News

‘Mindfulness and Reflection in Exam Prep – Six Practical Activities’ by Maria Theologidou

March 24, 2025

Over the last few years, the importance of emotional and mental well-being in education for teachers and learners has become more widely acknowledged (Sulis et al., 2023). As the emphasis on becoming ...

Sustainability and IATEFL in 2025

February 14, 2025

Sustainability has been one of IATEFL's main strategic focuses for quite a few years now, and each year we share what we are doing on our website with the aim of being open, accountable and hoping to ...

Update on the Simon Greenall Award 2024

December 11, 2024

As you may know, the Simon Greenall Award celebrates the life and work of Simon Greenall OBE, teacher, trainer, materials writer, President of IATEFL, trustee of International House. The Award offers ...

Interview with Rob Howard

December 3, 2024

Rob, it is nice to have you here. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? To give a little background, I grew up in the United States where I worked in different businesses. I spent many years in...

‘Using games as a powerful tool in teaching vocabulary’ by Angeliki Daviti

November 19, 2024

On August 3, I presented a webinar on using games as a powerful tool in teaching vocabulary. In this webinar, we explored practical and creative strategies for teaching vocabulary to young learne...

‘In what ways can we benefit from volunteering in teachers’ associations?’ by Beatrix Price

September 24, 2024

Learning through volunteering is one great reward. It is nothing less, in fact, than all the 21st-century skills we can gain as volunteers which we would otherwise need to pay for in a corporate envir...

Reports on PRELIM 3 projects now available

September 6, 2024

As with the previous two PRELIM projects, PRELIM 3 matched 25 teaching associations around the world with EnglishUK member institutions to collaborate on a project to benefit teachers in that teaching...

‘Another country: 10 things I’d like to tell my younger teaching self’ by Christopher Graham

September 3, 2024

1. Your students (usually) want you to succeed. In my very first teaching job in Italy, I had a dreadful experience. Do you remember the ‘make a piece of paper into a ball, throw the ball and the b...

An interview with Judith Mader

August 15, 2024

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Judith. I am from the North of England and went to the University of Sussex in beautiful Brighton as well as later to Birmingham University where I did an MA i...

An Interview with Beatrix Price

July 9, 2024

Hello Beatrix and thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I work at the Department of Language Pedagogy at the Institute of E...

57th IATEFL International Conference – Poster Presentations

May 17, 2024

The poster presentations at the #iatefl Conference are a great way for ELT professionals to present their research and ideas. Each poster is on display for the duration of the event and presenters are...

An interview with Christopher Graham, in-coming IATEFL Vice President

May 8, 2024

Vicky: First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you! Christopher: So many thanks Vicky. I’m really looking forward to the ro...

IATEFL signs Memorandum of Understanding with 21st Century English Education, China

April 29, 2024

The board of trustees were delighted to welcome a group of teacher educators from China to the recent IATEFL International Conference in Brighton, and also to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with&n...

Follow-up to webinar “So…let’s debate!” with Tanya Livarda

March 15, 2024

On January 6th, I had the opportunity and pleasure to present the webinar ‘So…let’s debate’ as a part of the IATEFL monthly webinars. It was a fruitful experience as I got in touch with many colleague...

Election results for the next Vice President of IATEFL

February 15, 2024

IATEFL received five excellent nominations from members to be the next Vice President, and then President of IATEFL. As a consequence an election was held, including an online hustings, for members to...

IATEFL and global conflicts

February 13, 2024

Dear IATEFL members, With the awful increase in global conflicts, and in particular the terrible humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, we felt it was important to be open and clear on IATEFL’s posi...

IATEFL receives multiple awards from The Fair List for its events in 2023

February 1, 2024

We are delighted to announce that IATEFL has received a range of awards for events it ran in 2023. What is The Fair List? The Fair List encourages and celebrates gender balance among speaker...

Sustainability and IATEFL in 2024

January 25, 2024

With sustainability being one of IATEFL's main strategic focuses, we include environmental impacts in all areas of decision-making and planning within the association. Here's what IATEFL is doing, as ...

An interview with ELT author and trainer Katherine Bilsborough

January 24, 2024

Katherine was interviewed by Vicky Papageorgiou from the IATEFL Publications Committee Hello Katherine and thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Hi Vicky. Thank you for inv...

The Simon Greenall Award 2024

January 16, 2024

The Simon Greenall Award 2024 is now open for applications. Macmillan Education and International House kindly offer this award for a project that builds community through learning English. Th...

Announcement of IATEFL’s new Patron

January 9, 2024

On behalf of the IATEFL Board of Trustees I am delighted to announce that Jan Blake has agreed to become the new Patron of IATEFL, following on from the amazing Professor David Crystal who stood down ...

Ten tips for writing materials by Katherine Bilsborough

December 19, 2023

All teachers write materials for their learners at some point. Sometimes, we are prompted by an interesting article we come across in the newspaper which makes us think: ‘That would be useful for my B...

An Interview With ESPSIG Coordinator Caroline Hyde-Simon

November 15, 2023

An interview with Caroline Hyde-Simon by Vicky Papageorgiou First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you! For people who ...

Volunteering For Teachers’ Associations with Milena Tanasijevic

October 24, 2023

I have always believed in learning from peers and sharing experiences. Noone would understand our position better than like-minded professionals who almost always, as I have seen, feel the same. The p...

An interview with recent webinar presenter Burak Aydın

October 3, 2023

Following his popular IATEFL Webinar in August, we took the opportunity to interview Burak Aydın further into the subject of his webinar and also his personal work. IATEFL members can view the re...

