The Bilgi University ELT conference took place on May 12th, 2012 and revolved around the theme of ?Using Resources Efficiently?. Sabancı University?s School of Languages was well represented at the event, featuring a plenary talk, a keynote speech and a concurrent session from members of the SL.

The opening plenary of the conference was delivered by Michael McCarthy (via video) and Geraldine Mark. In ?Working with learner grammar data: getting our hands on the corpus? the speakers focused their talk on writing and speaking corpora gathered from L2 learners. Corpora are large and structured sets of texts from a target group, in this particular case, L2 learners. After analysis of the corpora, the speakers determined that as a learner?s lexicon increases, so does the variety of grammar problems. Countable nouns were given as an example of this phenomenon. The main message was to rethink when and where we teach grammar. Even at B2 and C1 levels review of grammar taught at lower levels needs to be revisited. In the second half of the talk they discussed how the corpora revealed an input-output lag in conversation fluency. They focused on the importance of conversation markers that reveal a speaker is following the thread of conversation. Three areas were discussed: 1) Markers: well, right, ok, etc., 2) Response Tokens: great, sure, etc., and 3) Small Words: why not? etc.

The speakers concluded their talk by summarizing the need for Corpora:
1. They enable us to see how language is used
2. They reveal correct usage and persistence of error
3. Benchmarking against exams
4. Higher motivation for students

The speakers rounded off by suggested visiting the website www.englishprofile.org for more information.

Dr. Deniz Kurtoğlu Eken from the School of Languages delivered the second plenary talk, titled ?I-sources as my Re-sources.? The effectiveness of our teaching practices and other professional work surely depends on a wide range of factors, indicated Dr. Eken, the most essential being our own motivation. We know that our well-being matters; that our happiness affects all aspects of our lives; and that our motivation and inner peace is a prerequisite for greater effectiveness in our professional work. We try so hard to do our jobs in the best way possible; we strive to support our students and others in their development; we listen to them; we try and empathize with them; we give them good care and attention. This, we also need to be able to do ? and even more importantly ? for and with ourselves. In her presentation, Dr. Deniz Kurtoğlu Eken focused on teacher motivation as well as teachers? views and perceptions of it. She shared some interesting data to create an impression about the issue of motivation in ELT in Turkey, pointing out the necessity for self-motivation and inner peace as a teacher, things which are neglected most of the time. She questioned how much of teachers? own sources are neglected in these days of technology and the multitude of other resources.

Jim Scrivener delivered the closing plenary talk, which was ?A Manifesto: for Active Interventionist Teaching.?

? Are we really as effective at teaching as we imagine we are?
? We say that we are ?communicative? but, do we, in practice, do ?whatever?s in the coursebook??
? Is our methodology really rather hit and miss?
? Does much contemporary teaching (fluency tasks, communicative focus, fear of being ?teacher-centred?) actually sidestep the real teaching work and the real needs of learners?
? And is it possible that the majority of teachers who have been trained in the last twenty or so years have become so used to delegating the teaching work to ?good enough? books that they have lost many of the teaching techniques that previous generations took for granted?

These were the questions Scrivener posed in his talk, which proposed a muscular reinvigoration of teaching: focused, active, alert and getting much closer to where the learning is. Scrivener suggested that there is a particular type of teaching skill that has been lost more than others. This is the skill of getting in close to where the learning is going on ? for example, looking closely at language and materials, helping learners to zoom in on language items in order to recognise them, understand them, say them better and use them well. He proposed that this kind of exploratory, reflective, quantum-level, analytical, language and learning-focused teaching is essential and its absence in so many classrooms is becoming a serious problem.

Zeynep Ürkün?s keynote speech was titled ?Resources for ELT Assessment: where are they?? As teachers of ELT/ESL, we receive training on almost everything: tried and tested teaching methodology, action research, pedagogy, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, applied linguistics, materials design, you-name-it-we-get-trained-on-it! However, there are still very few opportunities available for those who would like to improve the way they assess their learners, in spite of the fact that assessment is as natural a part of the teaching process as any of the above-mentioned courses we are often required to take. Similarly, in stark contrast to the availability of an ?immense variety of teaching resources that could be applicable in our classes?, the resources for ELT testing and assessment can only be described as ?scarce?. This leaves very little room for those ELT teachers who would like to specialize in the area of testing and assessment. Ürkün?s session provided several examples of readily-available resources for testing and assessment and showed examples of some online resources, as well.

