The Far Eastern English Language Teachers’ Association (FEELTA) is a professional organization founded in 1995. Its mission is to strengthen the teaching and learning of English in the Russian Far East, to promote the professional development of EFL teachers, to support networking with colleagues all over the world, and to give access to the latest EFL resources.
FEELTA headquarters is in the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok. Today FEELTA is an organization of over 500 members. There are currently seven FEELTA posts in the Russian Far East: in Blagoveshchensk, Birobijan, Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Ussuriysk, and Vladivostok (FEELTA headquarters). These posts provide ELT professionals with information and support within their geographical areas.
FEELTA’s premier event is the international conference, which is held every other year and attracts some 500 participants. It is a major event and EFL practitioners from even the remotest parts of the Russian Far East come to network and expand their knowledge. The location of the conference alternates between Vladivostok and one of the other FEELTA posts. The inaugural conference, in June 1996, was held in Vladivostok, the 1998 one in Khabarovsk, the 2000 conference in Vladivostok again, and the 2002 conference in Blagoveshchensk. The 2004 conference was our biggest so far, held once again in Vladivostok, with the cooperation of our partners in the Pan Asian Consortium of language teaching associations, and featured an international line-up of featured speakers and participants from 17 different countries. The 2006 conference in Birobijan was smaller, quieter and more intense. The next conference was held in Vladivostok in 2008 hosted jointly with the National Association of Teachers of English. In 2010 the cycle began to repeat itself when the conference returned to Khabarovsk. In 2012, we were again in Vladivostok hosting the Pan Asian Consortium. The 2014 conference was held in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, warmly welcomed and professionally organized by the enthusiastic team of FEELTA members and supporters. Now we are looking forward to another major joint event! In 2016, FEELTA conference will be held in Vladivostok in cooperation with the largest Asian ELT association – Asia TEFL (www. asiatefl.org).
The quarterly newsletter informs members of FEELTA activities and also of the main news in the field of TEFL both in Russia and overseas.
Among other FEELTA activities are an annual English Language “Talent Show” for secondary students, a Winter EFL Methodology School offering a number of workshops and seminars on new trends in language and culture teaching, and publishers’ seminars to give teachers knowledge of the latest textbooks and other teaching resources.
FEELTA is eager to expand its connections with overseas colleagues by forming partnerships with international professional organizations. In 2001, FEELTA became the 5th member of the Pan-Asian Consortium (PAC), an alliance of language teaching associations in East Asia. FEELTA has partnership agreements with each of the PAC member associations: KOTESOL (Korea TESOL), JALT (the Japan Association for Language Teaching), ThaiTESOL (Thailand), ETA-ROC (English Teachers’ Association – Republic of China) and with PALT (the Philippine Association for Language Teaching). Since 1999, FEELTA has been an associate of IATEFL (the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language).The recent developments of international cooperation include agreements with ALAK (The Applied Linguistics Association of Korea) and KATE (Korea Association of Teachers of English) signed in September 2015.
The agreements with these TAs allow us:
- to exchange newsletters and journals;
- to invite an official representative to each others’ annual conference;
- to explore the possibility of joint activities such as exchanging speakers; advertising job announcements, extending invitations to attend business meetings and special debates, and planning a joint Asian conference;
- to publish membership announcements in each others’ newsletters.
We encourage EFL professionals to join the Far Eastern English Language Teachers’ Association and to use their membership to the fullest so that FEELTA can be a powerful partner in your success.
Central Office
Bldg. D, Ajax St., Russky Island, Vladivostok, Russia
Rooms D416, D418 (Galina Lovtsevich, FEELTA President)
E-mail: feeltacon@gmail.com
Who is who in FEELTA
The members of the Committee are as follows:
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Galina Lovtsevich President Resposibilities: coordinating and assisting the work of Executive Committee and the AssociationMarina Rassokha Vice-President Resposibilities: maintaining and improving public relations with teachers’ associations, FEELTA Posts and secondary/higher education institutions. Yevgeniya Golikova Tatyana Lupachyova Аnna Spirina Tatyana Vlasova, Larissa Krainik, Irina Lebedeva |
