Connecting to the Future of English Language Teaching
1:10-2:10pm
Four professionals representing various MITESOL Constituencies discuss the future of the field. A moderator will pose questions to the panel. Questions will revolve around the current and future state of multilingual education, including the following topics:
Growing the TESOL community
Global and geopolitical influences
Equitable educational experiences
The panel will conclude with questions from the audience, as well as some time for networking with panel members and MITESOL members.
Panelists (as featured above, from left to right)
Selena Protacio is Full Professor of Literacy Studies and TESOL and is serving as interim chair of the Department of Special Education and Literacy Studies. Dr. Protacio holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education with a language and literacy emphasis from Michigan State University and an M.Ed. in Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her bachelor’s degree is in communication research from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Prior to earning her graduate degrees, Dr. Protacio worked as an English teacher in the Philippines, which is her native country. Her research interests primarily focus on the literacy motivation and engagement of English learners in K-12 settings and family engagement of multilingual families in the U.S. Dr. Protacio serves as editor of the international, peer-reviewed journal Reading Horizons. She also serves as principal investigator on two U.S. Department of Education personnel preparation grants, Project TEAMS and Project PETAL.
Daniel Malakowsky B.A., M.Ed., M.A.T., Ed.D. is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In addition, he has taught Adult ESL at Grand Rapids Community College and is employed at Wyoming Public Schools as an ESL Teacher. Prior to Michigan, he taught Adult ESL for the University of Minnesota in Rochester and was employed as a high school, middle school, and elementary ESL teacher. He has 32 years of experience in ESL teaching students as young as three years of age to adults of 87 years.
Wessam Abdelaziz is native of Alexandria, Egypt and currently serving as coordinator of English as a Second Language (ESL) and World Languages at Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS). Wessam received his B.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Alexandria University, Egypt in 2006. After two years of teaching in Egypt, he was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship hosted by The University of Connecticut. He continued his educational journey with two graduate degrees; one in Applied Linguistics and another in Evaluation, Measurement, and Research and now finishing up his doctoral program at Western Michigan University. He has teaching experiences in the US and internationally that range from elementary to college level. Before coming to KPS, Wessam had the pleasure of working in different institutions like Western Michigan University, Middlebury College, the University of Utah, Kalamazoo College, and the Center for Applied Linguistics in D.C. He is married and has two sons. He enjoys playing and coaching soccer.
Anne Damiecka is currently Lead Instructor in the Adult Education ESL program and an adjunct faculty member at Grand Rapids Community College. She holds a master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Surrey and taught EFL in Poland for six years before moving to Houston, Texas, where she was Professor and Lead Faculty of ESOL at Lone Star College for 12 years. Anne has worked as a TEFL trainer and a CELTA trainer and has served on the boards of MITESOL and TexTESOL IV as well as on the Conferences Professional Council for TESOL International. Anne is a volunteer coordinator for the Alliance for International Women’s Rights and a Virtual Educator with the U.S. State Department.
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