The first teachers’ association in Russia was founded in the early 1990’s. The first association, TESOL Russia, was organized as a part of the Moscow Association of Applied Linguistics (MAAL). In 1997 it was registered as the National Association of Teachers of English (NATE). The founding President of NATE is Professor Svetlana Grigoriyevna Ter-Minasova.

NATE has more than 40 chapters around Russia, some of which, including the Voronezh (VELTA) and Far East (FEELTA) chapters, have already celebrated their 15th anniversary.

NATE has been at the epicenter of several seismic changes in the English language teaching landscape. In 2001, at the 7th annual NATE Conference, “Global English for Global Understanding”, several major innovations were introduced. English became the working language at the conference. A better balance between secondary and university practitioners was achieved. And the presentations, for the most part, were hands-on workshops rather than lectures.

Other breakthroughs during NATE conferences include the 2005 conference in Izhevsk when the theme of multi-culturalism was explored in light of the region’s unique local ethnicities. In Novosibirsk in 2006 information technology tools such as “Hot Potatoes” and Moodle were highlighted. And in 2009, in Kazan, NATE hosted its first “Electronic Village”, an area in the conference venue that allowed participants to attend information technology workshops as well as experiment with new tools throughout the day.

The strength of NATE rests in the work of local associations. With several thousand members and growing, the hard work of dozens of volunteers over fifteen plus years has made NATE an important force in professional development efforts in Russia. It can only continue growing through the dedicated involvement of English language teachers.