A Quarter Century of ESL Teaching and Learning
Who is the editor of ESL MiniConference Online?

Robb Scott began his ESL teaching career in 1982, as a graduate teaching assistant at the Applied English Center, University of Kansas, in Lawrence. He earned his M.A. in TESL from K.U. in 1984, and his masters research paper on the use of conversation flowcharts was published by the ERIC Clearinghouse for Language and Linguistics (ED 247 744 or FL 014 406) . Scott's first job out of the university was as an English and journalism teacher at Kickapoo Nation School, in Powhattan, KS, where he encouraged Native American Indian high school students to read literature by and about Indians. He helped write a grant and chaperoned a senior class trip out to see Mesa Verde and the nearby Fort Lewis College, where American Indians receive free tuition, room and board.

Scott next spent three years in Quito, Ecuador, South America. As director of Academia Benedict, a language school, he tripled enrollment numbers by changing textbooks and encouraging teachers to be more innovative. Next he started his own language school, Instituto Pionero, where he wrote the curriculum and taught ESL teacher-training workshops for Ministry of Education continuing development certificates. Scott also taught one year at Alberto Einstein junior high and two years at Academia Cotopaxi, an American international K-12 school, where he helped write a communicative curriculum, taught middle school ESL and advised the high school yearbook staff, including working in Spanish with a local printer. During the 1987-88 academic year, while back at K.U. in Lawrence, he published an article, "Making Sense In ESL: A Set of Three Rhetorical Structures," first in Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, and later in the ERIC Clearinghouse, ED342267.

From 1988 to 1992, Robb Scott worked as an ESL professional in Japan. He was part of the advance team of teachers who started SIU-Carbondale's branch campus in Niigata prefecture. He taught, wrote ESL curriculum and coordinated a TOEFL test site at the University of Nevada-Reno's Tokyo campus. He served from 1989 to 1990 on the Executive Committee of Tokyo JALT (Japanese Association of Language Teachers) and presented papers and workshops on ESL teaching and CALL (computer-assisted language learning) all over Japan. Scott's final two years in Japan were spent at Chubu University, in Kasugai, where he was on the faculty of the Modern Language Department and worked as a senior lecturer in OPELT (Ohio Program for English Language Teaching), an ESL research and development team representing Ohio University (Athens, OH). He also presented on conversation flowcharts and CALL at the 1992 TESOL convention in Vancouver.

Starting in autumn, 1992, Scott took graduate coursework in educational leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he studied ESL teacher observation, second-language acquisition theory, and philosophy of education. He also served on advisory committees to the TC president and oversaw the student paper (TC News) as editor-in-chief.

In 1995, Scott was hired by Newsweek as an editorial assistant and education writer. From 1995 to 1998, he prepared weekly teacher guides and other materials for high-school social studies and ESL classrooms using the magazine in their curricula, and also researched and wrote for Newsweek publications, including the Kaplan/Newsweek Graduate School guide (1998). From 1998 to 2000, Robb Scott worked at two start-up dot.com's, shopguide.com and ibizresources.com, launching online newsletters at each and developing a distance-learning course in e-journalism for ibizresources.com . He also worked for Cablevision's "Power to Learn" as a technical instructor, teaching junior-high and high-school students to create Web projects. From 1997 to 2000, Scott was a part-time technical consultant, via distance and Internet, for California's Santa Cruz County district office of education, for whom he analyzed survey data, guided Web development and edited publications.

He earned a certificate in "Negotiating Across Cultures," from the Fletcher School for International Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in 1997.

During most of the ten years he lived in New York City, Robb Scott continued to teach at and manage ESL programs for different language schools in the city. He presented on conversation activities, CALL and ESL program administration at local and state-wide venues, including NYS TESOL 2000 and 2001. He also received professional development from the New Jersey Teachers of English as a Second Language and New Jersey Bilingual Educators (NJTESOL/NJBE,Inc.) in bilingual education and the "No Child Left Behind Act" (newly reauthorized ESEA).

In autumn, 2002, Robb Scott joined the Special Education faculty at Fort Hays State University, in Hays, Kansas, as an assistant professor and coordinator of the ESOL program. From 2002 to 2005, he taught coursework for the Kansas state endorsement in ESOL and the Masters in ESOL offered by FHSU, also bringing these programs online by designing Blackboard coursework for delivery via the Fort Hays Virtual College.

As a faculty member of the College of Education and Technology at Fort Hays, Robb Scott presented an invited workshop, "Encouraging Civil Discourse with Logical Conversation," at the first TESOL Peace Forum, at American University in Washington, D.C. He also received a small grant from the Kansas Department of Education to write a position paper on inclusive education, "Delivering on the Standards for All Kansas Students." In addition, graduate students in Scott's ESOL methods and ESOL assessment courses participated in the writing of the Kansas Curricular Standards for English to Speakers of Other Languages, with many of their instructional examples incorporated in the final draft approved by the Kansas State Board of Education in April 2004.

In February of 2005, the ESOL endorsement program and the entire College of Education and Technology unit (32 programs) at FHSU was reviewed and fully accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). As part of this successful process, Scott designed an outcomes-assessment system for the ESOL program and served on the unit-wide Standard 1 (Candidate Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions) and Standard 4 (Diversity) committees.

In March, 2004, Robb Scott chaired the conference planning committee for KATESOL/BE 2004, sponsored by the Fort Hays State University Department of Special Education/ESOL. At the conference, he was named KATESOL President, and represented the 200+ members of the organization during the 2004-2005 year. He presented a workshop at TESOL 2005 in San Antonio, on how Web-technology was used to revitalize and grow the Kansas TESOL organization. He has served as Webmaster for both the Kansas TESOL and Kansas CEC (Council for Exceptional Children) Web sites.

Robb Scott is currently a doctoral candidate in special education at Kansas State University, where he has worked as an instructor in the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA), teaching ESL methodology to ESOL endorsement candidates, editing a textbook on assessment of ELLs, developing curriculum for distance coursework, and coordinating the 2006 KATESOL Conference, hosted by the CIMA Center and K-State. He now teaches international students in the English Language Program (ELP) at K-State. He represented Kansas at the affiliate assembly of the 2007 TESOL convention in Seattle, where KATESOL received its 25-year award.

He is the president-elect of the Kansas Federation of the Council for Exceptional Children (kansascec.org) and recently served as conference co-chair for a joint conference project with the Kansas Association of School Psychologists, 2008 KASP/CEC, in Junction City, Kansas, attended by 343 special educators, school psychologists, general educators, administrators, paraeducators, teacher candidates, and teacher educators from across the state. The conference focused on data-coaching, response to intervention (RTI), multicultural learners, and new roles for special educators and school psychologists in today's schools (Download the conference program book-Adobe pdf-here). Scott also represented Kansas CEC at the annual CEC leadership institute in Arlington, Virginia, in the summer of 2008. His doctoral research is focused on transition for multicultural students.

During more than 25 years as an ESL/ESOL professional, Robb Scott has built a reputation as a thoughtful educator who works change and always makes a positive contribution. He publishes ESL MiniConference Online to make it easier for busy professionals to share ideas and keep abreast of the latest trends. The ESL MiniConference project has generated a free e-book, "Transition, Turmoil, and Hope: the ESL Profession After 9-11."

Robert Scott serves on the Board of Academic Advisors for TEFL International, a teacher-training organization, and on the Advisory Board for Time4English, an online service for English language learners. He has participated on ESOL and Adaptive Special Education program review teams for the Kansas Department of Education.

2002-2008 ESL MiniConference Online