I have found many benefits to belong to associations related to language teaching, language testing, and other fields related to TESOL. Is it worth the cost for you to join these groups? If you are dedicated to TESOL teaching and education long-term, I definitely suggest joining your regional association, and if possible, an international association. I have been a member of various groups over my career. Below, I give an overview of the costs of joining AAAL, TESOL International, and the Japanese Association of Language Teaching (JALT), and I describe what I have found useful from them.
| AAAL | Many tiers for membership, from the most expensive ($195 for tenured faculty, government employees, & university administration), to inexpensive ($50 for student or post doc & unemployed), free (0$ for residents of Low Income countries according to the the World Bank classification of economies. See the complete information on membership tiers and costs at https://www.aaal.org/membership-information | My favorite benefit of my AAAL membership has been the webinars. I seldom attend them live because of the time difference from where I live, but the archives are available through the AAAL website. The webinars tend to focus on timely topics in language teaching and learning (e.g., a recent, 2025 one about AI in applied linguistics). The webinars are not that frequent–there were 3 in 2024, 4 in 2023–but archives going back to the summer of 2020 are available. Otherwise, from a コスパ (cost-benefit analysis) perspective, I have not benefited from my AAAL membership compared to other associations. I usually cannot attend the annual conference in the United States, and other benefits have not been particularly useful (e.g., the job postings available through the site are infrequent and extremely competitive positions. Also they are posted elsewhere for free). I also find their website a bit difficult to navigate. However, if I were a graduate student vying for a tenured position at a US university, I am guessing the AAAL membership would feel requisite. For a full list of benefits, see: https://www.aaal.org/member-benefits |
| TESOL International | Many tiers for membership, from the most expensive ($105 individual membership l) to the cheapest ($35 student membership or Global Professional. Global Professional is defined as “For individuals residing in countries classified as low, lower-middle, or upper-middle income by the World Bank: https://www.tesol.org/join-tesol/world-bank-list-of-eligible-countries/ ). See all the membership tiers here: https://www.tesol.org/join-tesol/ | My favorite benefit of being a TESOL International member is being able to follow and participate in the special interest groups and communities. There are so many different groups, and you can actively participate or just follow discussions. TESOL International is much more broad-based than AAAL–without question I would characterize AAAL as “researchers” and TESOL International as “teachers.” Having said that, there are plenty of “researchers” who are also active members in TESOL International. TESOL has over 10,000 members while AAAL has maybe 1,000 or so? So, the scale of these organizations is different. Like AAAL, I am not able to attend the annual TESOL conference, but as a TESOL teacher, I still find this membership to be worth it. |
| JALT | Different tiers for membership, including the most expensive (13,000 yen for regular members) to the least expensive (7,000 yen for student members or members over 65 years old). Included is membership is a free membership in one Special Interest Group. See JALT membership information here: https://jalt.org/main/membership | My favorite benefits of being a JALT member is being able to join a variety of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and getting discounts to the annual conference and various regional conferences. There are MANY opportunities to get involved with SIGs and conferences. In short, you can volunteer to your heart’s desire and get to know many people who have been active in the organization for decades. JALT members teach at all education levels, and teachers of other languages besides English also participate, though they are a minority. JALT and some of the SIGs offer grants and other support for attending conferences or doing research. I find the benefits of a JALT membership are very good if you are working in Japan. |
