Past

TasTESOL grew from a former association known as TasAME, the Tasmanian Association for Multicultural Education. It had been established in the early 1980s, with a wide range of members: teachers of English as a Second Language in the Adult Migrant English Programme and in schools, people who had links with Tasmania’s growing multicultural community, representatives of ethnic communities themselves, and people who had personal overseas travel experiences. The focus was on finding out about the cultures and educational needs of the immigrants who were coming to Tasmania in significant numbers. During the early to mid 1990s the focus changed. Refugee numbers were declining, international student numbers were rising and English as a Second Language courses were being mainstreamed. TasAME had become less focused on sharing information about other cultures, and more a professional association for teachers. Membership now included teachers from the university’s international student language programme, as well as from the AMEP and schools. Eventually, the name was changed to TasTESOL, to better reflect the diversity of the work of its members.

Present

Now, in the first decade of the new millennium, members’ concerns and interests are broadening again, as our students' needs and goals become more varied. Some of the influences on this change are:

 * the government’s focus on encouraging business and skilled migrants, many of whom need occupation-specific English;

* the growth again in humanitarian refugee numbers, with a significant group arriving with little or no print literacy in their first language, and another significant group enrolling immediately in secondary schools, university or TAFE;

* the numbers of people who have been here for a while and are accessing the federally funded program to provide more language skills for speakers of other languages who are having difficulty finding work. Concurrent with these changes has been the increasing acceptance by education providers and programme funders that TESOL requires a high degree of specialist professional expertise. For our members, this is both satisfying and frustrating – satisfying because it implies that their expertise is valued, and frustrating because it sometimes seems to be setting the bar of required qualifications ever higher.

Within this changing world, TasTESOL continues to provide its members with a forum through which they can support each other as they strive to become ever better teachers and through which they can advocate for their profession and the people they teach.

The association relies on the goodwill and hard work of its committee, and on the willingness of the members to contribute their knowledge and expertise to its activities. To date, two members have been voted life membership in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the Association. They are Frank Conrow and Robin Smith. Robin was a founding member and both of them served for a long time on the committee – which Frank is still doing.

 

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