BELTA was founded in 1984 under the sponsorship of the Asia Foundation and was an active forum for more than a decade during which it provided a robust direction to the English Language teaching community through its various programs, particularly at the grassroots level. During the decade following its establishment, BELTA published 8 Journals, and a regularly bi-annual Newsletter. It arranged several national seminars and 2 international conferences. BELTA members established links with overseas teaching organizations. Some of the members attended and presented papers at conferences (Thai TESOL, SPELT-Pakistan and the Languages in Education Conference in Hong Kong). Most importantly, it arranged several regional teacher training workshops for grassroot-level teachers in state schools in collaboration with the government. Then for several years during the nineties, BELTA unfortunately remained dormant.