The 31st annual international conference of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) was held from April 2-5, 1997 at the Brighton Centre in Brighton, England. The conference brought together 1500 English language educators from more than 60 countries around the world to attend six plenaries, take part in over 300 sessions, and view displays by over 60 exhibitors.
IATEFL - An Overview
IATEFL is one of the world's two major international English teaching umbrella associations. Unlike its American counterpart, TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), which tends to focus more on the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) in North America, the U.K.-based IATEFL focuses on the overseas teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL).
IATEFL's annual international conference is a major event for the English teaching profession worldwide. In addition to its rich program of talks and workshops, it gives English educators the chance to see the latest teaching publications and services, to meet leading theorists and writers, and to exchange ideas with professionals from all sectors of the profession.
The site for this year's IATEFL convention, the seaside resort town of Brighton, made a lovely setting for the conference, especially given the unusual (and very un-British) warm sunny weather which continued throughout the week. The presence of numerous pubs, the seaside promenade and the carnival-like atmosphere of Brighton Pier all added to the atmosphere of the event.
Associates Meeting
The week began with a one-day pre-conference IATEFL Associates Meeting for representatives of its 50 associate and partner organizations around the world. This brought together leaders and representatives of regional and national English teaching organizations from countries in Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. This year's meeting was thus like a mini-United Nations with representatives of EFL organizations from Russia, Brazil, Germany, Cuba, Greece, Poland, and Spain. New associate members welcomed to the IATEFL family included Palestine TEFL, TESOL Arabia, Uruguay TESOL and VLLT from the Netherlands. In addition to JALT, Asian EFL organizations represented included Thai TESOL, KoSETA (the Korean Secondary English Teachers Association) and associations in China.
The morning part of the associates session was spent meeting IATEFL's executive officers and being updated on new IATEFL developments. The afternoon session featured a seminar on "Marketing and ELT" run by a public relations specialist who talked about how language organizations could better promote their professional aims and further an understanding of their work among the general public. Being able to spend a day with leaders of major EFL organizations from around the world proved a great chance for networking and for sharing notes on common concerns such as conference planning, newsletter editing, membership affairs, and academic publications.
Special Interest Groups
A key component of IATEFL is its Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which enable teachers with similar interests to share ideas and make contacts worldwide through newsletters, symposia, and other activities. The annual IATEFL conference presents attendees with a chance to explore the varied special interests represented by these groups and to learn of new teaching ideas and materials in each field. There are currently 14 different IATEFL SIGs in existence: Business English, Computers, ELT Management, English for Specific Purposes, Global Issues, Learner Independence, Literature and British Studies, Pronunciation, Research, Teacher Development, Teacher Trainers, Testing, Media, and Young Learners.
At the IATEFL conference, each of these SIGs hosted its own "stream" of presentations on its area of specialization in its own conference room. This allowed conference-goers to concentrate on a particular area of interest and to network with others involved in that area. The rich offerings of SIG-sponsored sessions ranged from presentations on pronunciation awareness techniques and computer conferencing, to English for academic purposes and grammar through satellite TV broadcasting. While all 14 SIGs offered a dynamic array of presentations, special interest areas attracting particular attention included CALL, linguistic research based on language corpus studies, the teaching of English to "young learners" (as early as pre-kindergarten in some countries in Europe), and the teaching of global issues as EFL content.
Plenary Talks
The six plenaries given at the conference covered a wide range of topics including language issues, testing, teacher development, and cultural identity. Jean Aitchison, Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford, gave the opening plenary entitled, "Lost Nails and Maypoles: Some Current Language Issues." In her talk, she focused on three specific issues: the fear native speakers have that "lack of care" will lead to language disintegration and confusion, the problem of euphemisms, political correctness, and vocabulary, and the problems students have with the often unusual behavior of verbs in sentences.
In her plenary, ELT author Penny Ur addressed the topic "Are language teachers born or made?" She noted that, while we are all familiar with the phrase "a born teacher," we rarely find collocations such as "a born engineer" or "a born psychiatrist." Starting from the implications of this, she went on to discuss how much good teaching is a natural talent and how much it can be learned. Other plenaries were given by Michael Hoey, Director of the Applied Language Studies Unit at the University of Oxford, who talked about text analysis and reading skills, by Della Summers, Director of Dictionaries at Longman Publishing Company, who discussed the "credibility gap" between the language we use and the language we teach, and by Rex King, a Hong Kong authority on testing, who discussed the backwash effect of public examinations on classroom teaching.
