The English Teachers’ Association Israel (ETAI) has reached a significant milestone this year. ETAI has been around for 40 years – not just been around, but growing, improving and advancing. In 1979 the Chief Inspector for English, Raphael Gefen, together with a group of enthusiastic teachers, put forward the idea of an organization focusing on the professional development of the country’s English teachers. And so, ETAI, the English Teachers’ Association of Israel, was born. ETAI works in close cooperation with the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education in Israel and holds joint professional development events.

ETAI is unique of its kind, embracing various ethnic groups and connecting isolated teachers to their professional body in a multi-linguistic context. Today, nearly 500 teachers from Christian, Druze, Cercessian, Muslim, and Jewish background, from all over the country make up the body of our members. Not only does ETAI unite teachers cross-culturally, but enables an isolated teacher who is the sole English professional at his/her school to exchange ideas and network. Our teachers face daily challenges rooting in the multi-lingual society that we live in. Let us not forget that a large percentage of children in Israel are embarking on a journey of learning a third language. They speak Arabic, Russian, Amharic, Spanish, and other languages as their first language in their homes and Hebrew as the language of the nation. ETAI is an essential support for our English teachers.

ETAI is a grassroots, voluntary organization concerned with the professional development of English teachers who work in all sectors and at all levels of education – elementary, junior high and secondary school, college and university. ETAI is led by 15 enthusiastic National Executive Committee members who give of their time and energy, after school, to organize and speak at conferences and write for the ETAI Forum (see a detailed description below).

ETAI has been a TESOL affiliate for 27 years, first as ISRATESOL, and then later as ETAI. Our members presented at International TESOL Conventions and are actively involved in special interest groups. Some have even been members of the TESOL Board of Directors and past Convention Chairs, while others are currently on the organizing committee of the Doctoral Forum.

Our aim is three-pronged:

i) promoting professional excellence of the English teaching profession in Israel, and hence the level of English learning by Israeli students.

ii) ensuring a platform for professional learning communities where English teachers can provide support for each other and practical teaching ideas through study days and conferences.

iii) fostering universal humanistic values as an integral part of teaching English in the Israeli educational system. ETAI sees the teaching of English as an international language contributing to global understanding and peace.

ETAI organizes mini-conferences, one, two or even three day conferences, special events and speakers - all for the benefit of Israel’s English teachers, and open to teachers from other countries. The value of professional development cannot be underestimated, as everyone – new teachers, veteran teachers, and those in-between – can gain from listening to talks from experts, sharing ideas with like-minded peers and making new acquaintances. Speakers at conferences provide their services for free, the majority themselves being practicing teachers. All of these combine to enable us to define and improve our own teaching strategies and abilities.

In order to accommodate teachers in all geographical areas, traditionally our back to school conference takes place in Akko, in the North of Israel, our spring conference in the South of Israel, and we hold one winter event in East Jerusalem.

To supplement these major conferences, ETAI holds a number of ‘mini-conferences’ at different times throughout the year. These are local four-hour events, held after school hours to cater to the needs of teachers in specific areas. They are free for ETAI members; non-members pay a small entrance fee.

ETAI is proud to be holding a special 40th-anniversary two-day summer conference, this year at the Ramat Rachel Hotel and Conference Center in Jerusalem, July 3-4, 2019. We are especially honored to have raised widespread international interest: this year we have presenters from Greece, Poland, Hungary The Czech Republic Serbia, The United States, and Canada.

In 2015, ETAI established a Special Interest Group (SIG) dedicated to Teacher Training and Development (TT&D) catering to college and university instructors, teacher trainers in the pedagogical centers, inspectors and counselors. One of the aims of the TT&D SIG is to generate ETAI conference sessions on a higher academic level for the general teacher population and see more teacher trainers and college instructors participate in the conference. TT&D SIG holds two events yearly: one winter study day, in collaboration with The MOFET Institute, and one summer event either as a pre-conference event or as a TT&D SIG strand integrated into our summer national conference.

ETAI publishes a Newsletter, called ETAI Forum, three times a year, which is distributed free to members. This is a journal written by teachers for teachers which includes a number of practical teaching ideas; photo-copiable classroom material; ongoing discussions of professional issues; information on ETAI events; suggestions for useful websites, and more. Its editors work voluntarily, and contributing authors get no fee for articles.

Like any other non-profit association, ETAI depends for its survival chiefly on the membership fees of its members; contributions from publishers who exhibit at conferences; and registration fees for conferences from non-members. We do our best to keep both membership and conference fees as low as possible, taking into account the modest income of most English teachers.

Celebrating our 40th birthday this summer, we look forward to the next 40 years to come in the hope of maintaining our close collaboration with the TESOL International Organization!

 Bridget Schvarcz is the vice-president-elect for ETAI and a teacher educator for the Israeli Ministry of Education, Department of Professional Development of Teaching Staff. As from Fall 2019, Bridget holds a faculty position at the Afeka College of Engineering, where she will serve as the head of the EAP unit.