Kathryn Sidaway, University of Warwick, England
The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) annual conference is one of the largest teaching conferences in the world and is held every April/May in the UK. After the 2020 conference was cancelled and 2021 was online, I was really excited about going to Belfast in 2022. As a teacher, I had first attended the conference in 2016 in Birmingham as I was living and working nearby at the time. I enjoyed the choice of talks and workshops so much that I returned in 2018 and then presented for the first time in 2019. I only missed 2017 as I was on maternity leave.
How is the conference organised?
Each morning at 9am there is a plenary session in the main auditorium, which brings all the delegates together. These are always on a mix of topics from a range of international teachers, teacher trainers and researchers and the best ones (in my opinion) encourage audience participation to get you thinking about your own practice. After that, there are nine time slots across the day where you can choose from around 15 talks/workshops each time – there is a lot of choice! Have a look at the programme from 2022 to see what I mean https://issuu.com/iatefl/docs/2022_conference_programme_-_digital?fr=sNzQ0MDQ5MzY0Mjg
In addition to this, there are poster presentations each day during the lunch breaks which are a good opportunity for MA and PhD students to share their projects with practitioners. There are also early morning wellbeing sessions (I’ve never arrived in time for any of those!) and pre-conference events (PCEs) which are booked and paid for separately from the main conference. Each special interest group (SIG) has a PCE and a showcase day which can help you to find talks on specific topics, for example there is a Learner Autonomy SIG that might be of interest Meet IATEFL's 16 Special Interest Groups | iatefl.org
Who attends?
As previously mentioned, this is a conference for teachers. As a researcher, if you want to share your findings with teachers and have an impact on teaching and learning, then this is the conference for you. You will meet teachers from all over the world and learn about their teaching contexts, which might help you reflect on the research you are conducting.
In the exhibition, as well as picking up free drinks and pens, you might bump into David Crystal (patron of IATEFL), chat to Christine Muir at the University of Nottingham stand or listen to Sarah Mercer talk about her latest book. There is always a real buzz of activity in the exhibition area with pop-up presentations and competitions happening throughout the day. It’s also the only place in the conference where you can buy food and drink, which are usually extremely expensive so I’d always suggest leaving the conference to find a local café or sandwich shop. Sitting by the river Lagan, watching the boats go by provided a good break from all the presentations.
Presenting
The call for presentations is open now until 21 September 2022 for the conference next year in Harrogate, click here for more info: Speaker information | iatefl.org. Anyone presenting needs to be an IATEFL member and pay for attendance at the entire four day conference. Your talk needs to appeal to teachers or teacher trainers so you will write a different type of proposal to ones for BAAL, for example. My talk this year was about a project I had organised with a local ESOL department to motivate teenagers during the pandemic. My co-presenter was a teacher and we provided suggestions for other teachers to conduct a similar project. We also explained how our project connected to the literature on language learning motivation, such as the use of near-peer role models and ways of fostering autonomy. After my talk, I met ESOL teachers and researchers from all over the UK as well as EFL practitioners who were working with teenagers. As I am on the committee for the ESOL SIG, I ran the showcase day and also presented, which meant I had quite a busy day! You might want your talk to form part of a SIG showcase day and you can apply to do this when you submit your proposal.
If you're looking to bridge the gap between academia and the language classroom, find participants for your next project or gain insights from practitioners, then IATEFL is the ideal opportunity. See you in Harrogate!
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