Anne Lomperis

Anne Lomperis began her career in the mid-70s working in English training for refugee resettlement, primarily with Southeast Asians, then, after the Mariel Boat Lift in 1980, with Cubans and Haitians. While initial concerns were to teach Coping Skills English for everyday integration into the US, this soon sharpened into a focus on English for jobs. Thus, her beginnings in workplace language training date to her first consultation in 1982 for a school district in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, that had been called by the local Marriott to help teach English to an influx of Haitians in its Housekeeping Department.

Over the last 23 years of specializing in Language for Occupational Purposes (LOP, broader than just EOP), Anne has worked in almost all industry sectors (i.e., service, manufacturing, primary, government, and nongovernmental organizations) in many regions of the world. The countries where she has served include the US, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, the Philippines, Thailand, Russia/Siberia, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, and most recently, India (where, coincidentally, she was also born and raised through high school graduation).

When she first started out in the hospitality industry of South Florida, she was awarded a national demonstration grant from the Ford Foundation, who had funded an earlier study she had conducted for them on the effectiveness of ESL programs for refugees throughout the US. She designed the Florida grant with partners from education, social services, and hotels. This led to setting up a program within the public school adult education division to teach English in hotels on a longer term basis. She contacted properties, marketed the program, conducted needs assessment, developed the curriculum, and taught the classes. As the program grew, she trained other teachers and oversaw the program.

Throughout her subsequent career, she has always been concerned about the critical need for teacher training and building up the professionalism of LOP, in general. In a global economy, the demand for multiple language capability in the labor force is only increasing, yet the language training profession does not have qualified trainers in the pipeline to meet this demand. Thus, the well-intentioned, or ill-intentioned, unprofessional fills the gap. We have a pressing agenda for teacher training around the world.

As part of her interest in professionalization, Anne helped found the ESP Interest Section of TESOL in 1992 and served as the EOP Representative to the Steering Board for two double, start-up terms. In this capacity, she initiated a 9-year effort to develop international Best Practices, or standards, for Workplace Language Training. Margaret van Naerssen, also served on the Workplace Standards Task Force as a co-chair. In 1995, Anne founded the Language Training Forum (LTF) of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and initiated a parallel effort on behalf of Best Practices within the LTF. Through her connections in the training field and all her work with corporations, she is also concerned about the need to educate our clients, particularly about sound program design. An effective tool for working with clients that she has also begun to develop is documentation of cost-benefit analysis and return on investment of LOP programs.

Taking a wider view, Anne has most recently expanded her focus to language planning and language policy (LPLP) for economic growth in developing countries. She has begun working with ministries of education and labor, with educational institutions, and with priority industry sectors for national economic development. While she holds an MA in TESL from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, she is seeking a program in which she can pursue a PhD in LPLP. (On a personal note, she would just like some financial stability in her life to unpack her bags and grow orchids).