Historical Information

Summer 1977

Staff at the Summer Institute in English at NC State University spearheaded the effort to gather 25 signatures for a petition to form an affiliate of TESOL.

September-November 1977

Two organizational meetings were held at NC State in Raleigh, and one was held at Sacred Heart College, Belmont (in the Charlotte area).

The original twenty-five petitioners for a TESOL affiliate in North Carolina include:

• Peggy Ball

• José Infante

• Teryl Lundquist

• Ralph H. Brown

• David & Linda Melcher

• Virginia Prichard

• Carol Compton

• Mary Isley

• Roger Ponder

• Owen Grove(?)

• Mercedes Jimenez

• Carey Stacey

• Neta Haywood

• Diana Levy

• Richard W. Thacker

February 4, 1978

At the Jane S. McKimmon Center on the NC State campus, the first conference of the North Carolina Association of TESOL (NCA/TESOL), the 36th affiliate of international TESOL, was held, with TESOL Executive Secretary James Alatis as keynote speaker. The dues of the new affiliate were $10, and they stayed at that level for the next fourteen years.

In March 1978, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the Cherokee Reservation,

Cumberland County, Fayetteville City, Greensboro City, Wake County, and Winston-Salem City school systems all had public school bilingual programs

Spring 1979

At the spring conference in 1979, Virginia Prichard became the chair of a committee to develop recommendations for NC certification in ESL. These efforts spurred the NC Department of Public Instruction to organize a statewide effort to develop competencies for certification in ESL. On May 4, 1983, after long, hard work by the State ESL Evaluation Committee, the NC State Board of Education approved ESL certification standards for North Carolina.

November 16-18, 1979

The fall conference was a two day retreat at Camp New Hope, NC

Fall 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, and 1994 NCA/TESOL met jointly with the Foreign Language Association of NC (in 1994 as Carolina TESOL). NCA/TESOL was the first language association to meet jointly with FLANC, and at the suggestion of FLANC Secretary BillIsler, in 1981 FLANC invited all the individual foreign language associations of N.C. to meet jointly with it in the fall, an arrangement which continues.

1981-1982

TESOL-related faculty at USC organized and networked in preparation for contacting NC TESOL with a proposal for creating a joint organization. This led to a one-day Saturday gathering in Columbia in March or April of 1982, mostly to introduce people to one another. Having formed a core of committed folks, they approached the pre-existing North Carolina TESOL to propose joining with them to form Carolina TESOL, a proposition they enthusiastically accepted.

1983-1984

In 1983, Dr. Michael Montgomery of the University of South Carolina suggested that South Carolina join with the North Carolina Association of TESOL to form a single affiliate. In June of 1984 the connection was made official, and NCA/TESOL became Carolina TESOL. Bailey, then Director of International TESOL, attended the inaugural event. Jim Alatis, her predecessor and the long-serving dead of the Graduate School of Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown , had established a practice of the organization's director attending the inaugural meeting of state and regional affiliates and had standard presentation with well-practiced anecdotes and comments to build solidarity within the profession.

In the early days 80 to 90 percent of the membership were tertiary-level people from intensive English institutes.

March 29-30, 1985

Our first meeting in South Carolina was as a part of the semi-annual Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL) in Columbia, S.C. , on March 29-30, 1985.

October 26, 1985

At the fall conference, session tracks were provided for teachers seeking ESL certification and for non-ESL teachers with ESL students (luncheon entertainment was provided by Laotian and Khmer dancers)

September 1986

Instead of three regions (and three spring conferences), the Executive Board divided Carolina TESOL into two, the southern region being the area south of a line just north of Wilmington to just north of Asheville (i.e., including Charlotte in the southern region).

Since the elections of President Elect and Secretary were uncontested, the Executive Board dispensed with the need for a mail-in ballot in October; regional representative elections were held at the fall conference.

January 1988

Carolina TESOL joined the Southeast Regional TESOL organization.

November 3-5, 1988

Our tenth anniversary; our first three day conference, and our first with more than one keynote speaker; Earl W. Stevick and Dr. Carol Myers-Scotten, plenary speakers (Greensboro). We had 187 members.

October 12-14, 1989

Carolina TESOL hosts the fifth annual Southeast Regional TESOL Conference at the Howard Johnson Conference Center in Raleigh. Dr. Robert Kaplan, Dr. Steven Krashen, and Ms. Carolyn Graham were plenary speakers and workshop/session leaders. 570 people attended, roughly 40% more than any previous SE Regional.

