In December, 2011, I had a chance to catch up with David in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We seem to bump into each other from time to time, and as usual it was both personally and professionally satisfying to relive some of our experiences together. Somewhere back in the 70s, David matriculated in the MAT program at The School for International Training (SIT, now the SIT Graduate Institute). I was the program director at the time. As a student, David was active, engaged, and never afraid to ask a question. And he’s still at it as an ESOL professional. Just recently he has communicated with me in my role as editor for Pro Lingua Associates, and as usual he has some creative ideas about a potential publication.

That reminds me of our work together in the early 80s. SIT was awarded a grant from the Peace Corps to develop uncommonly taught language materials. As the director, I had not hesitation in asking David to take on the development of Setswana for Botswana. He wasn’t a linguist, but he knew what kind of information and learning materials would be necessary for a Peace Corp volunteer. He traveled to Botswana, worked with an informant and produced three different books, a basic grammar, a conversation book, and a cultural/technical book.

A few years later we teamed up again. This time David was in Islamabad setting up an academic English program for AID. Shortly after his arrival, I joined him in researching where and how to carry out such a program. We settled on Islamabad and devised a curriculum. The program ran for, I believe, five or six years.

So when I heard that he was in Riyadh teaching English, it was a pleasure to hear that one of my former students in the MATESOL program and colleague was still at it as an active and creative professional. I wonder where we’ll meet next.

Ray Clark
Part-time Faculty, English Linguistics
SIT Graduate Institute - Summer Program
Senior Editor, Marketing / Exhibition Coordinator
Pro Lingua Associates
Brattleboro, VERMONT

2012 ESL MiniConference Online