AILA Development 2019: The Most Relevant Benefits and Urgent Requests

What have AILA’s most relevant benefits been for its national affiliates in the last year, and what are the affiliates’ most urgent wishes for 2019/20? At the 2019 annual meeting of the Executive Board and the International Committee on June 24 in Lyon, delegates from 16 AILA national affiliates shared their experiences and expectations regarding AILA development.

 

The most relevant benefits from AILA 2018/2019 include:

  • being part of the AILA family and its global network
  • benefitting from AILA’s international connections
  • being able to offer our members access to a global network
  • learning from other regional networks for one’s own region
  • mutual learning from other affiliates in the region
  • being inspired at the AILA International Committee meetings
  • using AILA as a catalyst for structuring one’s own organization
  • meeting interested AILA board members in person at national conferences
  • feeling trusted by AILA when designing the world congress
  • reporting back to the national organization after the AILA meeting
  • being supported by AILA in thinking out of the box
  • communicating effectively through the AILA newsletter and website

 

The most urgent requests to AILA for 2019/2020 are to:

  • strengthen the global network
  • support the development of regional networks such as AILA ASEAN
  • make suggestions for and foster tandem collaboration
  • support our international openness and networking
  • catalyze members’ interest in activities of other national affiliates
  • intensify AILA Executive Board members’ visits to AILA national affiliates
  • strengthen interactive communication and tools
  • make the AILA Review a high-standard journal in the field
  • support multilingual publications
  • promote other languages besides English at AILA meetings
  • advertise national affiliates’ events
  • develop an AILA promo video that can be shown at national conferences
  • write success stories of good collaboration practice
  • launch an AILA Facebook site
  • develop an online world map showing national affiliates’ major events
  • engage in discussions about what applied linguistics is and does
  • help bridge the gap between academia and society-at-large

 

In line with this feedback, AILA commits itself to further strengthen members’ benefits, together with the national affiliates and our members. Progress will be reported throughout the year in the AILA newsletter and evaluated at the 2020 AILA World Congress in Groningen, August 9–14.