‘Enhancing learner engagement through inquiry-based learning’ by Michelle Worgan

September 4, 2023

Imagine you teach a class of seven-year-olds. You provide lots of fun activities: songs, stories, crafts and games. The children appear to enjoy your lessons, but whenever you ask them to do some writ...

An interview with the past Chair of the Membership Committee Mojca Belak

August 9, 2023

An intreview with the past Chair of the Membership Committee, Mojca Belak, by Vicki Papageorgiou Mojca, it has been a pleasure working with you these past few years. It’s been a pleasu...

An interview with IATEFL Chair of the Membership Committee Gerhard Erasmus

July 24, 2023

An interview with the new IATEFL Chair of the Membership Committee, Gerhard Erasmus, by IATEFL Ambassador Syke Annamma Kumaran: You are the new Chair of the Membership Committee. Could you tell ...

Follow-up to webinar “Word (hi)stories: making lessons memorable and engaging” by Jennifer Lowe

July 17, 2023

On 4th February 2023 I presented the webinar “Word (hi)stories: making lessons memorable and engaging”. More than 200 participants attended from all over the world and I wanted to thank them for the h...

Turkey’s ‘English Together’ project at the IATEFL International Conference

May 31, 2023

The IATEFL Conference in Harrogate last month was delighted to welcome a Turkish delegation for the second year running. The delegation of 22 members included representatives from the British Council ...

Update on the review of the use of the IATEFL name and branding

April 6, 2023

This past year has seen an extensive consultation process carried out to address concerns about the use of the IATEFL name and logo by Associates. The Trustees and Chief Executive Officer have underta...

‘A Session in Flipped Learning’ by Sarpparaje Murugavel

March 28, 2023

Any new teaching-learning pedagogical experiments like digital learning, gamification, cooperative learning, etc. are welcomed and appreciated by the education community but looking at the social real...

‘My experience from the IATEFL Belfast Conference and tips to win a scholarship’ by Babu Lama

March 13, 2023

“If you don’t buy a raffle ticket, you won’t win a lottery.” This was what was written at the end of the email, with the link to the IATEFL Belfast conference scholarship application, sent by one of m...

Candidates for the role of Chair of IATEFL Membership Committee

February 20, 2023

The nominees in alphabetical order: Gerhard Erasmus Having been a committee member of the Membership Committee, I have insight into the running of the committee and the overall responsib...

Candidates for the role of IATEFL Secretary

February 20, 2023

The nominees in alphabetical order: Alex Fayle Why do I want to serve on the IATEFL Board of Trustees? Because I can’t imagine not being involved in the community. I was raised with the ...

PRELIM project update: partnerships are announced and the projects begin!

February 13, 2023

The Partnered Remote Language Improvement project (PRELIM) supports the development of teachers using English across the world. Funded by the British Council and run in partn...

‘My First Experience in Teaching English Pronunciation to ELT Teachers in Nepal’ by Rajendra Man Singh

February 13, 2023

As part of my master’s degree programme at Kathmandu University School of Education, I was involved in developing a training programme for the professional development of English Language teachers in ...

Simon Greenall Award 2023

February 6, 2023

The Simon Greenall Award 2023 is now open for applications. The purpose of this Award is to support a language project which brings people together through learning English. The award offers six...

Sustainability and IATEFL in 2023

January 30, 2023

‘Methodology in teaching – special needs education’ by Tamara Bradonjić

January 17, 2023

A teacher’s role in the classroom should not only be focused on teaching and passing knowledge on students. The more important roles are focused on motivating students and developing methods for foste...

Call for IATEFL trustee positions

January 16, 2023

Would you like to make a difference in the English language teaching profession and help shape the future of IATEFL? With the current incumbants reaching the end of their terms, we welcome nominati...

Meet the IATEFL Ambassadors

November 24, 2022

Our IATEFL Ambassadors having been taking part in livestreams, talking about their backgrounds, their connections to IATEFL, how they benefitted, and how the association can help English language teac...

Is it easy to make your students think?

November 1, 2022

by Shoghig Keoshkerian It has been said that we cannot make our students learn but we can make them think. If you agree with this statement, therefore, it is worth shedding light on le...

PRELIM 3 teacher training project opens for applications from teaching associations

October 24, 2022

The PRELIM teacher training project, pairing teaching associations throughout the world with UK training insitutions, is moving into a new phase. PRELIM 3 (Partnered Remote Language Improvement Projec...

Practice what you preach, study what you teach by Ian Butcher

October 18, 2022

Great teachers often don’t make the best students, at least in my experience. Over the years, I have collected a number of tips and tricks which I relentlessly try to embed into my students’ approach ...

Follow-up to Webinar “The Neuroscience Factor in Language Learning”

October 3, 2022

On 3rd September, I had the pleasure of delivering this Webinar for the IATEFL community of teachers and followers. I do hope this follow-up article triggers more questions than answers. THANK YOU! ...

Follow-up to webinar on Extensive Reading with Thomas N. Robb

September 5, 2022

On 6 August 2022 I was privileged to be able to present an IATEFL webinar on my views on the application of Extensive Reading as a means of providing students with one essential that is often lacking ...

Pop culture in the teen ESL classroom

August 19, 2022

Pop culture in the form of movies, songs and other forms of mass media can infuse a whole lot of fun in the teen classroom while also supporting learning. In one of my early creative writing classe...

Update on IATEFL Associates and a review of the use of IATEFL branding by Associates

July 22, 2022

Introduction IATEFL Associates are an integral and valued part of the IATEFL community. They are all established teaching associations based in a particular country or region. IATEFL provides resou...

An interview with Kristina Gregorčič

July 11, 2022

The age structure of IATEFL shows that at the moment most members are in their forties or fifties, while the percentage of the youngest, those in their twenties, is more than three times lower than ei...

