TESOL TUNISIA 10th International Conference, Nov 28 – 30, 2025, Hammamet

As my badge shows, I was treated as one of the „guests” of this year’s annual TESOL TUNISIA Conference. And I certainly felt like one: from the moment I entered the registration area I immediately sensed a truly warm, friendly feeling, emanating from everyone on the organising committee. Everyone was genuinely welcoming, and not just because I introduced myself as an official IATEFL PL delegate. Some initial selfies followed quite spontaneously within the first 15 minutes of my stay.

The conference itself was a much more cosy affair than our annual events, with c. 80 – 90 participants in total. This certainly allowed for a truly personal approach and a certain amount of extra flexibility with the timetable: sessions tended to start when they did and finish in an equally laidback manner, which came as quite a bit of a surprise to a Northerner such as myself but was a most welcome change, particularly when one of the excuses was an endless series of most festive coffee breaks. The latter were an experience in itself, what with delicious mint tea and a lush selection of local pastries!

All of the above is not to suggest that the intellectual input was equally light-hearted. In fact, the opposite was the case, as signalled by this year’s conference theme: ELT in a Changing World: Realities and Challenges. If I may venture an overall appraisal, my general impression was that the selection of speakers – and the resultant angle that a lot of the sessions adopted – leaned towards a more academic end of the ELT spectrum. As for the “challenges”, they – predictably – centred around AI and other emerging technologies, and their impact on the more or less distant future of our profession. Specific topics included “Posthumanism and the future of English Teaching”, “AI as a new interpretive environment”, or “Reimagining ELT: How PBL and AI can merge to transform the way learners think, question, and innovate”.

A notable group of sessions broadened mainstream ELT conference agenda, to include exploration of literary themes, typically in conjunction to modern technologies, cf. “Visualising Verse: AI-enhanced multimodality in Literature Teaching” or a most thought-provoking “From Globe to Global. Teaching Shakespeare in the age of AI and glocal Englishes.”

My own plenary “How learning happens today and why we should care” seems to have gone down really well, if the number of follow-up questions, handshakes, requests for slides and Fbk invites are anything to go by. The participants clearly – and predictably – appreciated all activity ideas and practical tips, but also, and in nearly equal measure, praised the visual coherence of my slides and their overall modern look – which is something that I always spend hours designing, and so it was most satisfying to see yet again how it contributes to the  ultimate impact of a session.

As for my personal take-aways, possibly the biggest one came during a most lively evening event. The action was all around party games and I was amazed how well they worked, and how quickly they brought the diverse group of participants together: a great reminder of how a well-pitched and swiftly organised group activity can do wonders when one is seriously after no-nonsense ways of gelling the group together. The games themselves were (1) a song & singer recognition contest and (2) AI-generated celebrity cartoon matching game.

In sum, my stay at TESOL Tunisia 2025 was a most rewarding as well as enjoyable experience, including a rather spectacular downtime after my plenary, at dusk, on a totally deserted Hammamet beach. Plus some great sightseeing and photo-ops in Tunis on the way to the airport. It was a great pleasure and honour to represent IATEFL Poland yet again.