In all of the big changes this past summer, I applied for the TESOL France Annual Colloquium with a paper I wrote for one of my TESOL MA classes at North Carolina State University. I wrote and submitted the paper as a final paper in April, submitted it to the conference at the end of May (in between multiple moves and wedding planning and preparing to leave for TAPIF) so I was shocked and so excited that my paper was accepted!
The paper focuses on the relation between English spelling and meaning and how spelling is more often taught as a partner for pronunciation rather than word meaning. In other words, the way English words are spelling tells us more about what they mean rather than how to pronounce them. For a language that has the stereotype of having more exceptions to spelling and pronunciation than consistent rules. This can be especially helpful for students who want to learn English most efficiently and teachers who want to teach most effectively.
The prep is going well, but definitely thankful for the extra time before the conference to go in as prepared to learn as much as possible from the other speakers and enjoy the experience!
