The NNEST Movement: Looking back...Moving forward...

Welcome back to NNEST Blog!

As part of the NNEST Interest Section Academic Session in the 2013 TESOL Convention, Lia Kamhi-Stein provided her personal reflections on the birth, growth and future of the moment. Having recognized some of the accomplishments (e.g. greater awareness, publication efforts, leadership positions, etc.), she pointed out two issues that need our attention:

(1) The need to work on creating a non-discriminatory environment for NNES professionals.

• It is time to engage colleagues from the Program Administration Interest Section. 
• It is time to write and disseminate a document, through TESOL, that focuses on issues of NNES teacher professionalism, language proficiency, and intelligibility. 

(2) The need to keep working with NNES professionals who are in the trenches.

• My concern over the last few years: The research keeps moving forward and there are many NNES professionals who feel isolated. We can’t forget about them.

Departing from these points, Kamhi-Stein concluded her presentation with a powerful call for everybody: "Let’s rewrite and/or reorient our goals.  After 15 years, it is time we do it."

What should be the goals of the NNEST movement? How can we achieve these goals?