The final plenary was given by Claire Kramsch, Professor of German and Foreign Language Education at the University of California at Berkeley, who talked about language, culture, and affective aspects of language learning. She discussed the nature of "cultural otherness" and cited quotes to explore how foreign language learners construct new cultural identities through learning "the language of the Other."
Business Meeting
The major work of IATEFL was done at its annual conference business meeting. While reports were given on membership, finances, and the day-to-day running of the organization, the focus of this year's meeting was the announcement of IATEFL's new officers and projects.
IATEFL was proud to unveil a new international slate of officers for its IATEFL Committee, with members from countries such as Turkey, Russia, Greece, Poland, Brazil, and Thailand. This is the first time in the history of the organization that a majority of members are based outside the UK and is thus a major step in IATEFL's continued drive to internationalize and to move away from its "British-only" image. The other main change in personnel was that Madeleine du Vivier officially ended her term as IATEFL Chair and was succeeded by Simon Greenall, IATEFL's 1997 Chair. Simon is known to many in JALT and visited Japan two years ago to represent IATEFL at our JALT95 conference in Nagoya.
IATEFL's executive board also announced a number of new projects. One is the setting up of an IATEFL World Wide Website enabling electronic access to IATEFL information and resources. Another is the issuing of two new IATEFL publications--an annual compilation of articles from IATEFL's SIG newsletters tentatively titled "the Best of the SIGs" and the publishing of IATEFL's annual Conference Proceedings. IATEFL has also issued its first-ever publications brochure listing SIG-published books on such topics as pronunciation, classroom research, and young learners, as well as videos of past IATEFL conference plenaries that are available for purchase.
Social Program
In addition to the academic and business side of the conference, a rich variety of social events was also held. These included a Scottish Ceilidh Dance featuring bagpipes, swirling kilts, and the Scottish Fling, walking tours of Brighton (including a night tour of Brighton cemetery!), a lecture on Regency Period architecture, and a lively blues band. For those with more academic tastes, an evening writing workshop was held by Mario Rinvolucri, and a story-telling session by veteran EFL story-teller Andrew Wright.
The highlight of the social program was the IATEFL Conference Dinner. In addition to enjoying fine British cuisine, participants were able to take part in a "trivia quiz" with a bottle of champagne as prize and enjoyed a humorous after-dinner speech on linguistics and language play by David Crystal, Honorary President of IATEFL.
IATEFL and JALT
IATEFL and JALT signed a partnership agreement in 1996 which allows both organizations to exchange newsletters, send representatives to each other's conferences, and work together on international projects which promote excellence in the teaching of English. One current project involving the cooperation of both organizations is the ongoing series of Pan-Asian conferences which focus on the teaching and learning of English in Asia. The first of these three conferences took place in Bangkok, Thailand in January 1996. The next two conferences will take place in Korea in 1999 and in Japan in the year 2001.
JALT was represented at IATEFL's 1997 conference by two official delegates--Kip Cates and Jane Hoelker--and by a number of JALT members from Japan. A well-placed display table served as a focal point for conference-goers interested in JALT and in language teaching in Japan. In addition to exhibiting JALT publications, signing up new members, and distributing information about JALT's activities, JALT representatives also fielded questions about the upcoming JALT97 conference, found emergency accommodation for teachers from Japan, and made useful contacts with other language educators from around the world.
Twenty presentations were given by Japan-based language educators. These included sessions on English education in Japan, controlled composition, teaching culture, strategy training, grammar teaching, text comprehension, the pragmatics of silence, global issues, and speaking skills. The conference also featured a colloquium introducing IATEFL members to the UNESCO Linguapax program, a follow-up to the JALT96 Linguapax sessions in Hiroshima.
For More Information
JALT members with Internet access can learn more about IATEFL by taking a look at its World Wide Web site at <http://www.man.ac.uk/IATEFL>. Those wishing to become IATEFL members at special rates can do so through JALT by filling out the JALT postal furikae payment form found at the back of each issue of The Language Teacher. JALT members are also invited to attend IATEFL's 1998 international conference which will be held in Manchester, England from April 14-18.