TESOL looks to 'light fires' for teachers across China

Deborah J. Short wrapped up the 2019 Global English Education China Assembly held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, by quoting Irish poet W.B. Yeats, saying "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

Short, president-elect of the TESOL International Association, believes that by lighting the fire among the nearly 3,000 teachers and experts who traveled from across China and beyond to attend the three-day event, they may light similar fires for a large number of students and help improve the world.

"One of the ways to make the world a better place is to be able to communicate with each other. English is one medium of communication," she said.