The Scottish Association for Language Teaching (Salt) has cancelled its annual conference - and cast doubt on the future of the association itself.

Organisers decided that curricular reform was not far enough advanced for the event, which is usually held in early November, to take place.

A statement on the Salt website explains that the decision was taken with “considerable regret” and that Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) should have been the main focus of the conference.

“However, it has become clear that a variety of delays in rolling out the new curriculum would provide delegates with little of substance that might inform their actual teaching and syllabus design,” the statement reads.

“To complicate matters, we are still encountering significant difficulties in obtaining payment from some institutions for their representatives at the 2009 conference, which, if repeated, would threaten the viability of any conference and thus Salt itself.”

The next annual conference is now scheduled for late 2011, but the more immediate future will be busy.

“We will be using the months ahead not only to ensure that delegates have the latest CfE information, but also to explore ways in which we become less dependent on current payment arrangements,” the statement explains.

“We will also do everything to ensure that costs are kept to an absolute minimum in these straitened economic circumstances.”

www.saltlangs.org.uk.