What People Say about IATEFL 

When you join an organisation you often want to find out from people who already belong to that organisation why it’s worth being a member. Some of our members have been kind enough to send us quotes about what IATEFL means to them.

If you’d like to send us a quote of your own, then please send it to memberships@iatefl.org

“IATEFL is the right organisation to belong to if you want friendly and supportive engagement with ideas and practices relevant to classrooms and the complex business of language teaching.  I have always learned a lot from IATEFL publications, meetings, SIGS and the many conferences held around the world.”
- Professor Ronald Carter

“In my opinion, IATEFL is a bonding experience. I get to meet and talk with teachers from all over the world, whose teaching settings are so different from my own. I find that a mind broadening experience. I also think that the conference is always thought provoking and demanding to follow. It urges me to research and study and it points me to the directions I should be looking at, if I want to stay up to date. Finally, communication never stops because throughout the year IATEFL publications are sent to me and I can carry one researching and thus improving myself.”
- Maria Sachpazian, Greece

“One of the most important aspects of IATEFL for me is the fact that it offers members the opportunity to present and discuss their ideas in the supportive environment of the IATEFL annual conference as well as at a host of other conferences and workshops. I found the experience very rewarding and confidence-boosting when I was a new presenter myself, and years later, my own students are finding the same. On top of that, the SIG newsletters provide a really excellent forum for both new and established writers to publish their research and teaching ideas – as well as a very stimulating source of material for readers. I’d join all of them (well, almost) if I had the time to do all that reading.”
- Jennifer Jenkins

“I’ve been a member of IATEFL now for more years than I care to admit. During these years, it has become increasingly recognised as an association which is both international in its outlook and world-wide in its outreach. It reflects both the diversity of teaching and learning practice, and provides a forum in which the influence and importance of English and the ELT profession can be discussed. Happy 40th Birthday to IATEFL!  Where would we all be without you?”
- Simon Greenall

“I joined IATEFL because I wanted to create an international network and to learn from other people from other contexts.  Today I am a member because I want to support IATEFL so other people might get the same chance I had to meet colleagues from all over the world.”
- Kari Smith, Norway

“Since its foundation, IATEFL has contributed enormously to the work of large numbers of English teachers round the world. I personally owe a great deal to this remarkable association, and to the many people who have devoted their time, skills and creativity to developing and sustaining it.”
- Michael Swan

“Why join IATEFL? Well, the annual Conferences are a great way to keep up to date with what is new in the EFL world. I went to a terrific session on using Interactive Whiteboards this year. I had seen them being used in classrooms before, but I had no idea they could do so much.
I always make a point of attending some sessions on subjects I know very little about, which broadens me out. Ten years back I started going to Young Learners sessions for primary teachers. It was because of what I learnt from these that I became convinced of  the need for a book which would help teachers new to primary teaching with their classroom English.  'English for Primary Teachers', co-authored with primary expert Mary Slattery whom I met at just such a conference was the result.
So - IATEFL is not just for your own professional development, but also for making really useful contacts with like-minded people from different countries. 
The publications are really useful too, and the conferences - (held in many countries, not just UK), are always friendly, fun and stimulating. You get back to your classroom invigorated and can share new ideas with colleagues. Well worth it!”
 - Jane Willis

“By being a member of IATEFL, I had the chance to apply for the First Time Speaker scholarship and so to present in front of an international audience at the 2005 Cardiff convention. This made me realize the possibility teachers have to communicate local ideas and experiences through a worldwide network.”
- Dina Kyratzidou, EAP Teacher, Greece

“I consider my membership of IATEFL to be a vital part of my professional context. IATEFL is where my linguistics becomes truly applied, both when I present to its highly aware and constructively critical audiences who come to IATEFL events to find solutions to theoretical and practical problems, and when I attend presentations by others, where I always learn something I did not know or gain some new insight into the theory and practice of applied linguistics.”
- Professor Michael McCarthy

“My reasons for not having missed a single IATEFL Conference since 1979 as these:
The annual gathering of the EFL tribes allows me to keep up to date with and assess UK-led trends.
If I choose well from them 18 abreast presentations that you offer me I can give myself a brilliant 4 day training course.
The professional quality of my co-participants is extremely high, so I learn loads by just talking to people randomly in the lunch queue
I pick up masses of work for Pilgrims by attending IATEFL and powerfully spread our name.
The conference is mind-bogglingly reasonable in price, especially in an excellent venu like the Harrogate Conference Centre.”
- Mario Rinvolucri

