Welcome to the first newsletter.
Each quarter the newsletter will aim to give you the latest in what is happening in TESOL around the world. This last quarter has been a busy one. Each of the following paragraphs will detail a major event and provide links and further reading I hope you find useful. If you read this and find I've missed something important, just email me and I'll add it as soon as humanly possible.
The last few months have seen a number of excellent conferences. I was fortunate enough to attend the TESOL St. Louis conference and then return to the UAE for the local TESOLArabia2001 conference with an outstanding thought-provoking session by Michael Lewis. This was then followed by the IATEFL conference in Brighton and the CTELT (Current Trends in English Language Testing) conference 2001 in Dubai. Video web casts of all the main speakers at CTELT are available on the conference home page.
The forthcoming conferences in Japan and Hong Kong look as though they will be as stimulating and rewarding as those above.
The last couple of months has also seen the publication of more in the series of TESOL Best Practice books and the Journal Writing volume will be out in June. I have asked a number of publishers to keep me informed of new releases in EFL and hopefully the next newsletter will include details of more than just a couple of volumes that I have been involved with. If you have any reviews you'd like to send me, please do and I will link them to the most appropriate pages.
During the reading and research for this site I found myself getting into views on alternative assessment, no doubt prompted by the CTELT conference and my own work with company based projects. Much of what I have been reading relates directly to our classroom assessment practices. So, in version 2 I am thinking of including a page devoted to testing. What do you think?
The other pages on this Contact Page have yet to be developed as I look for a good forum for our threaded bulletin board and chat room. If you have any ideas please

let me know. The quick answer link will take you straight to my email and flash your message as 'high priority' so I should get back to you within 24 hours. The Who's Who page is awaiting the development of an easy to complete form and will be available from October in version 2 when I will also have a clearer picture of everyone who is going to be involved. At the moment we are a collection of 60 teachers from Taiwan to Canada.
The Language and Learning pages will be continually updated and at the moment contain mainly my own Diploma work. By December I should have most of my Masters work on those pages as well. The links will continue to be added weekly as I upload each Friday. The same is true of the Practical Page although I must confess I have focused on the Reflection links. This page is a large part of what I believe is different in this site and I would really appreciate detailed feedback on my approach.
The Study Page has fallen across some hard times as I am still awaiting response from the examining boards allowing me to post past exam questions, model answers and assignments.
The lack of response has also resulted in book order links not being yet available. Eventually, and as soon as the publishers respond, I aim to have direct links to order forms for each book listed on the site. This will hopefully mean that any book listed can be ordered and received within three weeks no matter where you are.
So, there goes the first newsletter with a quick update on the site rather than the world of TESOL. As the site becomes more established the site specific detail will get less and the TESOL event detail will grow. That's a promise.
I'm looking forward to all your comments and hope that I am able to provide the support you need. If I'm not, let me know what you need and this site will aim to meet your request. Til then. Phil.