Spring 1989 and 1990

Joint conferences with the North and South Carolina Association of Linguists

Spring 1990

At the International TESOL Convention in San Francisco, Executive Board members of both Carolina TESOL and BrazTESOL affirmed a desire to form a sister relationship between the two affiliates.

Spring 1991

Notably, at the spring conference at Guilford Tech, Jamestown, NC on March 1-2, George Hertrich taught the affiliate how to computerize itself. In gratitude, Mr. Hertrich was awarded honorary membership in Carolina TESOL in perpetuity.

February 13, 1992

First affiliate teleconference, held at Charlotte Country Day School.

February 21-22, 1992

First joint conference with the South Carolina Foreign Language Teachers Association. James Asher was the plenary speaker. (The second joint conference was March 17-18, 2006).

April 11, 1992

One-day "Spring Symposium on Pronunciation" at UNC Chapel Hill with 3 speakers: Joan Morley, Rita Wong, and Judy Gilbert.

1993

A constitutional change incorporated a ‘Metropolitan Representative’ for each larger urban area (this was first suggested by Virginia Prichard in September of 1977). It also reduced Treasurer and Secretary to one-year terms, separated Treasurer and Membership Coordinator, and made Editor an elected position; it limited the Executive Board to elected positions, including Past President. It also officially added Metropolitan Representatives, interest sections, and standing committee chairs: Affiliate Partner Liaison, Publishers' Liaison, Historian, and Conference Coordinator (all non-elected positions) to an Advisory Board, which also included community college and state department of public education representatives. Overseeing conferences was removed from Regional Rep duties, and a Conference Coordinator was assigned the task of finding Chairs for and locating affiliate conferences.

April 29-30, 1994

Joint conference with the North Carolina Association of International Educators (NC NAFSA) in the Research Triangle Park.

February 24-25, 1995

The first TESOL affiliate conference focused specifically on technology, with Dr. Anthea Tillyer, the creator of TESL-L, serving as plenary speaker/workshop leader.

March 8-9, 1996

Our first (solo) conference with more than 300 attendees; USC, Columbia.

Summer 1997

Carolina TESOL Forum published (Darrel Eudy, Editor).

November 23-26, 1997

The 20th anniversary of our organization! Carolina TESOL hosted the 12th Southeast Regional TESOL Conference at the Oriental Express Charleston Place Hotel, Charleston, SC. Plenary speakers/workshop leaders included David Nunan, Univ. of Hong Kong; Cristina Igoa, College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA; and Gail Weinstein-Shr, SF State. This conference was held in conjunction with the SouthEast Conference On Linguistics (SECOL). Dr. Michael Montgomery was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Oct 5-7, 2000

Sheraton Inn Capitol, Raleigh, NC; our first (solo) conference with over 600 attendees

September 22-25, 2005

Our third (the 19th) Southeast Regional TESOL Conference; Hilton Kingston Plantation Resort, Myrtle Beach, SC; Walt Wolfram, Dave Sperling, Judy Gilbert, Elsa Auerbach, James Asher plenary speakers/workshop leaders. Attendance was 850.

2005-2006

Any Hurka-Owen set up an Executive/Advisory Board Yahoo group for Executive Board business. Because it worked so well, she set up a similar Yahoo group to handle the business of the Southeast Regional TESOL Council. Amy also set up an ESL Teachers listserve for SC (the NC DPI had already created one for NC).

In addition, CarTESOL was chosen as the official acronym of the affiliate (C-TESOL and CaTESOL have other uses); the Board approved that we invite TESOL to locate a convention in Charlotte; and Carolina TESOL's resolution that meetings of governing councils for regional TESOL organizations be included in the program book of TESOL conventions was approved by the SE Regional Council and the TESOL Affiliate Assembly and accepted by the TESOL Executive Board.

March 17-18, 2006

Second joint conference with the South Carolina Foreign Language Teachers Association; Columbia Marriott, Columbia, SC. Dr. Stephen Krashen and Dr. Miriam Met were plenary speakers/workshop leaders.

2006

In the spring newsletter, a discussion began as to whether NC and SC should be separate affiliates. The possibility was strongly rejected on the summer 2006 ballot. A new Constitution was also approved for the affiliate.

June 23-24, 2006

On-line registration was used for the first time for the second ESOL mini-conference in Charleston.

Spring 2007

Treasurer Larry Savage accomplished the paperwork/etc. for re-certifying the affiliate as tax exempt (after a long period and a lot of effort).

The Executive Board decided to post the affiliate Newsletter on the web rather than mail it out.

June 2010

Three representatives participate in TESOL Int’l Advocacy day in Washington, DC.

1977-2007 compiled by Bill Isler

2008 – Present compiled ad hoc