Manana Rusieshvili, ETAG President, Tbilisi, Georgia & Rusudan Tkemaladze, ETAG Director, Tbilisi, Georgia

The English Teachers’ Association of Georgia (ETAG) was one of the first professional organizations founded in Tbilisi, Georgia (which is a small country situated in the South Caucasus, on the border of Asia and Europe) 25 years ago in January 1995. Since then, ETAG has been assisting teachers of English to become successful and grow professionally. ETAG was developed in close cooperation with the American Embassy in Georgia and the British Council of Georgia.

With the assistance of these lifelong partners, ETAG has designed and developed 14 teacher training courses and many courses for trainers of teachers. These courses ran in all nine branches of the organization and situated in all the major cities of Georgia. The courses focused on specific aspects of teaching English, and they endeavor to improve English language teaching and learning standards by introducing innovative approaches and methods.

ETAG is actively involved in organizing annual national and several regional conferences. As well as this, over 30 of our members have participated in TESOL, IATEFL, and other international conferences. Over 100 of our members have won international exchange program awards for English teachers funded by the Department of State. During 25 years of existence, ETAG has implemented over 40 small and large-scale projects supported by the US Embassy in Georgia, British Council, Hornby Trust (4 times), Peace Corps, Project Harmony, the Black Sea University,OSGF, Coalition-Education for All, Teachers’ House, etc.

The most recent and very successful project has been the English Clubs' development and teacher training in 13 villages near to the administrative borderlines (British Council, FCO, UK). These clubs have reached 1,572 students and 84 regional teachers within 6 months. Additionally, specialists invited by the American Embassy have assisted ETAG in working with our teachers to design joint courses and conduct training courses.

During the 2019-2020 academic year, ETAG conducted training in brain-based strategies for teaching English. Five sessions were held so far in different cities in Georgia. The training content emphasizes how current neuroscience findings can be applied to teaching methods. The biological activity driving the need for active engagement lesson planning is explained in the training as well as the importance of the use of essential questions, explicit learning targets, and formative assessments. The training sessions also covered an explanation of memory techniques for long-term memory storage and retrieval. Dr. Mary Baldridge, English Language Fellow and ETAG/TESOL member, conducted the workshops. In the Spring semester, ETAG will conduct training in brain-based lesson planning for teachers of English for Special Purposes (ESP). The spring training will include specific applications of active learning techniques and backward design lesson planning for reading, writing, and speaking classes.

ETAG celebrated an essential day in its life – its 25^th anniversary this January. Many members who have done a lot for the development of ETAG, as well as young members of the association, gathered together on that day and remembered the first days of ETAG. Rusudan, Tkemaladze, ETAG director, and co-founder spoke about the achievements as well as ETAG's contribution to the development of the ELT field in Georgia. This day confirmed again that we are ready for future challenges and will continue to be the first to share new ideas and approaches in ELT in Georgia. ETAG aspires to exemplify a highly.

(The Board)

Manana Rusieshvili is the ETAG president. As well as this, she is a Full Professor and Head of English Philology at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( TSU). Manana is a Teacher Trainer and teaches English and Linguistics at TSU.

Rusiko Tkemaladze is one of the founders of ETAG and its first President. Currently, she works at the National Examinations and Assessment Centre of Georgia as the Head of the Foreign Languages Group. Rusiko also teaches English to MA students at Tbilisi State University.

(The Professional Development Sessions)

(25th Anniversary)