User:Robertjdickey/sandbox

= Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) = Korea TESOL (KOTESOL, 대한영어교육학회) is the largest multicultural English teachers association in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), organized as a nonprofit scholarly/professional society under the National Research Foundation of Korea and local tax laws since 1993. Korea TESOL is a multi-tiered organization of members through regional chapters and nationwide operations such as conferences, publications and Special Interest Groups (SIGs). All memberships are "national" in scope: members can participate in any local or national event with the same membership benefits (discounts), although their dues are targeted to a specific regional chapter.

KOTESOL's slogan "Teachers Helping Teaching" is based on an orientation to collegial teacher professional development, including novice teachers new to Korea (and perhaps without an aim for a career in teaching?) under the mission statement "to promote scholarship, disseminate information, and facilitate cross-cultural understanding among persons concerned with teaching and learning of English in Korea."

Korea TESOL’s membership includes teachers in private and public schools at all levels (K-12, college/university faculty, and hagwon [ private language institute] instructors) as well as teachers-in-training, administrators, researchers, materials developers, publishers, and students. KOTESOL has roughly 650 members: roughly 25% of members are Korean nationals, the remainder expatriates; nearly 20% of members reside outside of Korea. KOTESOL is known for it's conferences (since 1993), print and online publications, and active chapter meetings. An increasing number of members hold higher degrees in language teaching and related fields.

History
KOTESOL was formed through an amalgamation of memberships from two predecessor organizations, the Association of English Teachers in Korea (AETK) and the Korea Association of Teachers of English (KATE - not the same organization as the society now known as KATE, 한국영어교육학회), where these two predecessor organizations gradually wound down from a joint conference (October 24–25, 1992) into a new organization. The first KOTESOL conference was held October 16–17 1993. KOTESOL inherited TESOL International affiliation from AETK and became an IATEFL associate in 1996. Membership and activity in the organization climbed at a time when larger numbers of foreign teachers were invited to work in Korea, with membership climbing to over 900 in 2013 and conference participation over 1500 around the same time.

Chapters
There are currently (Dec 2018) nine regional chapters in KOTESOL :


 * Busan-Gyeongnam
 * Daegu-Gyeongbuk
 * Daejeon-Chungcheong
 * Gangwon
 * Gwangju-Jeonnam


 * Jeonju-North Jeolla
 * Seoul
 * Suwon-Gyeonggi
 * Yongin-Gyeonggi

There have been chapters in Jeju and Kyongju which folded due to lack of members, and the Dajeon-Chungcheong chapter was divided for a short time into Daejeon-Chungnam and Cheongju chapters. International members of KOTESOL are managed separately from the regional chapters.

Most chapters hold regular (monthly) meetings 8 or more times per year, which typically include both academic and social activities.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
SIGs are ever-evolving in KOTESOL, reflecting the current focus of teachers. SIGs have included


 * Christian Teachers
 * Multimedia/CALL
 * Content-based Instruction
 * Environmental Justice
 * Extensive Reading
 * Holistic Education


 * Reflective Practice
 * Teacher Education & Professional Development
 * Research
 * Social Justice
 * Young Learners & Teens

Conferences
Since the first "Joint Conference" in 1992 that led to the founding of KOTESOL, there have been annual conferences each autumn and numerous additional conferences at other times of the year. From 1993 to 2000, these were known as national conferences, since then known as international conferences. Since 2006 spring national conferences have been held many years, with 2-4 regional conferences hosted by chapters most years earlier in the spring. There have also been some smaller symposiums and conferences late in the autumn (Nov. or Dec.), particularly the Daejeon Chapter Thanksgiving Symposiums.

Publications
The quarterly news-magazine The English Connection is the best-known publication, along with the annual KOTESOL Proceedings (select articles from the annual international conference, published roughly 9 months after the conference) and the semiannual Korea TESOL Journal. These are all available online in a moving wall system (access limited to members for a defined period, then open-access) and are complemented by the monthly online/email KOTESOL News and each chapter's own occasional newsletters, plus the news as presented solely on the association's website and Facebook group.

Partner Organizations
KOTESOL is an affiliate of TESOL International Association and an associate of IATEFL, as well as a founding partner of the Pan-Asian Consortium of Language Teaching Societies (PAC). KOTESOL's partner associations include:

International Partnerships
 * TESOL International Association (TESOL)
 * International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)
 * The Pan-Asian Consortium of Language Teaching Societies (PAC)
 * CamTESOL (series of conferences in Cambodia)
 * English Language Teachers' Association of India (ELTAI)
 * English Language Teachers' Association of Mongolia (ELTAM)
 * English Teachers' Association of the Republic of China (ETA) (Taiwan)
 * Far Eastern English Language Teachers' Association (FEELTA) (Russia)
 * Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT)
 * Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HAAL)
 * Macau Association for Applied Linguistics (MAAL)
 * Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)
 * The Philippine Association for Language Teaching, Inc. (PALT)
 * The Association for the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN)
 * Thailand TESOL (ThaiTESOL)

Domestic (Korea) Partnerships
 * ALAK (Applied Linguistics Association of Korea 한국응용언어학회
 * KAFLA (Korea Association of Foreign Language Academies 외국어교육협의회
 * KAFLE (Korea Association of Foreign Language Education 한국외국어교육학회
 * KAMALL (Korea Association of Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning 한국멀티미디어언어교육학회
 * KATE (Korea Association of Teachers of English 한국영어교육학회
 * KEERA (Korea English Extensive Reading Association 한국영어다독학회
 * PKETA (Pan-Korea English Teachers Association 팬코리어영어교육학회