Keith Folse, professor of English as a Second Language in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, was invited to deliver plenary talks for affiliates of the International TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Association in California, Washington, and Maine. The three talks occurred within the fall 2019 semester.
In early October, Folse delivered “40 Years of Teaching: Lessons I Taught, Lessons I Learned” at the 50th CATESOL (California TESOL) meeting in San José. CATESOL is one of the largest affiliates of International TESOL.
A few weeks later, Folse was the opening keynote speaker for the 2019 WAESOL (Washington State TESOL) and presented “Five Painful Myths about Teaching Grammar,” in which he combined research and pedagogy regarding the teaching of grammar in second language courses.
In November, Folse gave the lone keynote address to educators at the 2019 NNETESOL (Northern New England TESOL) Conference, which was held at the University of Southern Maine. Summarizing the most current research on lexical issues in TESOL, his talk was “Why Vocabulary Matters So Much In Learning a New Language.”
Folse’s travel to California and Washington was sponsored by National Geographic Learning, while travel to Maine was sponsored by the University of Michigan Press.