In 2020, Susan Spezzini, Ph.D., a professor of English Learner Education, was named a U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program awardee for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Her "Enhancing the Efficacy of English Language Educators in Paraguay" project at the National University of Asuncion (UNA) led to a 55-chapter Creative Common Licensed Book.

Due to COVID-19, Spezzini's Fulbright was put on hold as the world navigated the global pandemic. In 2022, Spezzini finally traveled to Paraguay to start her on-ground Fulbright activities with Valentina Canese, Ph.D., Director of the Higher Institute of Languages at UNA. Due to faculty commitments at UAB, Spezzini split her six-month stay in Paraguay across two summers-- three months in 2022 and three months in 2023.

“Though initially disappointed at needing to postpone my Fulbright, I was very pleased with how my time in Paraguay—reconfigured across two years—provided greater support for collaborative work. This extended timeline enhanced my project’s outcome and increased its potential for a long-lasting impact,”said Spezzini.

Spezzini’s Fulbright experience resulted in a 55-chapter book, Teaching English in Global Contexts: Language, Learners and Learning, published under UNA’s Creative Commons license. The book features 61 authors from 9 countries, 20% of whom are UAB faculty or alumni.

Throughout the book's development, Spezzini and her colleagues strived to create research-based material that provided tangible, no-cost materials to support novice and experienced teachers—especially in resource-challenged contexts—with teaching English as a second language (ESL). The authors challenged themselves to emphasize the diverse types of learners and contexts worldwide and the myriad approaches and techniques for teaching ESL.

The UNA’s English Department faculty originally conceptualized this online book to address the need of Paraguay’s university students to access affordable quality textbooks to teach the English language. To convert this vision into reality, Canese invited Spezzini to help organize and edit a multi-chapter volume. In turn, Spezzini invited Julia S. Austin, Ph.D., to serve as the team’s professional editor. Spezzini said their goal was “to support the preparation of effective English teachers for learners of all ages in Paraguay and the Global South.” Their December 2021 call for chapters launched a two-year process culminating with online publication in November 2023 and a website in January 2024 opens a new website. Separate web pages per chapter facilitate access for users of hand-held devices.

Spezzini hopes the book will have a long-lasting impact on teacher education in Paraguay and other countries, expanding knowledge and skills for teaching English and preparing ESL teachers. In fact, although this book initially targeted the Global South, it is already being used to prepare ESL teachers in the United States.

For UAB alumna Gwyneth Dean-Fastnacht, the ESL Coordinator for South Dakota’s Title III consortium, Spezzini’s book is now a significant text in the state’s ESL Endorsement Cohort program. Similar sentiments are shared by UAB alumna Lynn Fuller, who teaches an ESL teaching methods course at Mississippi College and feels the text is more accessible than any other material her students are used to reading.

Spezzini is especially proud of the Prologue, in which Gabriel Diaz Maggioli, President of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, describes how this book provides accessible, equitable, and thoroughly vetted knowledge to people worldwide.