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