"IATEFL has given us the opportunity to be part of an international community with common interests and has been an excellent forum for the exchange of ideas. Special mention should be made of the Special Interest Groups which have brought us in contact with colleagues with whom we share common knowledge and background in issues regarding English language teaching."
- Katerina Nicolaidis and Marina Mattheoudakis
  School of English, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
  Aristotle University of Thesslaoniki, Greece

“As a beginner teacher, IATEFL meant the world of ELT opening up. It made me see that there are so many different ways of being a good teacher. I always returned home from an IATEFL Conference with exciting new ideas and with my batteries recharged.
As a more experienced practitioner, being a member meant reaching out to fellow professional, finding out what it's like to inhabit differerent corners of the world as an English teacher.
Being a committee member gave me the satisfying feeling that in a very small way I was making a difference.
At the moment, suffering form network and email fatigue, IATEFL gives me the opportunity to still feel part of a wider community - if and when I want to.
Once I recover from network fatigue, I want to help make Global Issues more central to IATEFL as I think that we only have a chance of survival if our actions are guided by empathy and compassion towards fellow human beings.”
- Margit Szesztay, Hungary

“It is a truism to remark that applied linguistics has now expanded into new areas beyond the teaching of English.  Yet that area of enquiry still accounts for the greatest part of its activity, and is the major source of significant ideas and findings about language use and learning in the contemporary globalised world. Within this area, the IATEFL conference provides a necessary meeting point between academics and practitioners, allowing applied linguists to be kept up to date with views from outside the academy. It is also a platform from which applied linguists can communicate their own ideas and findings.  This two-way traffic is essential if applied linguistics is to mediate successfully and effectively between the real and academic worlds and maintain its credibility and identity as an applied discipline.  The quality of papers is high, the atmosphere is stimulating, and there is a mutually beneficial flow and testing of ideas between theory, research and practice.”
- Professor Guy Cook

“Before I joined IATEFL I viewed 'teacher training' as what we did in CELTA and DELTA courses in IH training centres. After joining IATEFL, my eyes were opened to what teacher training really is, on an international scale. I became aware that most teacher training takes place in non-English speaking contexts, on university courses, for teachers of children. I also realised that English language teachers need and appreciate the facility to network, exchange ideas and learn from colleagues worldwide, and that IATEFL is able to carry out this networking role as part of its mission, through its publications, its discussion groups and its Annual Conference. I am proud to have become part of such a wide-reaching and hard-working group of professionals.”
- Jenny Johnson

“IATEFL is where I get so many of my ideas about successful teaching and learning, whether from the magazine, the newsletters or from the wonderful annual conference.”

“If you want a truly international mix of creativity, ideas and sheer enjoyment, then IATEFL’s annual conference is the place for you.”

“I love IATEFL. It’s my professional family.”
- Jeremy Harmer

“The English classroom without IATEFL:
- students suffering the SOS syndrom ("same old stuff")
- teacher stuck on variations of same teaching ideas
- teacher stuck on variations of same teaching methods
- feeling of isolation and insignificance
- reinventing the wheel that must be somewhere out there
- being bogged down by cranking out worksheet after worksheet
- from a non-native speaker's view:
  fear that language ability deteriorates

The English classroom with IATEFL:
- conferences and workshops help stay on top of "things English"
- new activities liven up the sessions
- students challenged with new methods, creative lessons
- teacher's prep time cut in half by shared worksheets/ideas
- teacher interacts with a network of colleagues worldwide
- teacher makes new friends
- from a non-native speaker's view:
  language ability continuously honed”
Greetings from Mainz, Germany!
Elke Lassahn

“The intelligence of people working together is the key to improving social settings, especially in education which touches nearly everything. This intelligence can be liberated round a kitchen table, in a staff room or classroom, in a region, wherever people have sincere conversations about what matters. And sometimes this gives rise to networks of people who commit to improving the settings of each other and those they serve, persistently, over time, and in multiple ways.  IATEFL is such a network, creating spaces for local conversations and global understanding and support, through its many different small and large activities. IATEFL connects EL professionals so they can hear and be heard, contribute and make a difference by developing effectiveness and responsibility in the teaching of English in local settings and the global village ....”
- Adrian Underhill