58th IATEFL Annual Conference and Exhibition

Scottish Edinburgh hosted the biggest ELT event of the year – the 58th IATEFL Annual Conference and Exhibition. Over 2000 ELT professionals from around the globe met up to attend workshops and talks on various up-to-date topics related to teaching English and training English teachers.

The Associates‘ Day was designed to maintain the connections between the ELT associations and to enjoy meeting in person. A range of presentations provided the opportunity to learn about the work of the associations in many countries such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Spain, Latvia, Germany, the UK, Belarus, Turkey, Pakistan, Bolivia, Poland, Portugal, Kurdistan and others. We all have a lot in common, including the goals to be reached, challenges and achievements. The connections from this conference event can help SCELT to make their work even more international and become a part of the global ELT family. I was proud that SCELT is a legitimate part of such a strong body as IATEFL.

After the information rich programme participants were all invited to attend the evening events to try some traditional Scottish dances, meet a famous storyteller Jan Blake, enjoy the music by teachers at the Music Night held by Jeremy Harmer or learn about a marvellous city of Edinburgh.

IATEFL 2025 brought up interesting topics in ELT methodology: an emergent language, task-based language teaching, AI in ELT, memory and language learning or teacher research.  The need of teacher well-being, CPD and professional support resonated in many sessions. Dr. Catherine Walter, the plenary keynote, summarized the changes in ELT world over the 50 years and talked about the implications on students, schools and teachers. She acknowledged and appreciated English language teachers with the reflection on a good teacher: „Good enough teacher is good enough.“

Eva Balážová