IATEFL
The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language is a UK-registered professional charity for teachers and teacher educators in English Language Teaching. Founded in 1967, it operates as a global membership association linking, developing, and supporting ELT professionals through Special Interest Groups, an annual conference, and member publications.
Foundation and structure
IATEFL was founded in 1967 and is registered as a UK charity, with a small head-office staff and a volunteer Trustee Board elected from the membership. The organisation's core unit of activity is its Special Interest Group (SIG) network — sixteen SIGs, each focused on a particular professional area such as Young Learners, Pronunciation, Teacher Development, Business English, or Inclusive Practices. SIGs hold their own meetings, publish newsletters, and run pre-conference events, and most of the year-round professional activity for members runs through them.
The annual conference
The IATEFL Annual Conference and Exhibition, held in a UK city each spring, is among the largest ELT events worldwide. It draws several thousand delegates and runs several hundred sessions across plenary, workshop, and SIG-day formats over four days. Selected sessions are streamed and archived through the conference's online channels, extending reach to members who cannot attend in person. The conference doubles as the principal annual gathering of ELT publishers, materials writers, and assessment bodies.
Publications and outputs
IATEFL publishes Voices, a bi-monthly members' magazine, and oversees SIG newsletters and occasional publications. It does not publish a peer-reviewed academic journal in the manner of TESOL International Association (publisher of TESOL Quarterly); the academic counterpart in UK ELT is the ELT Journal, published by Oxford University Press in association with IATEFL but editorially independent.
Position in the field
IATEFL and TESOL International Association are the two largest ELT professional bodies globally. The two are sometimes positioned as a UK-based / US-based pair, but their memberships are international and overlap substantially. The choice between them, for individual teachers, often comes down to SIG fit, conference travel logistics, and which journal — ELT Journal or TESOL Quarterly — they read most regularly.
References
- IATEFL. About IATEFL. iatefl.org/about
- British Council. A history of IATEFL: The first 50 years. teachingenglish.org.uk