Hayriye Kayi-Aydar, a University of Arkansas assistant professor of TESOL, presented information with three of her former graduate students during a colloquium at the International TESOL Conference in Portland, Ore., in March.

TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

The students – Emily Terrell, Jennifer Carter and Marigayden Tippit – are graduates of the Master of Arts in Teaching program in the department of curriculum and instruction of the College of Education and Health Professions.

TESOL International Association’s mission is to advance professional expertise in English language teaching and learning for speakers of other languages worldwide. The annual conference this year hosted thousands of professionals from different parts of the globe.

Kayi-Aydar and her former students, who are classroom teachers in Arkansas, presented information on vocabulary instruction for English language learners in K-4 classrooms. Kayi-Aydar said that they felt very fortunate that they were able to present at such a prestigious conference as the acceptance rate was only 18 percent and only a very small number of colloquium session proposals were accepted this year.

This shows, she said, “Our M.A.T. interns conduct high quality research. I hope our current M.A.T. students will also consider opportunities to present their research findings in nationally and internationally recognized conferences and seek opportunities to publish their work. We, as faculty, are always there to help, guide and work with them in the process.”