Let’s celebrate IATEFL Project week!

June 17, 2022

Between the 18 and 24 June 2022, the IATEFL Head Office team will be undertaking a series of challenges to raise the profile (and hopefully some funds) for IATEFL Projects, and we invite you to join u...

Distance or face-to-face learning, which should we adopt?

June 15, 2022

After a little more than two years of the sudden shift to online teaching, our department decided that we adopt a hybrid approach to teaching, which meant that part of the program is taught face-to-fa...

Review of the IATEFL’s branding policy for Associates

June 2, 2022

As part of our Annual General Meeting in Belfast last month the Board of Trustees reported back to members on the association’s plans for the future. Having a clear strategy provides the association w...

An interview with Aleksandra Popovski

April 28, 2022

Vicky: First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you! Aleksandra: Thank you for the invitation, Vicky. Vicky: Aleksandra, you a...

Conference news update 30 March 2022

March 30, 2022

Making sure the IATEFL International Conference is a safe and enjoyable event for all The safety, security and wellbeing of attendees has always been a primary concern when we plan our internationa...

Conference news update 18 March 2022

March 18, 2022

We’re getting closer to our first face-to-face International Conference and Exhibition since 2019, and the excitement is definitely growing. In the coming few weeks we’ll be letting you know about eve...

IATEFL statement on Ukraine

March 15, 2022

IATEFL’s thoughts are with all those caught up in the current war in Ukraine. We wish to stand in support of all IATEFL members, as well as IATEFL Associate teaching associations, who oppose and co...

Call for webinar presenters now open

March 2, 2022

IATEFL is currently accepting proposals from IATEFL members for webinar presentations to be included in the monthly webinar programme for 2024/25. IATEFL’s webinar programme provides participants a...

An Interview with Kieran Donaghy

February 25, 2022

Members who attended the IATEFL Virtual Conference in June 2021 will remember Kieran Donaghy and his plenary session 'Embedding a culture of empathy in English language teaching' at the beginning of t...

‘IATEFL-ing’ by Maria Davou

January 26, 2022

I am kind of a nomad, travelling from conference to conference, talk to talk, from one country to another. Pre-COVID19, of course. Those were the days… I joined IATEFL some years ago, first as a co...

Making the IATEFL International Conference in Belfast a safe and enjoyable face-to-face experience

January 24, 2022

It’s certainly been a challenging time over the last two years as we've tried to organise our annual international conference! As you will remember, we took the difficult decision to defer the confere...

‘Why become a volunteer for an IATEFL SIG?’ by Rachael Harris

January 7, 2022

I stumbled unexpectedly into IPSEN SIG in 2016, I say unexpectedly because after all, what did I have to offer a SIG? I’m no editor (I went on to be newsletter editor for a while), I’m not brilliant o...

Result of the call for nominations for the next Vice President of IATEFL

December 6, 2021

As you will be aware, we recently put out a call for the role of Vice President of IATEFL. That call has now closed and we have received a valid nomination, proposed and seconded by current IATEFL mem...

‘Rethinking oral feedback practice in EFL’ by Junita Duwi Purwandari and Arum Perwitasari, PhD

November 25, 2021

Imagine your student(s) is/are doing a speaking task, a dialogue with peers or an individual presentation, and you spotted a mistake in her/his utterance. What would you do? Interrupt and correc...

Call for trainers

November 23, 2021

IATEFL is looking for a small number of teacher trainers to run teacher development sessions as part of an online training day IATEFL plans to run for both members and non-members on 26 Janu...

‘7 Questions for Katalin Egri Ku-Mesu’

November 11, 2021

Vicky : First of all, I’d like to welcome you, Katalin. It is a joy to interview you and to have worked with you! For the people who might not know you, this is a great opportunity to introduce ...

Call for Vice President, then President, of IATEFL

November 3, 2021

Are you the next leader of IATEFL? We are currently accepting nominations for the next Vice President of IATEFL, who will then become President in the second and third years of their term, before b...

IATEFL and the climate emergency

October 25, 2021

Statement from IATEFL: IATEFL acknowledges that we are facing a climate, ecological and planetary emergency that is impacting our most precious natural resources, exacerbating social inequalitie...

PRELIM returns at double the size!

October 8, 2021

Bids are being invited from UK English language schools to help improve the confidence, language and teaching skills of English Teaching Association (ETA) members in 40 nations. The Partnered Rem...

‘And now what? Will online learning replace the College campus?’ by Vicky Papageorgiou

October 4, 2021

As the 2021 Fall semester is approaching and we start contemplating whether the pandemic will allow us to go back to face to face teaching, force us to compromise with blended learning or will eventua...

‘The importance of intersectionality in educational equity for all’ by Despina Evgeni

September 10, 2021

Intersectionality is a term that I came across quite recently and totally by chance as part of my present studies on Social Anthropology and my commitment to ensure educational equity and social justi...

‘Teachers affect inclusion’ by Mercedes Pérez Berbain

August 18, 2021

At one of Pilgrims’ online café gatherings, where teachers from all over meet to share views on education we were invited to choose a quotation which resonated with us and share our views w...

‘6 questions for Gabriel Diaz Maggioli, President of IATEFL’

August 4, 2021

Vicky : First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you! Thank you for the opportunity! Vicky : Can you talk to us about your wor...

‘How my professional life changed after winning an IATEFL scholarship’ by Vicky Saumell

July 19, 2021

Back in 2009, I was starting to feel restless as a teacher and, following the advice of a friend and colleague, who said I should be doing more than teaching, I decided to send a proposal to speak at ...

‘Getting the most out of CPD Events’ by Farid Bashiri

June 1, 2021

Continuing professional development or CPD comes in a variety of forms: conferences, workshops, learning groups, etc., and with all the great online opportunities booming around these days, you might ...

