The Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) and the Korea Association of Foreign Languages Education (KAFLE) will hold a joint international conference to discuss way of promoting language education at the COEX on Oct. 4 and 5.
The event organizers said that 1,500 English teachers and scholars will take part in the 2014 KOTESOL-KAFLE International Conference under the theme of "Embracing Change: Blazing New Frontiers through Language Teaching."
It is the first time that KOTESOL and KAFLE have joined forces for a conference.
KOTESOL stands for Korea Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
The gathering will represent a change for KOTESOL conferences, which were previously held at Sookmyung Women's University.
"The fond and nostalgic memories are with us all. However, it was time for change, and the COEX became our new venue. In order to embrace change truly, you need to embrace the community more," conference Chairman Ralph Cousins said.
The conference features two days of presentations, including plenary sessions by world-renown authors and practitioners, including Michael Long of Maryland University, Scott Thornbury of the New School, Ahmar Mahboob of the University of Sydney and David Hayes of Brock University.
There will also be 13 featured presenters from around the world and a host of local talent presenting seminars and workshops.
While the focus of the presentations will be embracing change, the foundation of the conference will be "Promoting Peace and Education through Language Teaching" in celebration of World Teachers' Day, Oct. 5.
A multitude of sponsors are involved in this year's conference including the National Research Foundation, the Korea National Commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of Education, the Korea Tourism Organization and the National Institute for International Education.
KOTESOL was founded in 1992, and is the official Korean affiliate of both TESOL International (USA) and the U.K-based International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), as well as a partner in the Pan Asian Consortium of Language Teaching Associations.
KOTESOL has more than 700 teacher-members, of which 25 percent are Korean teachers of English and 65 percent are expatriate teachers in Korea.
There are 11 local chapters across Korea, including Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju and Busan.
KOTESOL's overseas members are located in more than 20 countries. The KOTESOL website is http://koreatesol.org.
KAFLE is the only inclusive academic organization of all different foreign languages taught in Korea to share and disseminate teaching ideas and methods.
Learn more about the conference at: http://koreatesol.org/nc2014.