http://pac-teach.org     http://www.pac-teach.org


PAC : The Pan-Asian Consortium of Language Teaching Societies

                

Korea TESOL

    Phillipine Assn Language Teachers

                

PAC -- Collaborative Conferences across Asia

PAC7 at JALT2008
Shared Identities: Our Interweaving Threads
October 31 - November 3, 2008
National Olympics Memorial Youth Center
Tokyo, Japan
http://jalt.org/conference



Introduction
The Pan-Asian Consortium (PAC) is a series of conferences, publications (proceedings and journals) and research networks that was initially created and signed into agreement by  The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT),  Korea TESOL (KOTESOL)  and  Thailand TESOL (ThaiTESOL)  in 1994.  Since that time  The English Teachers Association of the Republic of China (ETA)  joined PAC in 1999,  The Far East English Language Teachers Association of Russia (FEELTA)  joined in 2001,  The English Language & Literature Teachers Association of Singapore (ELLTAS)  joined in 2004, and  The Philippine Association for Language Teaching, Inc.,  in 2007.  We welcome inquiries from other ELT organizations across Asia as well.

An Asian Focus on Language Teaching is of International Importance
IATEFL and TESOL International support the development of PAC. These international language associations have sent their leaders as speakers and advisors to the conferences and have actively participated in Pan Asian Council meetings to plan future conferences, publications and activities in Asia. Asian scholars are increasingly invited to lecture and give workshops at international conferences including IATEFL and TESOL Inc., which are usually held in the UK and North America., PAC allows each member organization to use the joint voice of all to induce the world's best to come to Asia..

Patronage and recognition
PAC was placed under the patronage of Her Right Honorable Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarinda of Thailand at the First Pan-Asia Conference held in Bangkok, January 1997.  The Honorable Kim Duk Choong, Minister of Education for the Republic of Korea, presented opening remarks at PAC2 in Seoul October 1999.  IATEFL and TESOL (International) have both regularly sent representatives, including then-current or past presidents Simon Greenal, Denise Murray, Kathy Bailey, David Nunan, and Susan Barduhn, as well as executive administrators Jill Stajduhar and Chuck Amorosino.

The Pan-Asian Consortium of Language Teaching Associations
is unified by a belief that teachers of English around Asia have much to share and learn from each other (see Mission Statement below).

Conferences
PAC1 was successfully launched in Bangkok January 4-7, 1997; PAC2 was held in Seoul October 1-3, 1999; PAC3 was hosted in Kitakyushu November 22 - 25, 2001; PAC4 in Taipei  November 8-10, 2002; PAC5  in Vladivostok June 24-27, 2004.  PAC6 returned to our birth-place for our 10-year anniversary in Bangkok January 26-28, 2007.  PAC7 is just around the corner: Tokyo, Oct 31 - Nov 3, 2008.

PAC Partners
English Teachers Association (Taiwan, Republic of China)   http://www.eta.org.tw
Far East English Language Teachers' Association (Russia)   http://www.dvgu.ru/rus/partner/education/feelta
Japan Association for Language Teaching   http://www.jalt.org
Korea TESOL   http://www.kotesol.org
Thailand TESOL    http://www.thaitesol.org
English Language & Literature Association (Singapore)   http://www.elltas.org
Philippine Association for Language Teaching, Inc.   http://www.palt-elt.org

Constituencies
Teachers residing in PAC-partner countries (Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore*) constitute an 8 percent share of the membership votes in TESOL International, ranking second only to teachers based in the USA.  (Data Sept, 2001, Eastern Russia numbers not available.)

Webcast
A number of presentations, interviews, and reports were "virtually live" on the internet the weekend of PAC2 (Seoul, 1999), much of this (and post-conference additions!) remains on the internet at  http://www.asianbridges.com/pac2/

Publications
Proceedings from conferences are available from a number of sources.  The proceedings from PAC2 are freely available online as pdf files (individual or zipped) with html abstracts, at  http://www.kotesol.org/publications/proceedings/1999/   PAC3 proceedings are available for sale from JALT in electronic format (CDROM).  A limited number of PAC3 proceedings papers are available on the internet: more info about PAC3 Proceedings is available at  http://www.jalt-publications.org/proceedings/2001.html   PAC4 proceedings are available only in bound form (a two volume set which includes numerous papers written in Chinese), contact ETA for more information.  The print proceedings from PAC5 have been published and are available for US$20 + shipping, see table of contents and contact info at http://www.pac-teach.org/pac5proc.html   The summary proceedings from the inaugural conference are no longer available, instead look to ThaiTESOL Bulletin 10(2) for a few papers, at The Internet Archive -  http://web.archive.org/web/20050410040819/http://www.thaitesol.org/bulletin/1002/

PAC Journal Vol 1 is freely available online in pdf files (individual or zipped) at  http://www.pac-teach.org/jrnl-v1/  1,000 print copies were distributed throughout Korea and at JALT Conference 2000, and a limited number were distributed to libraries around Koreal.  It will soon be available from ERIC (note that ERIC is undergoing organization change, so there will be some delay before this is available.)

Contacts
As a Consortium, PAC does not maintain a central office nor staff.  We strongly encourage you to contact the leaders of the local partners in each of the representative countries (find current information on their respective homepages).  Or, you can email us at  pac@pac-teach.org  and we will forward your message and/or reply as our resources allow.

Asian Youth Forum
The Asian Youth Forum (AYF) will again be present at the PAC conference, as they have since PAC2 (Seoul).   For more information,  http://www.asianyouthforum.org/

Mission Statement
Preamble: Recognizing the evolving role of English as an international language in Asia, PAC [the Pan-Asia series of Conferences: An international forum for English Language Teaching (ELT) professionals in Asia] is committed to forging an identity which encompasses the commonalities and diversity inherent in the teaching and learning of English in the Asian context.

With a will to realize this responsibility, PAC is committed to the following objectives:

  1. to explore and investigate ELT in the Asian context

  2. to create opportunities for collaboration among native ELT professionals and non-native with respect and appreciation for the distinctive contributions all make

  3. to enhance professional development for all educators engaged in ELT within and among countries

  4. to advocate equal access for ELT professionals in Asia to all PAC activities regardless of socio-economic background, race, gender, religion or creed

  5. to promote cross-cultural awareness, understanding, and appreciation

  6. to identify and articulate issues and problems impacting effective teaching and learning in the Asian classroom

  7. to pursue methodology appropriate to the Asian context

  8. to provide a forum to support cross-cultural collaborative efforts via:

Administration & Regulations 
With the aim of transparency, all possible PAC documents and internal communication will be public documents.  Matters concerning the administration and regulations of the Consortium are available on this website at http://www.pac-teach.org/admin/ 

page last updated May 29, 2008 by rjd