About APPI

APPI’s activity is focused on improving English language teaching in Portugal. To this effect APPI has been providing their members with a number of opportunities for building their own professional development. APPI’s mission is achieved through consistently appealing to members and teachers of English at large for a lifelong professional updating to be made possible both by APPI’s human and material resources. 

A little bit of history

Between 1979 and 1984 the Portuguese teachers of English had the support of TESOL Portugal – a branch of TESOL-Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc., now TESOL International whom APPI is affiliated with.

APPI started taking shape in 1985 at the TESOL Portugal 6th Annual Convention held at Escola Preparatória de Rio Tinto, in Rio Tinto (Greater Porto) thanks to a few teachers already connected to TESOL Portugal– “APPI’s founding members” – who made it their duty to have an association of teachers of English with a Portuguese name and recognised by Portuguese law. This took place in December 1985. A few months before this, on May 9-11 at Escola Secundária de Benfica, in Lisbon, APPI-TESOL (during the so-called transition period) had become a reality through the APPI-TESOL 7th Annual Convention. And APPI took off in 1986: prior to the 1st Annual Convention, which took place at Escola Superior de Educação in Viana do Castelo on May 8-10, APPI had 455 members; at the end of that Convention weekend it had 750 and has continued to grow steadily.

APPI shared a rented ground floor (no. 10) located in a very steep street in the typical Bica neighbourhood close to downtown Lisbon – someone suggested it would be ’10 Down St.’ – with two sister associations, APPF-French and APPA-German, for some years between 1986 and early 1996. In March 1996 APPI purchased its present-day headquarters situated in Rua Dr. Joaquim Manso, 1A 1500-240 Lisbon (Benfica).

Since its conception, APPI has gone through various changes in finding the best way to achieve its principal aim: to help improve English language teaching in Portugal embracing teachers of all levels. Maintaining this aim has made APPI expand its professional activities and membership to being one of the largest and most active non-profit-making associations of its kind in Europe.