KSAALT launches its inaugural Jeddah chapter at Effat University

The maiden venture was an achievement for KSAALT and the University Dean, Dr. Haifa Reda Jamal Al- Lail, declared "The Jeddah Chapter has been established in less than a year after the first KSAALT conference."

The new KSAALT chapter has its unique perspectives, which include professional development opportunities to language educators, and to emphasize the importance of language education. Besides its aim to generate the importance of language learning in our lives, it would also provide a podium for educators and learners to voice their thoughts and concerns and share their ideas, knowledge, techniques and experience.

In her opening address, The Dean of Effat University said that,

"teaching and learning language is an important area of learning and development, and KSAALT will provide language educators the opportunity to collaborate in order to promote excellence in teaching."

D. Haifa Jamal Al- Lail further added that, "the chapter will be a source of continuous professional development of language educators and will emphasize the importance of language education." According to the Dean, the organization is open to everyone interested in language education".

In her presentation on the Chapter's mission, Ms. Sarah Zafar Khan, the Director of Effat English Academy and the Chapter representative said that "through the KSAALT platform, language teachers will be able to collaborate with other language educators and stay current in the field of language teaching by sharing common goals and objectives." She added that those teaching languages other than English could also become members of the Chapter.

The Chapter also aims to inspire teachers to conduct research. Its members can contribute by presenting papers and workshops at KSAALT meetings, writing for KSAALT Newsletter, participating in e-mail discussion list and sharing ideas, resources and difficulties and initiating collaboration with other educational institutions for the purpose of research.

The meeting was followed by presentations given by Ms. Sarah Khan on 'The Qualities of a good teacher' and 'Student -cantered language teaching' by Canan Celik, who is the Chapter Secretary and Instructor at EEA.

Finally, the speech by Ms. Sadiqa Aziz, Chapter Treasurer and instructor at EEA summarized the entire event. Speaking about 'Future Directions,' she said that each person was like a giant, a powerhouse of knowledge and urged all to enhance it by individual and collaborative effort.