Acknowledgement

It was at a program meeting of the English language faculty at the Higher Institute of Languages (ISL), National University of Asuncion (UNA), that the idea emerged for this book. Although early notions of this idea originated before the COVID pandemic, it was after switching to remote instruction that the ISL faculty clearly defined this idea and initiated an action plan. Consequently, our first acknowledgment for this book goes to our ISL colleagues for having conceptualized the idea for Teaching English in Global Contexts: Language, Learners, and Learning. Led by Rocio Mazzoleni—coordinator of the ISL English program, these faculty are Jessica Amarilla, Christian Cristóful, Carla Fernández, Ignacio Giménez, Elena Nuñez, Cynthia Rolón, Silvia Terol, and Maura Zalimben. Without your idea, this book would not exist. 

Instrumental for converting this idea into reality was financial support from the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, which is sponsored by the United States of America (USA) Department of State. Supported by the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program (https://fulbrightscholars.org/), Susan lived in Paraguay for three months in 2022 and again in 2023 to work with Valentina on the Enhancing the Efficacy of English Language Educators in Paraguay grant project. The opportunity to collaborate in person helped us, as editors, to implement all phases of the book, Teaching English in Global Contexts: Language, Learners, and Learning. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of the Fulbright Program or the Government of the United States. We gratefully acknowledge the financial contribution made to this book by the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program and the way this program inherently shaped the book’s global impact.

We acknowledge the overwhelming support that this book project received from the UNA and, more specifically, from Dr. Ricardo Pavetti, Dean of the UNA School of Philosophy. When first hearing about this project and at all subsequent stages, Dean Pavetti demonstrated full approval with “Adelante” (i.e., “Move ahead”). By having access to the School of Philosophy’s Creative Commons license, we were able to shepherd this book from idea to implementation. We also acknowledge the staff of the ISL office and the School of Philosophy Dean’s office for their support of this book project, especially with aspects such as procuring the ISBN for the book and a digital object identifier (DOI) for each chapter as well as building the book’s website.

We are particularly grateful to the authors for having written their respective chapters (see below). By thus contributing to the book, these professionals in English language teaching (ELT) contributed their experiences and perspectives from nine countries: Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Russia, United States, and Uruguay. By doing so, our authors enhanced the potential of this book for serving the needs of ELT practitioners worldwide and, more specifically, in the Global South.

As the editors of this book, we are indebted to Julia Austin for having served as our book’s professional editor. With a Ph.D. degree in rhetoric and composition, Julia was exceptionally well prepared for leading a rigorous editing process and, by doing so, ensuring that all chapters meet the guidelines of the American Psychological Association’s style manual (7th edition). Julia embraced our vision of creating a free online textbook for ELT professionals worldwide and contributed her phenomenal ability, talent, and passion for reviewing and editing. Julia’s unconditional support was key in producing a unique textbook to prepare current and future ELT educators. Upon accepting our request for help with editing this book, Julia wrote: “What a monumental task editing a book with so many chapters and different authors!” Indeed, editing this book was a monumental task.

We would, of course, like to express our heartfelt appreciation to several ELT colleagues who, experienced in the design and publication of edited textbooks, eagerly provided their support during the process of creating this book. Gabriel Díaz Maggioli (ORT University, Uruguay) guided us from the very beginning and often shared ideas and templates, such as the author release form. Leslie Barratt (Indiana State University, USA) was the first author to write an abstract and a chapter, and her manuscripts served as models for the other authors. Grazzia Mendoza (Education Specialist, Honduras) distributed our Call for Chapters to colleagues throughout Latin America and encouraged potential authors to submit abstracts and chapters. Mark Algren (University of Missouri, USA) was a pillar of inspiration from the start of the project and would quickly respond to any request for guidance. Natalie Kuhlman (San Diego State University, USA) provided advice and encouragement whenever needed. We thank all of you for being our cheerleaders throughout this book project. 

We would especially like to thank Gabriel, Leslie, Grazzia, and Mark for serving on our book’s panel presentation at the TESOL International Association’s 2023 convention in Portland (USA). Moreover, our very special thanks to Gabriel for writing the Prologue and to Leslie for writing the Epilogue.

We appreciate the support of colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other institutions who, with great interest, listened to our writing challenges and offered suggestions. We also appreciate the support from Leslie Barratt, Socorro Herrera, Robin Ennis, and Melinda Harrison who reviewed chapters in their areas of expertise and, also, provided advice.

We thank the TESOL International Association for facilitating a room to meet with chapter authors at the 2022 convention in Pittsburgh (USA) and selecting our proposal to present at the 2023 convention in Portland (USA). We thank TESOL affiliates for hosting our presentation at conferences: Latin America-Caribbean (ARTESOL), Regional Southeast TESOL (Carolina TESOL), and affiliate-based (AMTESOL, HELTA, MEXTESOL, PARATESOL). We also thank the Congreso Paraguayo de Lingüística Aplicada (CONPLA) for hosting 42 authors in seven panels at their 2022 conference and for sponsoring the launching of this book at their 2023 conference.

We acknowledge the English language students and the pre-service and in-service teachers with whom we have worked across many decades in both Paraguay and the United States. The desire of students to learn English more effectively and of teachers to teach English more effectively was a driving force for this book. 

We are forever grateful to Marcelo Ferrer for volunteering his time and dedicating his extraordinary talent to design the cover, the pages, do the copyediting, prepare the proofs, and create a webpage for each chapter in this book.

Finally, we want to thank our families for having supported us during this two-year project. Our husbands—Marcelo and Luis—shared our vision regarding the potential impact of this book, especially for teachers in the Global South. To help us reach that vision, Marcelo and Luis offered their unwavering support and provided the space and time that each of us needed for moving forward week after week, and month after month.

Valentina Canese Susan Spezzini 

Asuncion, Paraguay Birmingham, Alabama, USA