‘Dial-up to Broadband: Changes in my ELT world’ by Syke Annamma Kumaran

May 4, 2021

Hope you all remember Jon Burton’s invitation in his article “30 years in English language teaching” to share the memories of the greatest changes in our professional life and Mojca Belak’s response i...

‘Online language teaching vs Emergency remote language teaching’ by Milena Tanasijević

April 20, 2021

Having prepared and delivered online language courses for more than 10 years, one would assume that I would know what needed to be done when, in the Spring of 2020, an email from the management ...

Call for moderators to support the IATEFL International Conference 2021

April 9, 2021

We are looking for IATEFL members to be moderators to support speakers and sessions during the three days of the virtual international conference this year, being held from 19 to 21 June 2021. ...

‘What next?’ by Aleksandra Popovski

April 6, 2021

Living in the current surreal reality has taken a great toll on everyone and teachers are no exception. After a year in this situation now is the time to look back and reflect on some lessons learnt. ...

A Lockdown Musical (ELT) Story: collaboration in a time of Covid

March 23, 2021

Last year, at about this time, when the world started going into ‘lockdowns’, one of our Publications Committee members, Rakesh Bhanot, began to encourage friends and colleagues to write about how the...

‘The greatest changes in my professional life’ by Mojca Belak

March 5, 2021

In his article "30 years in English language teaching" Jon Burton invited the readers of IATEFL Views to share our memories of the greatest changes in our professional lives. Here are some of mine: ...

The 54th IATEFL Conference and Exhibition is going virtual this June

February 24, 2021

The 54th IATEFL Conference, Exhibition and Careers Fair is going virtual this June, rather than being held in Harrogate, UK. Why have we done this? Whilst we are still four months away from the ...

‘Why I’m not giving up teaching’ by Jade Blue

February 19, 2021

There’s so much I love about teaching English. There are few things that make me happier than spending my days in a room full of interesting people, talking about life and culture and learning, explor...

Update on the PRELIM Project

February 9, 2021

The Partnered Remote Language Improvement project (PRELIM) is a unique initiative, supporting the development of over 2000 English language teachers across the world. Supported by English UK, British ...

’30 years in English language teaching’ by Jon Burton

February 8, 2021

2021 marks thirty years since I first became involved in English language teaching. It’s been a good opportunity to look back over that time, what’s changed for the better, what I miss, why I came int...

The Simon Greenall Award

February 1, 2021

Simon Greenall, OBE, friend of the global ELT community, passed away in September 2018. Simon described himself as traveller, writer, chef and full time friend. Many in the ELT community knew Simon th...

‘Clouds and sunshine: surviving a challenging year’ by Grace Alchini

January 26, 2021

The pandemic has undoubtedly been the protagonist of this strange year for most (if not all) of us. It has shaken our lives in many different ways. It has been a period of difficulties, challenges and...

‘You don’t have to be a long-established member of IATEFL to contribute’ by Adam Malster

January 4, 2021

I have only been a member of IATEFL since November of this year, but I have been encouraged to write this blog post by my colleague Gerhard Erasmus to show that you do not have to be a long-establishe...

English language organisations join forces to run major global teacher project

November 26, 2020

We’re excited to report that IATEFL has partnered with other major English language organisations on a ground-breaking project to improve teaching standards in 20 countries. PRELIM – the Partnered ...

‘Micro-teaching Marathon in Nepal’ by Gopal Prasad Bashyal

October 26, 2020

The context As the lockdown continues at the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nepalese teachers have been taking part in learning pedagogical and digital skills in various webinars and trainings organised by...

‘Empathetic understanding of resistance to achieve a new normal’ by Amal Farhat

October 12, 2020

School leaders often face resistance when introducing a new approach to be adapted by teachers. This was evident when schools had to abruptly shift to online teaching due to the involuntary closure of...

‘Critical thinking for an intercultural English education’ by Metin Esen

September 21, 2020

If you are a teacher of English, you have might have found yourself saying, “British people are polite people, and they will say ‘sorry’ no matter what”. Or the coursebook was presenting a unit about ...

‘I want to thrive, not just survive’ by Dr Steven Graham

September 7, 2020

It is March 16th in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and having completed two classes in the morning, I am told that the university is closed because of Corona Virus. Looks like my afternoon class is going to be ...

Update on the 54th IATEFL International Conference

August 25, 2020

We‘ve all been following, with concern and dismay, the spread of COVID-19 and its effects around the world. In the United Kingdom one of the ways the pandemic has been tackled is through using convent...

‘Surviving professionally during Covid-19’ by Krishna Prasad Parajuli

August 24, 2020

During the lockdown period, I was confined to my house in a remote village about 60 kilometers away from Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. My village had electricity and a mobile network but not b...

‘Teaching Young Learners in Covid-19 times: our experience in Uruguay’ by Cecilia Cabrera Martirena

August 12, 2020

Young Learners, who are sometimes referred to as digital natives, are the human beings that might be more capable to adapt to virtual learning. However, children from 6 to 11 years old need other...

‘Letting life happen’ by Claudia Molnár

July 20, 2020

I’m not really one for making New Year’s resolutions, but in December I decided that I needed a year off. A totally unrealistic desire, so, I set about thinking exactly what it was I needed a year off...

IATEFL 2021 Conference Scholarships open!

July 15, 2020

Each year IATEFL offers a great range of conference scholarships to enable teachers, trainers and other ELT professionals the opportunity to attend the IATEFL Annual Conference in the UK. Th...

IATEFL in the time of COVID

July 14, 2020

It’s difficult to think of a more challenging time for the English language teaching sector globally as we all battle against this awful pandemic and its consequences. Equally, there is no more import...

