The first annual conference, organized by Dr. Yoo Sang Rhee, was held in Monterey, California in 1995. With the presentation of thirty-two papers on topics such as methodology, language acquisition, teaching of literature, sociolinguistics, oral proficiency interviews, etc., the inaugural conference was a huge success. The conference was supported by the Korea Research Foundation. (See The Korean Language in America, Volume 1 under the Publications page.)
The second annual conference, which was organized by Chin H. Kim, took place in Los Angeles in 1996. The conference was extremely productive with thirty-six papers on diverse topics. The added strength of the AATK’s annual conference starting with this second conference was the inauguration of a teacher-training workshop. The Korea Research Foundation and the Korea Foundation generously supported the conference. Additionally, the second conference was held in conjunction with the first International Conference on Korean Studies, which was sponsored by the Committee on SAT II Korean, whose name has subsequently been changed to “Foundation for SAT II Korean.” (See The Korean Language in America, Volume 2.)

The third annual conference and teacher training workshop, which were organized by Dr. John H. Koo, were held in Tempe, Arizona in 1997, jointly with the International Association of Korean Language Education (headquartered in Korea). The presentation of over seventy papers was quite impressive. Again, this conference was supported by the Korea Research Foundation and the Korea Foundation. (See The Korean Language in America, Volume 3.)

In 1998 only a two-day teacher-training workshop was held in Providence, Rhode Island, which was organized by Dr. Hye-Sook Wang. Over twenty-five teachers participated in the workshop in which experienced teachers discussed and raised various methodological issues through their presentations. The teacher training workshop was supported by the Korea Foundation.

The fourth annual conference and teacher training workshop, organized by Dr. Chan E. Park, were held in Columbus, Ohio in 1999. It was evident from the presentation and discussion of forty-two papers that the Association was steadily advancing toward its goals. Again, the support of the Korea Research Foundation and the Korea Foundation made this annual meeting possible. (See The Korean Language in America, Volume 4.)

The fifth annual conference and teacher training workshop, organized by Dr. Sung-Ock Sohn, were held in Los Angeles in August, 2000. Thirty-two papers were presented, and improvement in quality could be easily witnessed. What was most impressive was the graduate students' competent presentations. Moreover, a novel feature of the organization of this conference was the posting of the conference materials on the Web, the first time ever since the inauguration of the Association. People who missed the 2000 conference and teacher training workshop are encouraged to visit the Website linked above. Again, this annual meeting was made possible by the generous support of the two foundations. (See The Korean Language in America, Volume5.)

The sixth annual conference and the teacher training workshop will be held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, August 2-5, 2001, jointly with the International Association of Korean Language Education. The AATK’s annual meeting will be supported by the Korea Foundation. In addition to the conference site being in Hawaii, the added attraction of this year’s conference and teacher training workshop is that the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa will offer a three-day (July 30-August 1) Korean Language Pedagogy Workshop on the topic of Task-based Language Teaching---specifically focused on tertiary level teaching of Korean in the North American context. We look forward with excitement to the 2001 conference and the two workshops. Refer to the separate pages on Call for Papers and Call for Participation for details.

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