texas—March 15-18, 2027.

I get as much as I give as a volunteer leader with TESOL International Association! 🙏🏽 I’m proud to serve alongside so many amazing educators and researchers. I’m looking forward to seeing more CU TESOL Buffs get involved this year!

It’s Volunteer Appreciation Week! Join us in celebrating the people who keep TESOL moving forward—our volunteers. 💙

To the TESOL volunteers juggling full schedules and still finding time to mentor, review, plan, and support this community … we see you.

And we’re so grateful for the time, care, and expertise you share. We truly couldn’t do this work without you.

Present at This Year's Annual Fall Convention!

Colorado Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages invites English language educators from all over Colorado and beyond to submit proposals to present at the 2026 CoTESOL Fall Convention. This year, we will focus on sharing promising practices, research, and insights related to the theme "Reinvention Rooted in Language and Belonging." Proposals will be considered for in-person presentation at the 49th Annual CoTESOL Fall Convention on November 6th and 7th at the Adams 12 Five Star Schools Conference Center in Thornton, CO.

Please join the CoTESOL community in exploring this theme this coming fall by sharing your own expertise.
Click on this Call for Proposals link
https://cfp.sched.com/speaker/87BBCGp0oR/event , to submit your proposal today!

Best Regards,

The CoTESOL Board

My TESOL Practicum class attended a talk with Dave Isay, founder of the amazing podcast StoryCorps (www.storycorps.org). Dave shared a variety of stories to showcase what StoryCorps is all about.
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We were all moved to laughter and tears by stories he shared from the collection. After his presentation, we met as a class to talk about the role stories play in building human connection and cultivating empathy. We talked about how these authentic 3-minute stories provide more than enough 'raw material' from which to develop full theme-based lessons. My students thought about stories they could use with their current language learners, which includes folks they are teaching online in Peru, Guatemala, and Tanzania, as well as young and adult learners in our Front Range community.
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Human connection can seem rare in the world today with our reliance on devices and increasing social distance, even in educational contexts - Zoom Zoom Chat Chat!
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When we story with one another, we find our way back to humanity. More of that, please!

Here we are with Dave Isay!
University of Colorado Boulder

Every year, February 21st is International Mother Language Day.

Below is a message from the Director General of UNESCO commemorating this day and calling to young people globally to preserve the world's languages.

I especially love his last two lines: "Because linguistic diversity is a pillar of peace, dignity and inclusion. And no voice should be missing from the story of our humanity."
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Message from Mr Khaled El-Enany, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day:

Young people are the main guardians of the world’s linguistic diversity. They are the inheritors of nearly 7,000 spoken or signed languages – and of the responsibility to keep them alive and pass them on.

Still, young people need to be introduced to linguistic diversity, and this begins at an early age, through education. This is why UNESCO’s theme for the celebration of this year’s International Mother Language Day, initiated by Bangladesh, is youth voices on multilingual education.

The research on the subject is clear. As indicated in our recent report Languages Matter: Global Guidance on Multilingual Education, learning in one’s mother tongue promotes academic success, builds self-confidence and strengthens the predisposition to learning new languages. Yet 40% of the world’s children learn in a language which is not the one they speak at home.

In light of this observation, UNESCO is pleased to be collaborating with Cameroon on the integration of more than 200 local languages into school and literacy programmes as international languages are also gradually being introduced. Likewise, within the framework of our collaboration with Mozambique, one in four schools now offers multilingual education, thanks to teacher training.

Beyond its proven cognitive benefits, linguistic diversity is also a cultural and ecological matter, since each language carries with it a way of thinking, communicating and being in the world. Our Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity thus ensures the preservation of several types of oral expression on every continent: from the pasillo of Ecuador to the Mongolian Tuuli and to the Xeer Ciise in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. That is also why, as the lead agency for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032), UNESCO provides more than 30 countries with support in this field: from the preservation of Mayan languages in Latin America to the preservation of the languages of the Hadzabe in the United Republic of Tanzania and the preservation of the languages of the Ju/’hoansi San in Namibia.

Preserving linguistic diversity is ultimately also a digital issue. With most of online content produced in a dozen or so languages, linguistic exclusion becomes a form of digital exclusion. However, digital technology can also become a tool for transmission, andUNESCO is taking action in this area. For example, with Malaysia, it has helped young people to enrich Wiktionary by adding nearly 3,000 words from 25 endangered Indigenous languages. It has also launched the English–Kiswahili AI Dictionary in order to make artificial intelligence more accessible by providing clear definitions in Kiswahili of key terms related to AI. Finally, the UNESCO World Atlas of Languages enables greater knowledge of all endangered languages.

On this International Mother Language Day, UNESCO is calling for investment in language transmission by placing young people at the heart of the solutions involved. Because linguistic diversity is a pillar of peace, dignity and inclusion. And no voice should be missing from the story of our humanity.

Message from Mr Khaled El-Enany, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, 21 February 2026 programme and meeting document

TESOL International Association applauds Minnesota TESOL (MinneTESOL) in its support of members, educators, learners, and communities impacted by the immigration activity in the state. Read the full statement here:

MinneTESOL Statement | TESOL | International Association TESOL International Association applauds Minnesota TESOL (MinneTESOL) in its support of members, educators, learners, and communities impacted by the immigration activity in the state.

I wrote a blog for TESOL International Association about the action research project that is now part of the TESOL Practicum course. It's part of an effort to cultivate teacher reflection and participation in a TESOL community of practice. I'm grateful to my students for their engagement with these projects! - Rai

Action Research: Cultivating Research Literacy | TESOL | International Association One focus area in TESOL’s Research Directions is Research Education and Literacy. Research is often considered an activity for academics, but TESOL professionals know that teachers engage in informal—aka “little r research”—regularly. Exploring classroom practice informally can be a spring...

Happy Holidays from the Board of Colorado TESOL (CoTESOL)! Stay tuned for an exciting update about the Spring Conference. 😀

In this TESOL blog entry, Naashia Mohamed shares some ways to celebrate diversity in the classroom!

12 Purposeful Ways to Honour Diversity in the Classroom | TESOL | International Association Across the school year, many international observances draw attention to diversity, inclusion, and human rights. These include the International Mother Language Day (21 February), World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (21 May), World Refugee Day (20 June), the International D...

The deadline for call for speakers for the annual CoTESOL (Colorado TESOL) conference has been extended to August 18! Please click the link and join us for CoTESOL's premier event on November 14 and 15!

https://cfp.sched.com/speaker/WzIvA33iYU/event?fbclid=IwY2xjawLrnTFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHtqJ_sd9_LckQl-61Z2WAZmVLiI69ITqxSrGtelJpsZb3flkIuJIaKPzN3bo_aem_Z4q_hSCRStZWHIPVST02CA

cfp.sched.com

Have you wanted to visit Capetown, South Africa? Combine travel and professional development with a conference!

The next conference on Diversity and Inclusivity in English Language Education (DIELE) will be held at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa on June 26-27, 2026. The deadline for proposals is August 31st, 2025. Please consider submitting a proposal and contribute to this important conversation. Learn more here:

DIELE Conference | Diversity and Inclusivity in English Language Education 3RD INTERNATIONAL HYBRID CONFERENCE ON Diversity and Inclusivity in English Language Education Hosted by 26-27 June 2026 Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch | South Africa Welcome to DIELE 2026 This 3rd DIELE conference, to be held at Stellenbosch University in South Africa in 2026, follows the two...