‘ELT Footprint: a personal reflection’ by Katherine Bilsborough

July 7, 2020

The most surprising thing about ELT Footprint is that it didn’t already exist. There wasn’t a go to place for those of us keen to discuss the relationship between our profession and the climate crisis...

‘Zooming in on Digital Education’ by J. Mangayarkarasi

June 10, 2020

The Covid-19 virus has had a tremendous impact on all educational institutions in the world, and India is no exception. When PM Modi declared total lockdown with only 4 hours’ notice in the eveni...

IATEFL Statement on racial discrimination and police violence

June 5, 2020

The world has recently watched with sadness and shock, the brutal killing of an African American in the US, with a police officer being charged with his murder. We at IATEFL have been embittered by th...

‘Shining under lockdown with the Hands Up Project’ by Rida Thabet

May 29, 2020

No one could have ever imagined that the whole world might undergo such a dramatic change that is likely to reshape our perspectives on almost everything in such a short space of time! For the first t...

‘A Post-Corona SWOT Analysis’ by Sandy Millin

May 19, 2020

Coronavirus COVID-19 will probably impact how we live our lives for many years to come. But what might that mean for the future of English language teaching? SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, ...

Lockdown Downunder: some snapshots (and online lesson ideas!) from New Zealand

May 11, 2020

Blog article by Jill Hadfield Situation at the time of writing We are currently in Week Seven of Lockdown. The government adopted a policy of ‘Go Early, Go Hard’ and ‘Test! Test! Test’! Thi...

The remarkable resilience and creativity of ELT teachers

May 4, 2020

There’s a lot of negativity around at the moment, both in the world and in ELT. When the IATEFL conference in Manchester was postponed to next year, it really hit me how much it means to me. I could w...

Just another grounded teacher

April 14, 2020

"This has been one year of a week!" is a phrase I share with students, both as a joke and a nod to the present perfect tense that we have been working on for some time. But the joke lands flat and the...

Coronalingo

April 2, 2020

At the end of every year major dictionary compilers choose their ‘Word of the Year’. This doesn’t have to be a novelty word. It can be an old word that has made a comeback or taken on a new meaning, s...

A week in the life of a teacher of English in ‘lockdown’ Milan, Italy

March 26, 2020

This is a personal diary of a week in the time of self-isolation due to COVID -19. I am starting my third lockdown week during which I have kept some notes that I want to share with you. Day One (8...

Where we are, and where we’re going

March 23, 2020

Well, it’s certainly been a challenging time for IATEFL over the last few weeks, as we know it has for all of you, facing this awful virus and its effects. The association has battled to make the righ...

From superhero to trainee teacher and IATEFL steward

March 19, 2020

After attending a few smaller conferences and developing a real taste for them, I seized the opportunity to go international, and applied for a stewarding role at the 2019 conference in Liverpool. How...

‘Coracles, cloaks and bivvy bags’ by Thom Jones

March 12, 2020

I’ve been lucky enough to attend the IATEFL conference every year since....well, ever. The first time I went I distinctly remember the young David Crystal trying to sneak in around the back in short t...

Behind the scenes at Views: IATEFL members’ blog

March 3, 2020

This is an updated and shortened version of a previous blog - Behind the scenes at the IATEFL blog, posted on 28 October 2017 by Sandy Millin After three years, the IATEFL blog has been renamed, an...

‘Taiwan schools grapple with corona-phobia’ by Aiden Yeh

March 3, 2020

It’s difficult to sneeze nowadays without paranoid people looking at you as if you’re the carrier of the deadly novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) - the SARS-like disease that has recently been classified ...

IATEFL statement on Novel Coronavirus

February 25, 2020

Update 13 March 2020 Important: the 54th Internation IATEFL Conference and Exhibition has been deferred until March 2021. Please click here to read an important message regarding the IATEFL Inte...

‘Spontaneity in the Classroom’ webinar: a participant’s perspective by Rozitah Abu Samah

February 20, 2020

I had the pleasure of attending one of Adrian Underhill's hour-long session - part of the IATEFL monthly webinar series. The subject was how to address spontaneity in the classroom. It started of...

IATEFL and Brexit, so what’s happening?

February 10, 2020

As many of you will know, the United Kingdom left the European Union at the start of 2020. You will also know that the annual IATEFL Conference is held in the United Kingdom. So what does this...

Spontaneity: the elephant in the room by Adrian Underhill

February 8, 2020

Introduction This IATEFL Webinar on Spontaneity took place 4th Jan 2020. 350 people attended, and contributed 6000 words of comment and response. (The talk and slides are available for IATEFL membe...

Election of the next IATEFL Treasurer

January 13, 2020

We are delighted to announce that, following a call for nominations and election, Bethany Cagnol has been selected as the next IATEFL Treasurer, to take over from Colin Mackenzie when his term of offi...

‘The isolated teacher: a few reflections on being an EFL tutor in a rural community.’ by Cristina Fernández

January 7, 2020

Living in a rural community has shaped my life in many ways. First, when I became an English student, I wouldn’t attend lessons in English schools because they were too far from my living lo...

Season’s Greetings from IATEFL

December 12, 2019

IATEFL would like to wish all our members, event delegates, associates, partners and friends of the association a happy and peaceful festive season. IATEFL Head Office will be closed from...

Welcome to the new IATEFL website!

November 12, 2019

Welcome to the new IATEFL website. Our main aim has been to provide you with a new, mobile-friendly site with better navigation and new resources for you. Quick links: Frequently as...

‘Voices – call for review writers’

October 31, 2019

We are coming up to the IATEFL annual Web Conference and Voices traditionally commissions people to review the sessions for the Spring issue of the newsletter. We thought it wou...

