International Affairs

International Partner Organizations

Pan Asian Consortium (PAC) Members

English Teachers’ Association of the Republic of China (ETA-ROC)
Far Eastern English Language Teachers Association (FEELTA)
Korea TESOL (KOTESOL)
The Philippine Association for Language Teaching (PALT)
Thailand TESOL (ThaiTESOL)
PAC website: pac-teach.org

Other International Partners

Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA)
International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)
Linguapax Asia
Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)
Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA)
The Association of Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN)
TESOL International Association (TESOL)

International Affairs Committee

Andrew Tweed (chair)
Donna Fujimoto
Shirley Ando
Asian Scholar Liaison: Mary Burkitt
JALT President: Dawn Locovich (member ex officio)
JALT Vice President: Robert Chartrand (member ex officio)

About the International Affairs Committee

The International Affairs Committee (IAC) of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) will support JALT by establishing, maintaining, and developing international contacts and joint activities between JALT and other partner organizations and groups. The responsibilities of the IAC fall into six categories:

Ensure that Reciprocal Agreements are kept up to date and are satisfactory based on the interests of JALT and our Partner organizations; Note: Partner organizations include national or international language teaching associations (Pan-Asian Conference [PAC] organizations are classified as Partner organizations by JALT; JALT is considered an Affiliate organization of IATEFL and an Associate organization of TESOL: For the sake of clarity in this document, all organizations with which JALT has reciprocal relationships will be termed Partner organizations)
Investigate potential partnerships and collaborative opportunities with non-traditional partners in the region; Note: Traditionally, Partner organizations have included national or international language teaching associations. Developing relationships with other non-national association groups (i.e., AsiaTEFL is a regional organization which is not based in one country; CamTESOL is a conference series based in Cambodia where a national teaching association has yet be established) could also be mutually beneficial. For the sake of clarity in this document, these non-national association groups with which JALT could develop mutually beneficial relationships will be termed non-traditional partners.
Organize and help to coordinate JALT representation at Partner conferences, and liaise with the Board of Directors in organizing Partner representatives and/or speakers at JALT conferences:
JALT representatives at Partner conferences will:
- Meet with key Partner organization executives;
- Gather information to add to each Partner organization profile;
- Promote JALT activities and publications; and,
- Investigate possible collaborative activities between JALT and the Partner organization and / or our membership.
Regarding Partner organization representatives at JALT conferences, the IAC will coordinate with the JALT Conference Program Chair / Organizing Committee in the disseminating of information to Partner organization representatives including:
- Schedules for activities related to Partner organization representatives;
- Conference venue (including location and access);
- Accommodation (including duration, location, and access);
- Conference fees waiver; and,
- Information/publicity tables (possibly shared).
Regarding international attendees at JALT conferences, the IAC will endeavor to support international attendees by:
- Providing language and logistic support during the conference; and
- Helping to find solutions to problems encountered by the Partner organization representatives.
Disseminate relevant information with the goal of encouraging the involvement of the JALT membership at large in international activities by:
- Providing information related to international Partner organization representative presentations at Annual JALT Conferences to SIGs and Chapters;
- Providing information about international collaborative opportunities to members of the EBM; and
- Advertizing international collaborative opportunities through JALT publicity outlets.
Assemble and keep up to date a profile of each Partner organization. Each profile may include, but not be limited to, the following relevant information about each Partner organization: names of executive members, membership numbers, interest groups, names of publications, publication deadlines (in order to publicize JALT activities), and annual national conference information.
Investigate / encourage possible opportunities to collaborate on projects between JALT and our Partner organizations, such as promoting joint research by our members, co-authorship of papers by our members, hosting conference panels, and/or supporting the Pan-Asian Conference series.