International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) is an organisation in the field of English language learning and teaching. It was founded in 1967 and is based in Britain. Due to its relevance with the English language, IATEFL works primarily to develop networks amongst related institutions and individuals involved in language education. This includes building networks among classroom teachers, administrators of language programmes, writers and publishers, language assessors and examination bodies, and researchers who are working for example in applied linguistics. IATEFL is organised around an annual conference in the spring, with key speakers and individual papers, workshops and symposia.
Attended by over 2,500 English Language Training (ELT) professionals from more than 100 countries, IATEFL involves a four-day programme of around 500 talks, workshops and symposiums as well as a vibrant social programme. This offers a unique opportunity to meet leading theorists and writers, and exchange ideas with fellow professionals from all sectors of ELT.
IATEFL Conference 2017 will be held in Glasgow from 4 to 7 April 2017. Hence, to assist the potential and interested teachers to submit proposal to IATEFL Conference, the British Council organised an experience sharing session on ‘How to submit proposal to IATEFL Conference’ at the Dhaka University campus office on 21 July 2016.
Teachers from different private universities who are preparing themselves to join IATEFL Conference attended the event. Tazin Ahmed, Lecturer, Southeast University shared her experience of preparing and presenting papers at IATEFL Conference 2016 in the UK.
The teachers were trained on different tricks and tactics that they can apply in preparing and presenting papers at IATEFL Conference. These tricks and tactics were presented via audiovisuals concerning different policies of the IATEFL committee, session types, criteria for selection, key issues to consider, sample summary, title and abstract along with some important points to remember while preparing the paper. The presentation ended up with an interactive question and answer session, which made the arrangement more engaging.
Overall, the teachers appreciated the initiative taken by the British Council and mentioned that the session was very useful as they got to know about the appropriate techniques.