The 8th National RATE Conference in Timisoara (October 26-28, 2007) can be considered a successful venture because it has achieved most of its promises. From the very beginning it set out to be an accurate representation of what ELT is nowadays: a never ending quest for best ways of teaching the new "lingua franca" of the 21st Century.

This RATE Conference had a bit of everything in terms of areas of academic expertise, ranging from Young Learners English Teaching, to Cambridge ESOL Examinations, feminism and literary criticism.

265 participants had the opportunity to attend 5 different plenaries throughout the three days of the conference and were also able to choose between 47 different workshops presented during several simultaneous sessions.

The 8th National RATE Conference could have very well been dubbed an ELT Book Fair as it had stands from almost every major ELT publisher on the market: Macmillan, Uniscan-Express Publishing, Sitka Alaska, Fischer Educational, Longman, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. It also promoted student travel agencies (Student Lines) and English Language Courses in England (through SOL in Barnstaple, U.K.).

The whole conference took place at "Ion Vidu"National Art College, one of the partners of the 8th RATE Conference. As far as partners are concerned, we have to admit that conferences on such scale could not happen without the invaluable support of well established organizations such as British Council Romania, our constant partner and facilitator, the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research and Youth (MECT), the Timis County School Inspectorate (ISJT), and powerful publishers such as Macmillan Romania.

Sarah Rolph, English Language Director, British Council, Romania, as well as Monica Ralea, Projects Manager - English Language, British Council Romania have stressed the extent to which RATE initiatives managed to promote not only European cultural values but also good professional ELT practices.

It has been very refreshing to see that an event organized by a teachers' NGO has caught the attention of official decision makers. Eugenia Popescu, Chair of The Training and Human Resources Development Department within MECT, as well as Ileana Valceanu, Deputy General Inspector ISJT have recognized in their plenary addresses the importance of RATE's activities in terms of setting new professional standards.

Dr. Sandu Golcea, General Inspector of the Timis County School Inspectorate has also emphasized the considerable difference English teachers can make to educating the new European citizens.

The 8th RATE Conference has documented the good working relationship between TETA, MATE, CETA and BETA, the 4 regional associations which make up RATE. An 8 minute slide show presentation during the opening ceremony highlighted their achievements in a visually entertaining fashion. It was maybe a "surprise" future RATE Conferences might want to emulate.

In many other respects, this conference tried to look as good as the previous ones in Bucuresti, Cluj or Iasi. First of all, it had interesting plenary presentations given by well established researchers and textbook authors.

Luke Prodromou, the reputed textbook author from Macmillan has reminded us that teachers should not become only testers but redress the balance between Testing and Teaching through both creative and effective methods.

Gary Anderson, the ELT specialist from Cambridge University Press has offered his audience valuable tips for teaching mixed ability classes so that learning would be both affective and effective.

Margaret Cooze, the Subject Officer for Main Suite and IELTS papers of the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations has imparted precious "insider" information concerning the updated FCE and CAE examinations.

Eva Woodridge, the ELT Consultant for Express Publishing has delivered a refreshingly youthful presentation proving that teaching students to pass a test and teaching them good communicative language are not mutually exclusive.

Dr. Reghina Dascal, the Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies from The West University in Timisoara has probably taken into account that most teachers of English in Romania are female and has consequently given a well informed presentation on the "Querelle des Femmes", a four-century long social and literary debate sparked off by Christine de Pizan's Le Roman de la Rose.

National ELT Conferences in Romania are still rare occurrences and this is why they still have an indelible aura of uniqueness and excitement surrounding them. All participants want to make the most of their Conference attendance and their expectations are usually very high. Sometimes their eagerness verges on impatience - should we remember here the noble but frantic pursuit of free materials acquired on "first come, first served" basis?

Nevertheless, RATE Conferences are more than just exciting "treasure hunts". They offer wonderful opportunities for networking and socializing between the members of the vibrant community of English language specialists and teachers in Romania. In this respect, the Conference's cocktails and dinners at the Continental Hotel and The Serb's Tavern in Timisoara were greatly enjoyed by all participants who were helped by the informality of the functions to set up future cooperation or just catch up with the latest news from friends or acquaintances. The generous sponsors who made these gatherings possible were Macmillan Romania, The Theoretical High School in Recas, The Recas Local Town Council as well as The Recas Vineyards.

If we are to judge The 8th National RATE Conference achievements by the mostly positive - if scarce (only 80 submitted forms) - feedback given by its participants, we can appreciate that everybody had something worth "writing home about", something to take back to their schools and communities. And this is no mean feat for a 3 day national event organized in their free time by a group of 15 dedicated teachers!

Dorin Orban,

TETA Content Manager,

Teacher of English at The National Banat College, Timisoara