Michael Pasquale is the new president of the Christian Education and TESOL organization (CETC).

CETC is a division under the International Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Organization (TESOL). In 1984, CETC was formed, and Pasquale, associate professor of linguistics, said he will lead about 800 teachers and professionals from around the world.

All CETC members voted online from such countries as Korea, Japan, Brazil and Kenya for a new incoming president that would subsequently become president for one year. After that year is over, the president becomes the past president.

“Basically, I was elected last year as incoming president,” Pasquale said.

The incoming president assists the president with duties, and the past president is part of a committee that advises the president.

Pasquale said that he agreed to be nominated for incoming president because it would give Cornerstone some recognition, but he did not expect to win.

“I was surprised that I was elected,” he said. “The person I was running against, I thought, was a very strong candidate.”

Pasquale credits his vision for the future of CETC as his winning tool.

“I think people liked the passion that I give, the vision for the organization, the ideas, which is good,” he said.

One idea was for CETC to reach out more to the international community.

“We are trying to support Christian English teachers around the world who could be missionaries but could also be native language speakers,” Pasquale said.

Another idea was to encourage professionalism.

“Just to encourage [CETC] to focus on the academic stuff, how we can approach TESOL from a Christian perspective,” he said.

As president, Pasquale, a member for eight years, will be leading the process of making CETC separate from TESOL.

His election to the presidency is “kind of at a crucial time,” Pasquale said.

“They are getting rid of all the subgroups,” he said. “We could either pull apart or dissolve, and we decided to pull apart.”

The next step is figuring out how to become independent.

“Is it going to be a big step, or are we officially incorporated as a separate entity, or is it going to be baby steps until we kind of eventually emerge as fully independent,” Pasquale said.

Once they gain independence, Pasquale wants to encourage the group to establish a Christian TESOL journal.

“It would provide a forum for people to publish TESOL articles from a Christian perspective,” he said.

TESOL has been at Cornerstone since 2000 in the undergraduate program and since 2006 in the graduate program. Pasquale hopes that his presidency will bring visibility to the programs and CU.

“Now we are considered one of the top Christian TESOL institutions,” he said.

Juliet Keller, adjunct professor in the TESOL program at CU, said that Pasquale offers stellar leadership in the program and notes that he is well-known nationally and internationally.

“Anyone who meets him and is under his leadership knows that he encourages colleagues to excellence in the field of TESOL,” Keller said. “I can only expect that he will take the mission of [CETC] to the next level.”

Pasquale said that his main goal next year is to get CETC ready for its next conference in Denver, where members will give presentations and ideas on how to teach English better, as well as cultural issues and English literacy and pronunciation.

“I have enjoyed these past few years because I get to meet more people and have a voice in the development of this group,” he said. “And, it’s been fun.”