A Word from the Editors.

It is our pleasure to bring this issue of the TESL Canada Journal to you. We hope that you find the content of this issue, which includes three Full Length Articles, one In the Classroom article, and one Book Review, relevant and thought-provoking.

In the first article, "Academic Literacy Requirements of Health Professions Programs: Challenges for ESL Students," Lillie Lum, Mahmoud Alqazli, and Karen Englander highlight the academic literacy requirements of health professions programs and the challenges for ESL students within three major health professions programs across six universities in Canada. This qualitative study focuses on the uniformity of program requirements and available learning supports for their students and emphasizes the significance of academic literacy for the socialization of ESL students into these specialized programs and professions.

In the second article, titled "Recurring Topics in English Language Teachers' Written Teaching Philosophy Statements," Caroline Payant and Eliana Hirano analyze in-service English as an additional language (EAL) teachers' written teaching philosophy (TP) statements to identify the common topics that occur in these statements. Their in-depth analysis showed that Teaching approaches, Teacher roles, Teaching beliefs, and Learning beliefs included the majority of the teaching philosophy statements.

In the third article, "Blended Learning Adoption in an ESL Context: Obstacles and Guidelines," William Shebansky presents a mixed methods exploratory study using a survey and interview data to examine factors that influence ESL instructor's choices to adopt blended learning in their classrooms. Quantitative and qualitative data shed light on the discussion on blended learning adoption specifically in government-funded Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs.

We have a stimulating In the Classroom article, by Joan Bartel, "Teaching Soft Skills for Employability," which identifies the essential soft skills for job interviews and job retention by drawing on the fields of business and applied linguistics. The author provides practical ideas on fundamental verbal and nonverbal soft skills for use in intermediate and advanced classrooms.

This issue concludes with Patrick Huang's review of the book titled Reflecting on Critical Incidents in Language Education: 40 Dilemmas for Novice TESOL Professionals published in 2017 and authored by Thomas Farrell and Laura Baecher.

In closing, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to our committees, board members, reviewers, and readers for your continuing support of the TESL Canada Journal. Our next issue, The Shifting Landscape of Professional Self-Development for ELT Practitioners in Canada, is guest edited by Dr. Li-Shih Huang, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Learning and Teaching Scholar-in-Residence, University of Victoria. This special issue will soon be available online, and we anticipate that you will find it beneficial.

Farahnaz Faez

Antonella Valeo

http://dx.doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v35i1.1281