Four W&L Students Present at TESOL 2021 Convention Under Ellen Mayock's direction, student members of W&L's English for Speakers of Other Languages group will present at the virtual conference on March 25.

By Erica Turman
March 23, 2021

Under the direction of Ernest Williams II Professor of Spanish Ellen Mayock, four Washington and Lee University students will present at the upcoming TESOL 2021 Convention. Clara Albacete ’23, Lizzie Figueiras ’21, Curry Sherard ’21 and Jacqueline Tamez Chavez ’22, members of W&L’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) group, will present “A Two-Pronged Pedagogy: Bridging Language and Community” on March 25.

The convention covers a wide array of critical topics and experiences for English language professionals, from keynote speakers to invited speakers to advocacy sessions.

“It has been a pleasure from start to finish to collaborate with these four students on their presentation,” said Mayock. “Very few undergraduates present at TESOL, and so the acceptance of the students’ proposal is impressive. I highly recommend people view their presentation to hear the different ways in which W&L students address how ESOL bridges language and community.”

The proposal was written by Mayock and Hannah Denham ’20, former ESOL co-president. Their proposal was accepted to last year’s TESOL convention, but they could not present because of the pandemic. The group resubmitted the proposal this year, and it was accepted again.

W&L’s ESOL program strives to facilitate communication within the increasingly diverse population of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Student volunteers participate in language and literacy work beyond the Lexington-Rockbridge area, returning to campus with greater cultural competency and a broader horizon of experiences.

“The more education we have about teaching English to speakers of other languages, the better we can deliver professionalized services to our local community,” said Sherard. “Attending conferences such as this TESOL convention helps us sharpen the tools we need to improve our operations within ESOL and allows us to share our efforts with others. We hope that in sharing this presentation, the W&L ESOL program can serve as a model for others, and we are excited to learn from other attendees on how we might improve our model.”

Watch the students’ presentation and learn more about the conference here.

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