After a tentative start in November 2005, and many informal meetings in hotel lobbies, The English Language Teachers' Association held its first public meeting in Drumcondra Education Centre on Saturday February 3, 2007. Dr Barbara Simpson of IILT attended the meeting and stressed how important the fledgling association would become as teachers faced growing challenges in the teaching of English as a second or other language. Membership of ELSTA was €5. Barbara's encouragement would sustain the organisers in the time ahead. Eimear Mullin and Mary Ryan kept ELSTA going for the next months.
On Saturday April 28, 2007 ELSTA had its first lecture entitled International Students – Coping with Change and Challenge by Muireann Ní Raghallaigh. The talk was based on Muireann's doctoral thesis — she has since been awarded her PhD. Dr. Marnie Holborow of DCT gave a talk on the new BA in Languages for International Communication English Studies (ENGLIC) – go to marnie.holborow@dcu.ie. By this, ELSTA had been acknowledged by TPN (Teacher Professional Networks) and is in receipt of a grant to cover expenses of talks and hiring venues. Drumcondra Education Centre is ELSTA's nominated education centre.
ELSTA's Inaugural Conference was held on Saturday October 20, 2007 in the Ashling Hotel, Dublin. Speakers were Dr. Ronit Lentin of Trinity College, Dr Josephine O'Brien, Assistant Professor in Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Mr Hugh Dellar of the University of Westminster and author of the general English series Innovations. The organisers were
pleasantly surprised at the attendance from the four corners of Ireland and were left in no doubt that the ESOL teachers of Ireland needed ELSTA. There is no choice but to carry on...
Josephine O'Brien's talk (available on ELSTA's web for ELSTA members) entitled What we Share and how we Differ struck such a chord with teachers that there was a demand to have
her back and so on January 19, 2008, Josephine travelled from Abu Dhabi to speak to teachers on Assessing Learners' Language Needs and Some Solutions. Again, Josephine was a
resounding success (talk available online).
ELSTA held its next meeting- newsletter
here - on Saturday April 26, 2008 in the Drumcondra Education Centre where talks on the Linguistic and Educational backgrounds of students from Lithuania, Nigeria, Poland and Russia were presented. There was also a presentation on a Human Rights Based Approach to Education, a demonstration of an interactive English language programme and a guided tour of
www.elsta.ie.
