The Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes (FIPLV)

Profile

The Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes, founded in Paris in 1931, is the  only international multilingual association of teachers of languages. It has Non-governmental  Organisation (NGO) consultative status with UNESCO and has representation as an NGO  with the Council of Europe.

Aims 

•  to promote the teaching and learning of languages in order to facilitate and improve  communication, understanding, cooperation and friendly relations among all peoples of the  world
• to develop, support and promote policies designed to diversify the languages taught
• to  improve the quality of language teaching and make this teaching available to all
• to develop the continuity and cohesion of multilingual education in primary, secondary,  further, higher and adult education
• to improve the professional training and development of future and practising language  teachers in all sectors of education
• to help and advise on the founding of professional associations of language teachers
• to coordinate and develop the work of its member associations
• to facilitate collaboration amongst its member associations around the world
• to encourage teachers of different languages to cooperate with each other locally, nationally and internationally to promote the teaching of languages and language policy based on principles of multilingualism;
• to support nationally and represent internationally the views of member associations
• to provide a vehicle of international solidarity for language teachers from different regions of  the world
• to actively promote the importance of multilingualism and the study of languages

Members

Members of FIPLV may be either international unilingual associations or federations of language teachers, national multilingual associations or national unilingual associations where their language is not represented by an international unilingual federation, which is a member of FIPLV. Of the first category, there are currently LATEUM for English, ILEI for Esperanto, IDV for German, and MAPRYAL for Russian. Of the second category, national multilingual associations, which unite teachers across languages at the local, regional and national level, FIPLV has around twenty-two members from all continents. In the third category, national unilingual associations, there are currently ASOCOPI (Associación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés), ATES (Association of Teachers of English in Somalia), BETA (Bulgarian English Teachers’ Association), and ELTA (English Language Teachers’ Association) Serbia. There is also provision for associate membership.

Structure

The key authority of FIPLV is the  World Assembly, which brings together the representatives of member associations every years.

In line with the FIPLV Statutes, FIPLV has undertaken a process of regionalisation, which allows more concrete cooperation between neighbouring associations in different areas of the globe. FIPLV also encourages associative relations among teachers of different languages in areas of the globe where it has fewer members (e.g., Africa, Asia, Latin America).