Korea TESOL is a multi-tiered organization of members through regional chapters and nationwide operations such as conferences, publications and Special Interest Groups. All memberships are "national" in scope: members can participate in any local or national event with the same membership benefits, although their dues are targeted to a specific regional chapter. KOTESOL's slogan "Teachers Helping Teaching" is based on an orientation to collegialteacherprofessional development, including novice teachers new to Korea under the mission statement "to promote scholarship, disseminate information, and facilitate cross-cultural understanding among persons concerned with teaching and learning of English in Korea." Korea TESOL's membership includes teachers in private and public schools at all levels as well as teachers-in-training, administrators, researchers, materials developers, publishers, and students. KOTESOL has approximately 650 members: roughly 25% of members are Korean nationals, the remainder expatriates; nearly 20% of members reside outside of Korea. KOTESOL is known for its conferences, print and online publications, and active chapter meetings. An increasing number of members hold higher degrees in language teaching and related fields.
History
KOTESOL was formed through an amalgamation of memberships from two predecessor organizations, the Association of English Teachers in Korea and the Korea Association of Teachers of English. These two predecessor organizations gradually wound down from a joint conference into a new organization. The first KOTESOL conference was held October 16–17, 1993. KOTESOL inherited TESOL International affiliation from AETK and became an IATEFLassociate in 1996. Membership and activity in the organization climbed at a time when larger numbers of foreign teachers were invited to work in Korea, with membership climbing to over 900 in 2013 and conference participation over 1500 around the same time.
Chapters
There are currently nine regional chapters in KOTESOL
Busan-Gyeongnam
Daegu-Gyeongbuk
Daejeon-Chungcheong
Gangwon
Gwangju-Jeonnam
Jeonju-North Jeolla
Seoul
Suwon-Gyeonggi
Yongin-Gyeonggi
There have been chapters in Jeju and Kyongju which folded due to lack of members, and the Dajeon-Chungcheong chapter was divided for a short time into Daejeon-Chungnam and Cheongju chapters. International members of KOTESOL are managed separately from the regional chapters. Most chapters hold regular meetings 8 or more times per year, which typically include both academic and social activities.
KOTESOL's annual International Conferences are the largest language teaching conferences in Korea with more than 200 presentations across two days. Since the first "Joint Conference" in 1992 that led to the founding of KOTESOL, there have been annual conferences each autumn and numerous additional conferences at other times of the year. From 1993 to 2000, these were known as national conferences, since then known as international conferences. Since 2006 spring national conferences have been held many years, with 2-4 regional conferences hosted by chapters most years earlier in the spring. There have also been some smaller symposiums and conferences late in the autumn, particularly the Daejeon Chapter Thanksgiving Symposiums.
Publications
The quarterly news-magazine The English Connection is the best-known publication, along with the annual KOTESOL Proceedings and the semiannual Korea TESOL Journal. These are all available online in a moving wall system and are complemented by the monthly online/email KOTESOL News and each chapter's own occasional newsletters, plus the news as presented solely on the association's and through the and .
