The 2nd Annual TESOL Literature Contest
And the winners are...
Dear TESOL Members,
The TESOL Literature Contest was introduced in order to inspire or
encourage EFL/ESL students as well as all those involved in the
teaching of English to express themselves creatively in English.
This year’s participation was not as high as we would have liked
because, for reasons beyond our control, the event was advertized
rather late. Most of those who participated were university
students, whereas we would have like to see contributors from all
levels coming from both the public and the private sector. Their
number of participants amounted to 26 with some contributing two
pieces each written in a different genre.
Furthermore, the TESOL Literature Contest was intended to give
EFL/ESL learners the thrill of having won the bet of learning a new
language and an assurance that they were now capable of using it
creatively to express their feelings and ideas. The Contest
therefore makes learners proud of themselves; proud of having
overcome obstacles; proud that their hard work has had a fruitful
outcome. The intense happiness I saw expressed in the faces of the
finalists convinced me that the Contest had fulfilled its purpose.
Can there be a more enjoyable way of encouraging students to
persevere in the pursuit of excellence in the EFL/ESL field?
At
this point, I would like to acquaint TESOL members of the
committee’s modus operandi--the process of selecting the winners.
The call for contributions ran from June 1st – January 30th.
From the start of the new Board a committee was formed to take care
of all matters relating to the Contest. That committee took care of
the advertizing campaign and the reading/assessing of the literary
pieces. Besides me, there were two more volunteers: Sevi Iosifidou &
Mark Rudd. At first, we read all the incoming pieces separately and
then each one of us informed the others which pieces they thought
should win, giving reasons for their choice simultaneously. The ones
that were chosen by two or more of three members were finally chosen
to be in the nominations. I sent the information on the nominees
(whose names appear below) along with their piece(s) to Professor
Liana Sakelliou who teaches creative writing at the University of
Athens, and who was supposed to choose the winners according to more
rigorous criteria than perhaps our own. Finally, Professor Sakeliou
announced the names of the winners on Sunday 14th March,
during the 32nd International TESOL Convention held at
the Hellenic-American Union.
And the winners are ....
From IST College – University of Hertfordshire in Athens
From the University of Athens: Panayiotis
Koutalos
Sofia Panaghis