Professor Birsen Tütüniş?s Keynote Speech was titled ?Learner Enabling Resources.? Learner enabling resources, Professor Tütüniş stated, move the learners and teachers from traditional learning and teaching models to a model in which the learner develops their metacognitive learning skills with the help of the teacher as a facilitator, and as a provider of resources that make teaching and learning more efficient. Her paper presented pre-service and in-service training on how to make use of resources effectively to achieve this goal.

Kristina Smith?s Keynote Speech was titled ?Teaching and training online: discover what it?s like to be an e-moderator.? Online education using Virtual Learning Environments like Moodle, Blackboard, AdobeConnect, etc. is becoming more and more common, which opens up the possibility of studying courses hosted in other countries without leaving home oneself. Also, the possibility of teaching online, of being an e-moderator, is becoming a more common job. Sometimes faculty members teach face-to-face in one country while teaching students online at an institution in another country. Even if you haven?t tried it yet, Smith suggested, you may find yourself involved in e-learning either as a student or a teacher in years to come. What is it like to be a student online and to be an e-moderator? In this workshop, using guided visualization real examples from professional development courses and mini problem-solving tasks participants were given a chance to discover more about the cognitive and affective sides of e-learning through following a ?typical? course cycle. She paid particular attention to the skills and multiple roles of the e-moderator and compare them with face-to-face teaching.

Gordon Lewis?s Keynote Speech was ?Social Learning and Communities of Practice- in search of a definition.? In today?s world of education, noted Lewis, the terms social learning and communities of practice are often used interchangeably. But are the two concepts really the same? While both share common principles and tools, the goals and structure of each are different- with social learning focusing more on the individual and communities of practice, as the name suggests, more concerned with shared knowledge tied to a common goal. In this talk Lewis sought to define both concepts clearly, providing examples of each. He then considered what kind of community we might consider building in our context and how we can assess its success or failure.

Eric Baber?s Keynote workshop was titled ?The mobile phone: a teacher?s friend or a teacher?s enemy?? When we were kids, Baber noted, we used to pass messages to each other under the desk on slips of paper. Learners nowadays still pass messages to each other under the desk, but the means of communication have changed from slips of paper to SMS messages, IM and e-mail, all done via their mobile phones. So are mobile phones the enemy of the teacher? In this session he argued that this isn?t the case. Instead of forbidding students from using their mobile phones in the classroom, Baber suggested we should encourage them to use their devices for meaningful activities. In this talk he demonstrated some mobile apps and mobile-optimized online content which was either specifically designed for learners of English or which can be exploited for learning and teaching. He also looked at activities a teacher can set students both in the classroom and as homework to ensure students use their mobile phones for more than just arranging their next night out and ?whispering? behind the teacher?s back!

Adam J. Simpson

Sabancı University?s School of Languages was also represented among the numerous concurrent sessions on offer. Adam Simpson?s paper presentation was titled ?Group Work: A New Factor to Consider?? When we do group work in class, Adam noted, it isn?t always successful. Is this due to the task, the students, or is it perhaps connected to ineffective group formation? Simpson?s presentation examined the literature behind group formation and group tasks and compared this with the findings of classroom-based action research.

The 18th TESOL Arabia Conference
Adam J. Simpson

The 18th TESOL Arabia Conference took place between March 8^th and 10^th with the theme of ?Achieving Excellence through Life Skills.? The School of Languages was well represented at this major international event. Hatice Sarıgül Aydoğan was a key part of the conference?s IT Village with her interactive workshop, ?Yes ? Everyone Can Glog.? Adam Simpson also presented at the event, with his paper ?Why don’t your group activities work well?? showcasing the results of recent classroom research. Former SL colleagues also presented at the conference, with Mehtap Kocatepe?s research paper ?Examining Out-of-Class Learner Autonomy and Motivation? and the workshop ?Life Skills for the Classroom and Work? by Denise Özdeniz and John Landers.

