












































From the Editors 

Dr. Alexandra J. Reyes, Associate Professor, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA; email 
areyes@georgiasouthern.edu 

Dr. Eliana Hirano, Associate Professor, Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA; email ehirano@berry.edu 

Abdulsamad Humaidan, Lecturer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; email 
humaidan@illinois.edu 

Dr. Ethan Trinh, Associate Director, Atlanta Global Studies Center, Georgia State University; 
ethan.trinh14@gmail.com   

Clearing a Path for Renewal 
and Growth

GATESOL Journal 
2024, Vol. 33(1), pp. 1–2
doi:10.52242/gatesol.196

ISSN: 2331-6845 

Alexandra J. Reyes Eliana Hirano 
Georgia Southern University Berry College 

Abdulsamad Humaidan Ethan Trinh 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Atlanta Georgia State University 

The spring 2024 issue of GATESOL Journal invites readers to consider how they traverse the path 
of multilingual learner education. The articles in the issue trace the historical policies that have led 
to the current state of education for multilingual learners, provide a checkpoint for evaluating 
assessment, create a plan for visualizing the destination, and explore artificial intelligence tools to 
help navigate the road ahead. This issue will highlight how language educators can work with and 
for their students to cultivate language across contexts through interrogating assessment results, 
reflecting on the trajectory of language policy, envisioning the future, and harnessing technology 
tools. 

Surveying the Landscape 
In the first article, Patterson and Schneider explore the ever-present tension between teaching and 
assessment. In their study, Patterson and Schneider investigate ESOL teachers’ perceptions of how 
accurately multilingual learners’ language proficiency is assessed on the Assessing 
Comprehension and Communication of English State-to-State (ACCESS) test (developed by 
World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA)). The authors analyzed focus group 
responses to identify three main themes: techniques for assessment preparation, common 
perceptions of the assessment, and proposed improvements to the assessment.  

In order to understand the current state of language education policy (including 
assessment), it is crucial to understand historical context. In the policy perspectives piece, Fu 

mailto:areyes@georgiasouthern.edu
mailto:ehirano@berry.edu
mailto:humadain@illinois.edu
mailto:ethan.trinh14@gmail.com


2 GATESOL Journal 33(1) 

outlines the evolution of U.S. language education policies for multilingual learners from the 
passage of the Bilingual Education Act (1968) through the early part of the 21st century. The 
review of the progress of language policies has implications for leveraging the role of bilingual 
education in future endeavors to uphold the rights of emergent bilingual learners. Interpreting the 
policy waves is necessary for charting a path forward. 

Planting the Seeds 
As language education is a constantly shifting field, language educators, researchers, and assessors 
must not stand frozen at the crossroads. Looking ahead, both Lizdas and Duncanson provide 
teaching techniques that advance student growth. Lizdas describes a teaching intervention in which 
students are asked to engage in goal-setting and self-visualization activities to help them increase 
their willingness to communicate in the ESOL classroom. This paper describes a five-week 
intervention in which English students envision themselves as successful English speakers and set 
goals for communication. Lizdas suggests how the intervention might be used in other teaching 
contexts to increase students’ willingness to communicate.  

Like Lizdas’s teaching technique, Duncanson’s piece explores the potentiality of language 
development through technology-enhanced supports. Duncanson describes the potential for 
artificial intelligence to provide individual writing support to language learners and instructional 
support for classroom teachers. This paper discusses and exemplifies the use of QuillBot, an AI 
writing tool that could be used for second language (L2) writing and instruction. Duncanson 
describes ways to use the tool to plan meaningful and student-tailored lessons to provide an 
interactive learning space for multilingual learners in the language classroom. 

A Note on Renewal and Transformation 
The new senior editors of GATESOL Journal, Alex Reyes and Eliana Hirano, would not have been 
able to publish this long-awaited issue without the guidance of their predecessors, David Chiesa 
and Robert Griffin, nor without the assistance of the associate editors Ethan Trinh and Abdulsamad 
Humaidan. Alex and Eliana look forward to continuing to grow the journal as Ethan’s and 
Abdulsamad’s terms come to an end. The editorial team hopes that readers will find value in the 
spring 2024 issue and will continue to cultivate success for multilingual learners and educators.  

_____________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Published: May 24, 2024 


	Clearing a Path for Renewal and Growth
	GATESOL Journal2024, Vol. 33(1), pp. 1–2
	doi:10.52242/gatesol.196
	ISSN: 2331-6845

