International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) is an organisation in the field of

English language learning and teaching English-language learner (often abbreviated as ELL) is a term used in some English-speaking countries such as the United States and Canada to describe a person who is learning the English language and has a native language that is not English. Some ...

. It is based in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and was founded in 1967 as ATEFL (it became ‘International’ in 1970), by W. R. (Bill) Lee, who also served as the organisation's first Chairman until 1984. IATEFL works primarily to develop networks amongst related institutions and individuals involved in

language education Language education refers to the processes and practices of teaching a second language, second or foreign language. Its study reflects interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary approaches, usually including some applied linguistics. There are f ...

as it is relevant to the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. This includes classroom teachers, administrators of language programmes, teacher trainers/educators, writers and publishers, language assessors and examination bodies, and researchers, for example in

applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, Communication stu ...

. The renowned British linguist

David Crystal David Crystal, (born 6 July 1941) is a British linguist who works on the linguistics of the English language. Crystal studied English at University College London and has lectured at Bangor University and the University of Reading. He was aw ...

was patron of IATEFL from the mid 1960s until 2023. He was followed as patron/matron by Jan Blake. IATEFL holds an annual conference in the spring, with key speakers and individual papers, workshops and symposia. Membership is approximately 4000, spread through more than 100 countries. The primary activities for IATEFL members throughout the year are centred on

Special Interest Group A special interest group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to effect or to produce solutions within their particular f ...

s (SIGs), which hold various types of meetings, conferences and

webinar Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conference, conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of ...

s, and publish newsletters. In addition to these, there is a bimonthly magazine for the whole organisation, ''IATEFL Voices''. Officers are elected on a regular basis, with a professional staff performing logistics and promotional tasks throughout the year. Membership meets yearly at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the main conference.

References

External links

International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language
{{Authority control English-language education