Contributing to the professional learning for languages educators : AFMLTA 22nd international languages conference, Hobart, July 7-9 2019

The 22nd Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers' Associations (AFMLTA) International Languages Conference was held in Hobart in July 2019. Over 270 delegates from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan attended the conference. The biennial AFMLTA conferences continue to receive positive feedback from delegates in terms of conference organisation, the quality of plenary speakers, opportunities for collaboration with colleagues, and for the variety of papers presented, across a spectrum of highly theoretically oriented research presentations to practically oriented classroom-based research. In this paper, we explore the evaluation data from the 2019 conference; compare participant feedback with previous conferences held in the Gold Coast in 2017, Melbourne in 2015, Canberra in 2013, and Darwin in 2011; and address issues that arise in relation to the research literature on professional learning for language teachers. The online evaluation survey is made available to conference delegates shortly after the conference has concluded. The primary aim of the evaluation is to inform AFMLTA's ongoing contribution to research on the professional learning needs of languages educators and to continue to address teachers' particular professional learning needs in the future, as part of the ongoing process of listening and responding to teachers' feedback. Longitudinal comparison of conference evaluations allows for exploration of, and responses to, trends and shifts in learning needs and valued conference inclusions. [Author abstract]