was hosted by ATESOL NSW

Hosted by WATESOL. Joint conference hosted in conjunction with Australian Council of Adult Literacy (ACAL) and WACAL

The 2026 ACTA* International conference, hosted by ATESOL NSW, was held on 1-3 October 2026 at the University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, with all major events, catering and exhibitors in the Eastern Avenue Auditorium and its foyer and surrounding seminar rooms Building F19. 

The conference brought together over 300 national and international educators, researchers, and leaders to explore emerging challenges and opportunities in the TESOL field in early childhood education, schools, universities, and industry.

To see the PowerPoints for the keynote and the featured symposia, colloquia and pre-conference workshops, please go to the Featured Events tab.

Current Australian educational policies are inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their languages, acknowledging they are fundamental to the identity of First Nation peoples. Within the relevant curriculum documents there are such terms as ‘recognition’, ‘language’, ‘culture’, ‘diversity’, and ‘respect’. Yet, despite a United Nations Declaration pointing to the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to have access to education in and about their own languages, language rights are not a feature of English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) policies. As a result, students who speak such a language, a contact language (i.e., a creole) or a dialect such as Australian Aboriginal English, often do not have the opportunity to use their full linguistic repertoire as a mechanism for scaffolding their learning. In effect, this is discriminatory practice as the learning environment is not equitable with those who enter school from diverse language and cultural background having far less access to the content and understandings encapsulated within the classroom.