‘Welcome to the IATEFL blog!’

October 31, 2019

For those of you who don’t know, IATEFL is the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. It’s based in the UK, but has members from all over the world. The&n...

‘Q & A from David Little’s webinar on learner autonomy’ By David Little

October 29, 2019

On 20th August 2016, David Little presented the following IATEFL webinar: Learner autonomy and its implications for the discourse of language teaching and learning My presentation will be based ...

‘Introducing Business English Special Interest Group (BESIG)’ By Julia Waldner

October 29, 2019

What does BESIG do? BESIG is a professional association for Business English teachers. We have a fantastic annual conference held alternately in Germany and abroad, with workshops and pre...

‘ANELTA workshops in Angola’ By ANELTA

October 29, 2019

From March 2015 to April 2016, the Angolan English Language Teachers´ Association (ANELTA), in partnership with the American Embassy in Angola, with the support of the Ministry of Education ...

‘Q & A from Anne Margaret Smith’s webinar on including all students’ By Dr Anne Margaret Smith

October 29, 2019

On 10th September 2016, Anne Margaret Smith presented the following IATEFL webinar: Including dyslexic language learners In this session we will explore the main effects that dyslexia can have o...

Simon Greenall

October 29, 2019

Simon Greenall is a long-time member and past president of IATEFL. He very kindly agreed to be the first individual member featured on the blog. Tell us a bit about you and your teaching career ...

‘Introducing Pronunciation Special Interest Group (PronSIG)’ By Heather Hansen

October 29, 2019

Why PronSIG? PronSIG members attending the PronSIG pre-conference event (PCE) at this year’s IATEFL conference in Birmingham.Pronunciation is often a relatively small part of teacher training progr...

‘Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA)’ By Arifa Rahman

October 29, 2019

The Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA) is a registered non-profit professional forum for ELT practitioners in Bangladesh, a country in South Asia, small in size bu...

‘How IATEFL shaped my journey’ By Gerhard Erasmus

October 29, 2019

Like many other teachers around the world, my route into ELT was poorly planned and probably a little haphazard at best. I came to Asia having quit a career I did not enjoy back home and with little i...

‘Why LAMSIG?’ By Andy Hockley

October 29, 2019

Perhaps you’ve recently moved from being a teacher to some form of management role – maybe senior teacher, ADOS, Academic Manager, Coordinator, Director of Studies or some other role or title. You’ve ...

‘The Saudi Organization of EFL Education’ By Dr. Tahany Albaiz

October 29, 2019

Supervised and operated by the English Language Institute at the University of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Although the English language Institute started as a branch, it has become an ind...

‘Research Special Interest Group (ReSIG)’ By Nicola Perry

October 29, 2019

The Research Special Interest Group (ReSIG) brings together people who are interested in doing research in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). It is a broad organisation made up of, not only...

‘English Language Teachers’ Association of India (ELTAI)’ By Dr. S. Rajagopalan

October 29, 2019

Introduction Our Association had a humble beginning and has grown into one of the largest professional associations of teachers in the world just like a tiny seed becoming in course of time a big&n...

‘Editing IATEFL Conference Selections’ By Tania Pattison

October 29, 2019

Very soon, you will find the latest issue of IATEFL Conference Selections coming through your letter box – or into your inbox if you have opted for the digital version. In this blog pos...

‘IATEFL YLTSIG – Supporting teachers of children and teenagers for 30 years’ By David Valente & Christina Giannikas

October 29, 2019

Young Learners and Teenagers SIG is one of IATEFL’s 16 Special Interest Groups and a key part of the Association’s worldwide network of English language teaching professionals. YLT...

‘Q & A from Agnes Orosz’s webinar on teaching mixed-level groups’ By Agnes Orosz

October 29, 2019

On 4th February 2017, Agnes Orosz presented the following IATEFL webinar: Abstract A few years ago I was teaching in a private high school in Ecuador. In my Year 9 group, I had 25 students;...

‘A freelancer’s perspective on IATEFL’ By Julie Moore

October 29, 2019

A freelancer in the gig economy I started my career some 25 years ago as an EFL teacher, working in private language schools in Greece, the Czech Republic and the UK, but for the past 17 years or s...

‘Diary of a scholarship winner, part 1’ by Katy Muench

October 25, 2019

This is the first of a three-part series by Katy Muench, one of the Glasgow 2017 scholarship winners. In this part, she introduces herself and tells you about the process of applying for and getting a...

‘Q & A from Chaz Pugliese’s webinar on creating motivation’ by Chaz Pugliese

October 25, 2019

On 18th March 2017, Chaz Pugliese presented the following IATEFL webinar: Creating Motivation, Creating Learning I believe in local research, so a few years ago I conducted interviews ...

‘Diary of a scholarship winner, part 2’ by Katy Muench

October 25, 2019

This is the second of a three-part series by Katy Muench, one of the Glasgow 2017 scholarship winners. In part one, she introduced herself and told you about the process of applying for...

‘Diary of a scholarship winner, part 3’ by Katy Muench

October 25, 2019

This is the second of a three-part series by Katy Muench, one of the Glasgow 2017 scholarship winners. In part one, she introduced herself and told you about the process of applying for...

‘My first IATEFL conference’ – various contributors

October 25, 2019

This post is a collection of summaries from four different people who attended the IATEFL conference for the first time in Glasgow in 2017. Shay Coyne About me I’m a freelance education...

‘My four Cs of IATEFL membership’ by Clare Maas

October 25, 2019

Conferences I attended my first IATEFL conference in 2008. I was in awe and overwhelmed at the same time. I tried to attend as many sessions as I possibly could, which kind of back-fired and meant ...

