TESOL Arabia has been steadily growing over the past couple of decades and this has brought with it exciting changes, developments and new initiatives.
Melanie Gobert, President of TESOL Arabia says, “We’ve been in the region for over two decades and it was time to revamp things in order to reflect the growth our organisation has gone through.”
First up was the membership policy. Membership is now open to students, K-12 teachers, and tertiary teachers in the UAE, GCC, the greater MENA region, and international members. “We also wanted to streamline the process for our existing members so membership renewal can now be done online in a one-step payment process,” continues Melanie.
She adds, “In fact, with the changes on our website, members can benefit from many services through the e-commerce platform: they can register for the conference, purchase a TESOL Arabia publication, view past TESOL Arabia publications online, subscribe to our monthly online newspaper, and avail of many other opportunities to interact with TESOL Arabia, such as applying for grants.”
TESOL Arabia has also introduced two new benefits for members: they can apply for one of seven complimentary memberships to TESOL International and for a conference fee waiver to TESOL Arabia affiliate conferences. It is also offering 5 fully-paid scholarships to attend the conference in March 2015 to teachers from the greater MENA region (not GCC) to those who would like to attend the conference but cannot afford to due to the economic crisis in their countries. The application is posted on the website.
Mini-conferences and events run throughout the academic year all across the UAE. Some of these events are organised by TESOL Arabia’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and are about a variety of topics, such as edtech, best practices, teaching methodology, spelling, English for specific purposes, and many others. Details about the events and registration are on the website.
The organisation also annually publishes 4 books in addition to Perspectives, a TESOL Arabia peer-reviewed quarterly journal, which can be accessed for free online 2 to 6 months after publication, and Conference Proceedings, an edited volume that is published in time for the annual TESOL Arabia Conference and is on sale at most TESOL Arabia conferences and events.
TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Arabia is a not-for-profit teachers’ membership organisation devoted to the professional development of its members, who are mostly based in the UAE and the Gulf region, though it has many members in other countries around the world. It is run by volunteers elected from its membership and is financed by the subscriptions of its members and the proceeds of its Annual International Conference & Exhibition. The next conference (TACON 2015) will take place 12th – 14th March 2015 at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
For more information about TESOL Arabia, membership, events, mini-conferences, publications, grants and its annual conference, please visit the website.
– TESOL Arabia Press Release
