lTBE demonstrates its commitment to the field of English as a second language and bilingual education by awarding scholarships and awards to its members.
Each year, ITBE offers Graduate Scholarships, Undergraduate Scholarships, and Professional Development Scholarships. There is also the Elliot Judd Outstanding Teacher award.

State of the State
The State of Illinois is currently into its second year of a budget impasse, which began on July 1, 2015. The state had been in financial straits for many years because of mismanagement of state funds. 

Have you ever wanted to walk into your Congressman’s office and have a discussion about your concerns as a teacher?   Sylvia Rivera and I were given the opportunity to do just that when we represented Illinois Teachers of Bilingual Education at the 2016 TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit.  

“I don’t teach English. I teach students,” said the very popular professor of my grammar course for my master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language at Northeastern Illinois University. It was beautiful really, so perfect in demonstrating the semantics involved in a transitive verb. The emphasis in his statement is on the who rather than the what. However, how often do we consider the who above the what?

Five Songs From the Past Five Years to Teach the Future Tense
 
Songs can be an effective, engaging way to introduce or reinforce a grammatical point. Beyond captivating students’ attention, the repetitive nature of song lyrics provides opportunity for students to encounter grammatical features multiple times (Folse, 2009) within a two- to four-minute window. 

We’ve all heard that competition drives success.  In fact, if you Google the phrase, you will be left with results ranging from competition in physiology and technology to higher education and ecology.  Human beings have- not only- a natural tendency toward cooperation, but we also have a natural inclination toward competition.  Utilizing that natural instinct in the classroom, in a positive and encouraging way, can drive not only success in our students, but also collaboration and confidence. 

There are so many ideas and methods for teaching reading that it is hard to keep them all straight and to determine which one is the right one for your class. Moreover, the similarities between the names and methods can lead to confusion- SSR, DEAR, READ. Including the question of graded readers or authentic texts for ELLs only adds to the issue. In my attempt to sort this out, some interesting ideas came to light.

If you are a second language learner of English or an ESL teacher, you must have been irritated by the English present perfect. From my own learning and teaching experiences, I believe that ESL textbooks need better definitions and descriptions of the English present perfect, and that they should include illustrations. To support my opinion, I investigated the literature in the linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English as Second or Other Language) fields and current ESL textbooks to find out why this verbal form is so difficult.