The Language Teacher
04 - 2001

FEELTA

Galina Lovtsevich, FEELTA President


Stephen M. Ryan,
FEELTA representative to PAC



Greetings from the president of the Russian Far Eastern English Language Teachers' Association! I am happy to be able to communicate with colleagues in Japan to explore the state of foreign language teaching in this part of the world and to look for cooperation with our nearest neighbors.

The Russian Far Eastern English Language Teachers' Association (FEELTA) is a relatively young organization. It was founded in 1995 under the initiative of a group of university EFL teachers. By that time there was a great need for a regional professional association for a number of reasons:

  • After 70 years of living behind the Iron Curtain the Russian Far East became open to the world. There was a strong demand for the English language as a means of communication and cultural understanding in the Russian Far East as it strives to take its place as an active member of the Pacific Rim community.
  • We teachers of English working in the Russian Far East had become increasingly aware that our teaching concerns were different in our Asian context from those of the European part of Russia. To mention just a few of them: the demand for American English, the need to focus on East Asian accents and varieties of English (for trading relations with Asian nations), and the emphasis on multiculturalism. Never before had we thought about the peculiarities of teaching English in the Far East as the educational system was centralized and uniform all over Russia.
  • There was a need to integrate English language teachers working at different educational levels: primary, secondary and tertiary to create more coherence in language teaching.
  • Moscow and Saint Petersburg had always been educational centers in Russia, with the richest libraries and the best universities. Immense distance and economic difficulties made it impossible for us Far Eastern teachers to go to Moscow or Saint Petersburg to attend professional development courses or work in the national libraries.

We see the primary goals of the association to be strengthening the teaching and learning of English in the Russian Far East, promoting EFL teachers' professional development, supporting networking with colleagues all over the world, and giving our members access to the latest language teaching resources. I have to admit that these goals are not easy to attain, as a regional professional association is a novelty in Russian EFL. Many of us are not accustomed to recognizing the kind of help that networks and support groups can offer. Many of us got used to hierarchy in educational system and still wait for somebody to tell us when and what to do for professional development. But one of the main discoveries that we FEELTA members have made recently is that FEELTA is us and for us!

As the geography of the Russian Far East is extensive, to coordinate our work efficiently we have founded affiliates throughout the Far East. Today FEELTA has four affiliates: in Primorye, the Khabarovskiy region, Sakhalin and the Amure region, with its head office in Valdivostok. With a core membership of over 200, FEELTA is working hard to spread the word about the benefits of membership to English teachers throughout the region: we have, for example, established a tradition that each of our affiliates should have a chance to host the biennial international conference, which usually attracts over 500 participants. This conference is the highlight of the FEELTA calendar and EFL practitioners from remote parts of the Russian Far East come to network and expand their knowledge and expertise. The first three conferences proved to be professionally fruitful for many teachers who have now developed a taste for networking. For many of us non-native speaking teachers of English, the conference is a rare chance to meet native speaking teachers, to discover the things we ELT professionals have in common, and to become more international.

Among other FEELTA activities are the Winter EFL Methodology School (a number of workshops and seminars on new trends in language and culture teaching), publishers' seminars and exhibitions to inform teachers about the latest textbooks and other teaching resources, and the annual English Language Contest "Talent Show" for secondary school students. We do everything possible to facilitate the learning of FEELTA members and to increase students' motivation to master the language and to discover the joy of learning a foreign language.

We clearly see that nowadays networking is not only possible, but essential, with increasing globalization of everything, including the English language. Our aspiration is to join other ELT professional organisations with similar concerns, to give FEELTA members the chance to know the state of TESOL in other countries, to share our experiences and ideas, and to learn from each other.

Galina Lovtsevich, FEELTA President

I attended FEELTA's first conference, in Vladivostok in 1996, with a small group of JALT members, thinking that the Russian Far East might be an interesting place to meet language teachers. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found: a beautifully run conference, where everything fell into place with the ease of a duck gliding through water; audiences who sat in part rapt attention; a level of scholarship few of us had ever experienced; dedication, professionalism and sheer enthusiasm in quantities that still bring tears to my eyes; and a warmth of welcome that has had me running back for more to each succeeding conference.

The event was all the more remarkable for the circumstances under which it was held. For decades during the Soviet period, Vladivostok was a closed city; English teachers worked with almost no contact with the outside world. Even five years earlier the idea of holding an international conference for English teachers there would have been a fantasy of the most self-indulgent kind. FEELTA itself was less than twelve months old when the conference was held. Many of those attending had not seen each other since leaving university, for there had been no previous regional conference. Many had travelled 12­15 hours to be there, some more than 30. No wonder they were enthusiastic.

Khabarovsk in 1998, FEELTA2, was a must for me. Times were hard, though: the conference was held just weeks after the ruble crashed; life savings looked certain to be lost and even supplies of basic food and fuel seemed uncertain; many people had to cancel their travel plans at the last moment. Those who could come, did, and with the same enthusiasm as before. Upon arrival, I was greeted with the words: "Thank heavens you've come. Now we can have an international conference," a slight exaggeration as there were Peace Corps volunteers and representatives from the U.S. Information Service, too; but our presence was obviously appreciated.

What a pleasure it was then to arrive in Vladivostok for FEELTA3 last summer, to find the local economy much more robust and FEELTA positively blooming. The conference was bigger and slicker than ever, but the spirit was still the same: teachers delighted to be talking to teachers, warm hospitality, and overwhelming enthusiasm. FEELTA is clearly ready to spread its wings beyond the Russian Far East and to begin networking with other language teaching organisations in the region.

Stephen M. Ryan

FEELTA representative to PAC

<RX1S-RYAN@asahi-net.or.jp>

 STOP PRESS

FEELTA (the [Russian] Far Eastern English Language Teachers' Association) is pleased to announce the signing of a partnership agreement with the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT). Thomas L. Simmons, JALT President, and Galina Lovtsevich, FEELTA President, exchanged an electronic version of the agreement on February 14th/15th, 2001, with a paper version to be signed later.

FEELTA, which already has a partnership agreement with KOTESOL, looks forward to signing similar agreements with ThaiTESOL and ETA-ROC in the near future, in order to proceed to full participation in PAC before the PAC3 at JALT2001 conference in November.



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