Over 1,400 conference goers and more than 100 speakers took part in the ETA conference on English teaching November 8-10, 1996. This year's conference returned to National Taiwan Normal University after being hosted last year in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
Entitled "New Perspectives of English Teaching: Materials and Methodologies," the conference drew on invited speakers from around the world as well as English teachers from all levels of instruction within Taiwan. Among the speakers invited from abroad were A. Owen Aldridge of the University of Illinois (Champaign), Abraham Binstock from Charles Sturt University in Australia, Martin Cortazzi of the University of Leicester, Lixian Jin of De Montfort University (UK), David Nunan of the University of Hong Kong, Teresa Pica of the University of Pennsylvania, Jack Richards of the University of Auckland, and Wong Lian-Aik of the National University of Singapore.
Former JALT President and current international Chair David McMurray of Fukui University gave an address on EFL Development in Asia. In his speech, he noted the importance of ties between teachers and teaching organizations within the region, especially in light of the first Pan-Asian Conference in Bangkok, January 5-7, 1997. Also from Japan, David Paul of David's English House in Hiroshima returned to Taiwan to speak on the teaching of children.
Overall, presentations ranged from mostly lectures to workshops and discussions. In addition, international and local publishers and book dealers provided a wide assortment of current and traditional teaching materials.
On the first night, a "speakers' dinner" gave presenters an opportunity to get to know one another as well as to meet ETA President David Dai and other ETA officers. On the second day of the conference, elections were held for the seven-member Board of Supervisors and the 21-member Board of Directors, which elects the officers.
One outcome of this year's conference was the decision to launch the Association's first newsletter next spring. With that will come a call for papers for next year's conference, which is scheduled to run for three days from Friday November 14 through Sunday November 15. The 1997 site will be National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.