2nd ELT Days "Within and Beyond Classroom" marks the conclusion of the 2022-2023 academic year
Istanbul Technical University (ITU) School of Foreign Languages (SFL) concluded the academic year with its 2nd ELT Days "Within and Beyond Classroom" conference held at ITU Maçka Campus on May 31 and June 1.
The conference, held for the second time this year, attracted great attention from many SFL instructors and various ELT professionals. It featured eight experts in the field of English Language Teaching from diverse institutions and backgrounds. The opening session of the conference was presented by Associate Professor Nur Yiğitoğlu Aptoula from the English Language Teaching Department at Boğaziçi University. In her speech titled “Navigating the Complexities of Academic Writing: Implications for Pedagogy and Research”, Assoc. Prof. Nur Yiğitoğlu Aptoula emphasized reexamining some of the foundational assumptions in academic writing instruction in second language (L2) contexts.
The second speaker, Dr. Gökhan Özkan from Kırklareli University,
focused on innovative instructional design strategies and best practices for educators
to enhance English language teaching. He shared the most recent innovations in
tools, applications, and platforms designed to facilitate foreign language
learning, with an emphasis on how to integrate these resources into a variety
of pedagogical settings.
In the afternoon session, Ass. Director Yusuf Cengiz from Boğaziçi
University provided important details about the findings of his study on students’
uptake of written corrective feedback provided through a computer-mediated tool.
The next speaker, RA. Dilek Göymen from Boğaziçi University offered her
perspective on the role of L1 in EFL classrooms with insights from EMI universities.
We effectively wrapped up the first day of the conference with all
these great speeches.
The second day of the conference began with a speech by Dr. Tüge Gülşen
from Bilgi University, who shared valuable information about ChatGPT, one of
the most intriguing topics in recent times. She introduced some facts and
suggestions as a response to higher education practitioners’ apprehensions
regarding AI and plagiarism. She contributed to our understanding of how AI
technology will influence the way instructors teach, and students learn and
contribute to the development of both parties’ mindsets.
The next speaker, Instructor Burcu Şener from Boğaziçi University,
focused on the integration of collaborative learning into EFL contexts. She first touched
upon CL as a concept and its components. Then, she provided sample CL task
designs to analyze and discuss with participants at the conference. The next presentation was delivered by Dr.Ece Genç Yöntem from
Yeditepe University. She had language corpora at the heart of her speech and
she introduced language corpora to familiarize both in-service and pre-service
teachers with various uses of language corpora in ELT and raise their awareness
regarding the practical applications that will be suggested through sample
corpus-based activities and teaching materials.
TT. Amir Hamidi from Unlimited Educational Services finalized the
conference with his engaging speech on enhancing EFL teaching through emerging models
in ELT. In his talk, he made the participants examine the
intersection of technology and emotions, aiming to enhance the potential for
improved teaching and learning. Participants explored a selection of quick-fire
activities and concepts to expand their comprehension of creating and executing
lessons effectively, taking into account modern tools and human emotions.
After two productive days for all of us, we have concluded our
conference, leaving us eager to discuss many more intriguing topics in the
coming year. As Istanbul Technical University (ITU) School of Foreign Languages
(SFL), we are delighted to have brought together all these esteemed academics
and speakers from the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) at this year's
conference.