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Barry Lee Reynolds

Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China

 

It is with great pleasure I write this editorial for Issue 2 of Volume 5 of TESOL Communications. This issue marks our first-ever special issue of the journal with articles derived from presentations given at the annual International TESOL Union conference. I was fortunate to attend the conference and had the opportunity to join the keynotes and sessions where many of these wonderful papers were first presented.

 

At the 2025 conference, under the theme of Trailblazing Advances in Applied Linguistics, held at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, a call for papers was announced. Among the 35 submissions the journal received following the call, the editorial team selected 10 to send out for external review, of which 5 were ultimately accepted after the peer review process was completed. All of these are research articles. These articles focus on the areas of AI, writing, and speaking, and address learners at the preschool level, university, and postgraduate levels. Taken together, the contributions in this issue reflect emerging directions in TESOL research, particularly the growing integration of AI, renewed attention to identity and voice, and an increasing focus on bilingual early years learners. The authors of these articles should be commended for their patience throughout the peer review process, which involved many rounds of revision before final acceptance. I hope that this special issue not only showcases high-quality research emerging from the conference but it also encourages further dialogue and collaboration within the TESOL community on these important issues.