Graduate Student Guide
Professional Organizations: A comprehensive resource list
Written by Felicia Rader
Re-printed with permission from Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, v.7, n.1, Fall 2002
Professional organizations are an important part of one’s academic
career. They provide students and faculty the opportunity to connect with others in their fields of interest and
attend conferences as well as provide resources for jobs and possibilities for
publication. Organizations allow students to get their feet wet while learning
about who is in their academic community.
Choosing which organizations to
become involved is a personal choice related to research and academic interests. If there are journals that you enjoy reading, then maybe the first step
would be to see what organization publishes that journal. Thinking about research interests is essential to choosing an
organization that will have some value to you. One suggestion might be to get involved with a local chapter of an
organization, then regional, national, and international.
This list contains most of the
major professional organizations and is organized by topic.
This is certainly not all of the organizations that exist and is not an
endorsed recommendation or suggestion, it is simply a resource for exploring and
becoming more familiar with the options for membership.
FLESA (Foreign Language Education Student Association at The
University of Texas)
Pi Lambda Theta,
International Honors
ACTFL (American Association for Teachers of Foreign Languages)
WLU (Whole Language
Umbrella)
The Whole Language Umbrella is
an NCTE Conference made up of whole language support groups and individual
professionals interested in developing and implementing whole language in
educational institutions. WLU is based on a view of whole language as a
dynamic philosophy of education.
AERA (American Education
Research Association)
The American Association
of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)
The American Association of
Colleges for Teacher Education is a national, voluntary association of colleges
and universities with undergraduate or graduate programs to prepare professional
educators.
Modern Language
Association
ESL/EFL The National Council of
Teachers of English
The NCTE is devoted to improving the teaching of English and the language arts at all levels of
education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum for the profession, an array of opportunities for teachers to continue their professional growth throughout
their careers, and a framework for cooperation to deal with issues that affect the teaching of English. NCTE's daughter groups:
Linguistics
The American Association of Applied Linguistics
Linguistic Society of America
The Linguistic Society of America was founded in 1924 for the advancement of the scientific study of
language. An interest in linguistics is the only requirement for membership.
Reading
International Reading Association
The International Reading Association seeks to promote high levels of literacy by improving the quality of
reading instruction through studying the reading process and teaching techniques; serving as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of reading research
through conferences, journals, and other publications; and actively encouraging the lifetime reading habit.
TexasIRA (Texas Reading Association)
Technology and Computers Society for Technical Communications
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
AACE is an international, educational, and professional organization dedicated to the advancement of the
knowledge, theory, and quality of learning and teaching at all levels with information technology.
CALICO
The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium is a professional organization that serves a membership
involved in both education and high technology. CALICO has an emphasis on modern
language teaching and learning, but reaches out to all areas that employ the
languages of the world to instruct and to learn.
International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE)
Promotes appropriate uses of
technology to support and improve teaching and learning. Representing more than
40,000 educators, ISTE provides: Curriculum for learning about technology and
integrating it into the classroom.
International Association for Language Learning Technology
IALLT is an ACTFL affiliate
organization whose members provide leadership in the development, integration,
evaluation and management of instructional technology for the teaching and
learning of language, literature and culture.
Foreign Languages
National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL)
The Norwegian Teachers Association of North America (NorTANA)
American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages (AATT)
Association of Teachers of Japanese and National Council of Japanese Language Teachers
Chinese Language Teachers Association
American Classical League
American Council of Teachers of Russian
American Association of Teachers of Arabic
American Association of Teachers of French
American Association of Teachers of German
American Association of Teachers of Italian
American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
NAPH National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Association of Departments of Foreign Languages
Translation
American Translators Association
Bilingual and Multicultural Education
National Association for
Bilingual Education (NABE)
The National Association for
Bilingual Education is a national membership organization founded to address the
educational needs of language-minority students in the U.S. and to advance the
language competencies and multicultural understanding of all Americans.
National Association for
Multicultural Education www.nameorg.org
The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) was founded to bring together individuals from
all academic levels and disciplines and from diverse educational institutions,
and other organizations, occupations and communities who had an interest in
multicultural education.
REFORMA
REFORMA has actively sought to
promote the development of library collections to include Spanish-language and
Hispanic oriented materials; the recruitment of more bilingual and bicultural
library professionals and support staff; the development of library services and
programs which meet the needs of the Hispanic community; the establishment of a
national information and support network among individuals who share our goals;
the education of the U.S. Hispanic population in regards to the availability and
types of library services; and lobbying efforts to preserve existing library
resource centers serving the interests of Hispanics.
Texas Association for Bilingual
Education
The Texas Association for
Bilingual Education (TABE), founded in San Antonio, Texas in 1972, is a state
advocacy organization for the rights of language minority children. The TABE
network is comprised of local school district and universities student
affiliated groups representing all major geographical regions of Texas.
National Association for
Bilingual Educators
OTHER Organizations and sites of interest
American Society for Training Development
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
ASCD is an international,
nonprofit, nonpartisan education association committed to the mission of forging
covenants in teaching and learning for the success of all learners.
Association of Teacher
Educators (ATE)
National, individual membership
organization devoted to the improvement of teacher education for both school and
campus-based teacher educators.
National Council for
Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
The National Council for
Accreditation of Teacher Education is a professional accrediting organization
for schools, colleges, and departments of education in the United States. They
set national professional standards that help to assure quality in the
preparation of teachers and other school specialists, and implement the
accreditation process to determine which institutions meet the standards.
WorldTeach
WorldTeach in a
non-profit/non-governmental organization created in 1986 at Harvard University
with the mission of improving the quality of education in developing countries.
WorldTeach sends volunteers to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America who
request assistance for their English education programs.
Joint National Committee
for Languages
National Council for Languages and International Studies
National Association for Self-Instructional Language Programs
National Council of State
Supervisors of Foreign Languages
National Network for Early
Language Learning
International Language Testing
Association (ILTA)
Education Week on the Web www.edweek.org
- The nation's premiere online educational newspaper of record. Their goal is being the place on the World Wide Web for people interested in education reform, schools, and the policies that guide them.
ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics www.cal.org/ericcall/
Offers a variety of free ESL resources, including answers to frequently asked questions, Digests, Resource Guides Online, a question answering service, and access to the ERIC database, the largest education database in the world.
Office of English Language Programs -- U.S. Department of State http://exchanges.state.gov/education
Information about programs, services, and materials produced by the Office of English Language Programs, U.S. Department of State (formerly part of the United States Information Agency USIA). The Office, which has a staff of experienced English teaching professionals, works with press and cultural sections of US Embassies worldwide to assist with EFL/ESL teacher training around the world.
Iteachnetwww.iteachnet.org
The gateway to k-12
international education and international schools, world-wide. Home of the
International Educator's Network Association.
Special thanks to: Dr.
Schwarzer, Dr. Moore, and the FLE students at The University of Texas for their
input on professional organizations.
