At the XXVII NATE International Conference “We Teach – We Touch the Future!”

On October 6–8, 2022, the XXVII International Conference of the National Association of English Teachers (NATE) “We Teach – We Touch the Future!” was successfully held at Ivanovo State University.

NATE (National Association of Teacher of English) is an authoritative professional organization that has been operating for over 30 years and unites English language teachers from different regions of Russia. By tradition, the NATE conference, always eagerly awaited by the Russian ELT community, changes its location every year, traveling to different cities of our country.

The forum of English language teachers in Ivanovo was held in a hybrid format. More than 250 people applied to participate. These are university teachers, school teachers, founders of educational centers and language schools, tutors, students and graduate students of universities. Wide geography of participants: Moscow (MSU, MGIMO, MSPU, HSE, MISiS), St. Petersburg (ITMO, St. Petersburg State University), Kaliningrad, Omsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Magnitogorsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Samara, Vladivostok, Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk , Perm, Taganrog, Cherepovets, Yoshkar-Ola, etc. The international status of the conference is confirmed by the participation of specialists from Kazakhstan, Northern Ireland and the USA.

Within the framework of the conference, 12 plenary reports were delivered, including those presented by 6 native English speakers, 20 master classes and workshops were held, 8 thematic SIG sections (SIG - Special Interest Group) worked, in which more than 150 people spoke in total. The breakout sessions discussed issues of linguodidactics, teaching languages for professional purposes, language testing and assessment, problems of interaction between language and culture, bilingualism, life-long learning and inclusive education. The authors of the master classes revealed to the participants the secrets of “Pedagogy of Surprise”, discussed the new format of the Unified State Examination in English, spoke about the possibilities of using song material in language teaching, incorporating the theory of multiple intelligences into the educational process, using language corpora in foreign language classes, etc. Almost 30 students and young teachers (work experience no more than 3 years) spoke at the special section Young Voices. There was an exhibition of educational-methodical and fiction literature in foreign languages. As a result of the conference, a collection of materials will be published.

It should be reminded that since 2002 the regional Association of English language teachers IVELTA has been successfully operating in the Ivanovo region, with over 100 members. It is based on English language teachers working at IvSU. The founder of the regional association and its ideological inspirer for many years is prof. O.M. Karpova, head of the REC IvSU "Modern Russian and European lexicography". On a regular basis, IVELTA holds professional development seminars for English teachers, language olympiads for schoolchildren and students, competitions for literary and poetic translation, theater miniatures and public speaking in English. These events are always a success, the number of participants is growing year by year. Members of IVELTA motivate their students to participate in all-Russian competitions. So, Ivanovo schoolchildren and students have repeatedly become prize-winners and winners in various categories of the well-known all-Russian competition of videos in English "iTravel-Russia".

It is important for English teachers to realize that the region has a platform for discussing the pressing problems of teaching methods, as well as sharing knowledge and experience.

At the end of the international conference, the organizing committee received a large number of positive reviews and words of gratitude for the high level of organization and holding such a large-scale forum.