‘Q & A from Anthony Gaughan’s webinar on 40 things to do with a text’

October 25, 2019

On 6th May 2017, Anthony Gaughan presented the following IATEFL webinar: 40 things to do with a text In this session I will share 40 quick and dirty things to do with texts in our...

‘Why me?’ by David Crystal

October 25, 2019

A question I’m often asked is how I became patron of IATEFL. The short answer is that Catherine Walter, who had the presidential role in 1993, asked me. And I asked her: Why me? For I am in no way a t...

‘How IATEFL scholarships work’ by Maureen McGarvey

October 25, 2019

It’s that time of year again! April 2018 may seem a long way off, but applications for scholarships for the 2018 annual IATEFL Conference in Brighton have been open for a couple of...

‘Me, myself, and I…ATEFL’ by James Egerton

October 25, 2019

Teachers’ associations. 5 years ago. Say what you see: dull, pointless, port, tweed. The ‘hindsight revisionist’ in me would love to say that I was just setting off on my teaching career at this po...

‘GISIG and me. And you!’ by Gergő Fekete

October 25, 2019

G I S I G. 5 letters, 12 committee members, 162 members, and a lot of enthusiastic followers. Even though our Global Issues SIG is considered small among IATEFL’s SIGs, we are very proud of what we re...

‘From checklist to reality check: The never-ending nature of professional development’ by Wiktoria Parysek

October 25, 2019

Last year, after completing the input portion of my CertIBET with Helen Strong (IATEFL BESIG’s Events Coordinator) I made an action plan for my future as an English instructor. If you’r...

‘The IATEFL Presidency and Vice Presidency’ by Marjorie Rosenberg

October 25, 2019

IATEFL Board of Trustees 2015Now that I am a Past President of IATEFL and finishing my term as a Trustee as Vice President, it seemed like a good time for a blogpost on how all this works. There ar...

‘Helping to ensure a safe and positive community’ by Jon Burton

October 25, 2019

One of the greatest strengths of IATEFL has always been its nature as ‘a big family’ with members supporting each other, sharing ideas and discussing the topics of the day. But how do we support and p...

‘ELT events and the gender balance of speakers’ by Tessa Woodward

October 25, 2019

Been to an ELT event lately? Lots of women teachers there? Quite a few women presenting workshops too? Great! How about the plenary speakers? One woman and four men, you say. Hmmm. That’s a pity! W...

‘FAAPI’s CPD objectives fulfilled once again’ by Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de Profesores de Inglés

October 25, 2019

Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de Profesores de Inglés (FAAPI) is a group of twenty-two teacher associations in Argentina. FAAPI’s conference is the most important ELT academic event in ...

‘IATEFL: dream and reality’ by Syke Annamma Kumaran

October 25, 2019

I heard the acronym IATEFL for the first time only in 2010 at the age of 32, which was 8 years after finishing my M.A. in English. I was attending the 41st annual international conference of...

‘Behind the scenes at the IATEFL blog’ by Sandy Millin

October 24, 2019

Now that the IATEFL blog has been running for a year, I thought it was high time to share a post about what happens behind the scenes. Why does the blog exist? The aim of the IATEFL blog is to s...

‘Q & A from Laura Patsko’s webinar on teaching pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca’

October 24, 2019

On 9 September 2017, Laura Patsko presented the following IATEFL webinar: Teaching pronunciation for English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) What do learners of English need to sound lik...

‘The first workshop of CI-ATEFL (Cote d’Ivoire Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language)’ by Marcos Ngoran

October 24, 2019

Image from Wikimedia Commons shared under a CC 3.0 licenceCI-ATEFL is the Cote d’Ivoire Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. Cote d’Ivoire is in the west of Africa: The as...

‘A life-changing experience’ by Saula Aguilar

October 24, 2019

IATEFL and my dream Margit Szestay and SaulaGoing to the 51st International IATEFL Conference, in Glasgow, was one of the best things that could have happened to me personally as well as profe...

‘Q & A from Nicola Meldrum’s webinar on technology and teacher-led development’ by Nicola Meldrum

October 24, 2019

On 19th August 2017, Nicola Meldrum presented the following IATEFL webinar: How can technology support and facilitate teacher development? In this webinar we will focus on collaborative dev...

‘Q & A from Mike Harrison’s webinar on using graphic organisers’

October 24, 2019

On 21st October 2017, Mike Harrison presented the following IATEFL webinar: Visualising your thinking – ideas for using graphic organisers with learners and teachers Making decisions is dif...

‘Copyright and Copywrong’ by Katherine Bilsborough

October 24, 2019

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that copyright has got nothing to do with you. It has! Whether you’re a teacher, a Director of Studies, a language school owner, a teacher trainer, a materials write...

‘IATEFL membership for personal and professional development’ by Latsouck Gueye

October 24, 2019

In today’s society, changing faster than ever, teachers are faced with the challenge of how to adapt to changes in the field of methodology as well as technology to design courses that cater best for ...

‘My life-changing professional development journey’ by Elena Matveeva

October 24, 2019

I have been teaching English for almost 20 years now. I used to teach Business English at a university, worked as a freelancer for a couple of years and now I am a teacher and academic director in one...

‘My path in and with ELT in Brazil’ by Kyria Finardi

October 24, 2019

I’ve always liked languages (I’m trying to learn my 5th now) and I can’t quite remember when I started to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) and when I began to see myself as an EFL teache...

‘Finding out what captioned video can do for students’ by Elena Deleyto

October 24, 2019

Today I’d like to share with the IATEFL blog readers what I have learnt about the use and usefulness of subtitles and captions for the language classroom. I am a scriptwriter and ELT video producer fo...

‘Presenting tips’ by IATEFL members

October 24, 2019

The annual IATEFL conference will soon be upon us. Of the 600 or so talks that will be delivered throughout the event, more than a few will be given by first-time presenters. IATEFL readily tries to e...

‘The IATEFL Membership Officer’ by Natalie Chambers

October 24, 2019

When I started out, I was immediately thrown in at the deep end as the 2017 Annual Conference in Glasgow was only four weeks away! Not only was I getting to grips with a new role but I was then put in...

‘My dream has come true!’ by Julia Koifman

October 24, 2019

My first steps in teaching and immigration I have been teaching English for 26 years now. I started my career in Simferopol, Ukraine and taught English at the junior-high school. I also worked as a...

‘Things can always get better – teaching associations change lives’ by Božica Šarić-Cvjetković

October 24, 2019

I live in a small town in Serbia and I’ve been teaching English as a foreign language to young learners for more than ten years. I still teach in the same school where I first got the job, in a villag...

Q&A following webinar on ‘International English and its implications for teaching and learning’ by Elizabeth Bekes and Marcela Carrasco

October 24, 2019

On 3rd February 2018 Elizabeth Bekes and Marcela Carrasco presented the following IATEFL webinar: International English and its Implications for Teaching and Learning English is the world’s...

‘Sirhajwan Idek and the wonder of IATEFL: Celebrities, concerts & comrades’ by Sirhajwan Idek

October 24, 2019

I remember telling someone that I wanted to attend and present at IATEFL two years ago when I first visited the UK. I was attending a two-week summer course in Norwich Institute of Language Education ...

‘F-L-I-P your low-tech classroom’ by Saima Abedi

October 24, 2019

A new beginning at IATEFL, Brighton CentreWorking as an ESL and EFL teacher for last 15 years, I am determined to contribute to educational reform. To learn more and more, develop ELT material, train ...

‘What does IATEFL really stand for?’ by Anastasia Khodakova

October 24, 2019

Part 1: The road to the conference I’ve had a passion for English since I saw my first word of it – surprisingly enough, it was ‘pillow’ on the poster of some children’s magazine. I swallowed every...

‘My Brighton experience – reflections on a scholarship’ by Julia Alivertis

October 24, 2019

What encouraged me to attend the IATEFL Conference this year was a combination of things: last years’ experience in Glasgow, an idea for a joint presentation that became a labour of love, dedication t...

‘Like winning the lottery’ by Stephen Dodd

October 24, 2019

I won the Teacher Development Scholarship Award which was a great surprise! I decided to apply for it as I had never been able to attend the main IATEFL conference but had had a taste of previous smal...

‘Teaching listening at IATEFL 2018’ by Svetlana Bogolepova

October 24, 2019

A multitude of topics were discussed at the IATEFL 2018 conference. Teaching listening was one of them, the talks on which are going to be summarised in this post. I am extremely grateful to Camb...

Q&A from webinar on ‘Tapping into the creative potential of groups’ by Margit Szesztay

October 24, 2019

On 2nd June 2018, Margit Szesztay presented the following IATEFL webinar: 'Tapping into the creative potential of groups' In this webinar, Margit Szesztay will explain her fascination with the...

‘e-Valuating your own development’ by Oksana Hera and Rob Howard

October 24, 2019

Being a newly-qualified holder of an internationally recognized teaching qualification and an MA in Linguistics, during my first job interview with a school owner, I aspired to share my vision of teac...

‘Artist in residence’ by Emma-Louise Pratt

October 22, 2019

When I was invited to be the artist in residence at IATEFL in Brighton this year, I jumped at the chance. I had already been talking about artists’ residencies in learning and especially language lear...

‘Q&A on Phil Longwell’s Webinar on Mental Health in ELT’

October 22, 2019

Introduction On 7th July 2018 Phil Longwell presented the following IATEFL webinar: Workshop title: Mental Health Awareness for Employers within ELT Participants looked at the following...

‘Feedback on the IATEFL 2018 Conference in Brighton’ by Sarah Mount

October 22, 2019

2018 was IATEFL’s biggest annual conference so far, with 3079 attendees from 96 different countries. 92% of delegates reported the conference as being Good or Ver...

‘Q&As on David Heathfield’s Webinar on Storytelling’

October 22, 2019

On 1 December 2018 David Heathfield presented a webinar on storytelling entitled “Bringing the world’s winter folk tales alive in your students’ imagination.” In it David demonstrated how oral stor...

‘Creating an effective worksheet: the two golden rules of reflection’ by Adam John Simpson

October 21, 2019

There are so many things to consider when making our own materials for our classes. The physical appearance of our material is important, as are our instructions. What’s more, we should also think abo...

‘IATEFL 2019: New horizons & new perspectives’ by Andreza Lago

October 21, 2019

After nine years since my last IATEFL conference in Harrogate, I was glad to see that many changes have happened in the Conference. New SIGS have been set up, new scholarships have been offered and ev...

‘IATEFL Associates’ Day 2019: a true example of synergy’ by Darío Luis Banegas

October 21, 2019

Every year teacher associations from around the world get together to share experiences, discuss common interests and challenges, and collectively plan different initiatives to take back home and impl...

‘Group cohesiveness and engagement in mobile learning environments’ by Raquel Ribeiro dos Santos

October 20, 2019

A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a system for delivering learning materials to students via the web or apps. My main focus here includes student collaboration and communication by using th...

‘Every student is different! Every day is different! That is what makes it fantastic…’ – Featured member interview with Emma Sarah Muse

October 20, 2019

Where do you currently work and what is your job role? I currently work for Centro Servizi Interculturali, a private language school in Italy. I am a young, resourceful and energetic English teache...