The conference also featured many excellent plenary talks. Andy Curtis considered ?The Meaning of Retirement in the TESOL World? in his plenary, based on a recently published chapter, ?Rethinking Retirement? (Curtis 2011), the aim of which is to help TESOL professionals to fundamentally change the way they think about and prepare for Retirement, with a focus on Early Retirement. The talk started with a brief review of some recently published work on Retirement, followed by a critical examination of some of the current definitions of Retirement. Next, Curtis considered some of the reasons why Retirement is important not only for individuals who may be nearing retirement, but why it is also important for societies and communities in general. He also looked at some of the reasons for retiring later than usual, after which a case was made for TESOL professionals to consider Early Retirement.

Christine Coombe discussed ?Teacher Effectiveness in ELT: Empirical and Practical Perspectives? in her talk. A primary concern amongst English language teachers today, Coombe noted, is how to be more effective in the ever-changing world of education. This presentation provided a review of the research into what constitutes an ?effective teacher? as well as providing strategies for increasing teacher effectiveness in the EF/SL classroom.

Dave Allan?s plenary was titled ?Taking TEA into the 21st Century.? In many countries, particularly those with long language teaching and testing traditions, TEA (on this occasion testing, examining and assessment) has proved slow to change in response to potential new developments. The world of ELT, Allan enthused, has seen massive changes in syllabus design, materials and methodology since the early days of communicative language teaching, but only relatively recently has the impact of things like item-banking, the CEFR and digital technology become really significant on a major scale, with implications and opportunities not only for international exam boards but also for classroom teachers. We are now witnessing a worldwide explosion in the use of digital delivery in TEA, he noted. In this talk Allan briefly reviewed the important changes that have taken place in TEA in the half century since Robert Lado’s seminal work ‘Language Testing’ and explored the ways in which online delivery, including CATs (tests you do with a mouse) can genuinely improve the quality of some of the instruments we need for both formative and summative purposes in language education, while on the productive side the development of detailed descriptors and rating scales linked to meaningful external frameworks has offered the chance for criterion-referenced assessment to be both more valid and more reliable, particularly in terms of scoring validity.

Jane Revell aimed at ?Introducing NLP? in her plenary. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a name that can put people off finding out more about it and that’s a pity, she suggested, because NLP is a lot to do with achieving excellence and therefore with the theme of the 18th Annual TESOL Arabia International Conference, Revell hoped to give the participants a general idea of what NLP is all about, and suggest some ways in which it might be useful.

Jeremy Harmer looked at ?Making Dreams Touchable – Using Poetry and Music in Language Learning.? Sometimes it seems as if language learning is just about learning the present perfect and the third conditional, but, Harmer exclaimed, surely it is more than that! Language is how we express our profoundest emotions, and never more so than with poetry. Part performance, part lecture, Harmer?s session discussed the value of poetry (and music) and ways of using them in the language classroom. ?

Jim Scrivener made ?A Call: For Activist Interventionist Teaching? in his plenary. Are we, Scrivener asked, really as effective at teaching as we imagine we are? We say that we are ?communicative? but, do we, in practice, do ?whatever?s in the coursebook?? Is our methodology really rather hit and miss? Does much contemporary teaching (fluency tasks, communicative focus, fear of being ?teacher-centred?) actually sidestep the real teaching work and the real needs of learners? And is it possible that the majority of teachers who have been trained in the last twenty or so years have become so used to delegating the teaching work to “good enough” books that they have lost many of the teaching techniques that previous generations took for granted? Harmer?s talk proposed a muscular reinvigoration of teaching: focused, active, alert and getting much closer to where the learning is. He suggested that there is a particular type of teaching skill that has been lost more than others. This is the skill of getting in close to where the learning is going on ? for example, looking closely at language, helping learners to zoom in on language items in order to recognise them, understand them, say them better and use them well. He proposed that this kind of exploratory, reflective, quantum-level, analytical, language and learning-focused teaching is essential and its absence in so many classrooms is becoming a serious problem.

Joe McVeigh looked at ?Achieving Excellence through Intercultural Awareness? in his talk. As English language teachers we naturally focus on language itself and how we can help our students learn it better. But research has shown that intercultural competence can be just as important as language ability. How can we become more aware of cultural differences and how can we ? and our students ? bridge cultural gaps? McVeigh examined some key concepts of intercultural communication and looked at some practical ways to help learners communicate more effectively when they interact with those from different cultural backgrounds.

In his plenary Keith Folse discussed ?Teaching Vocabulary: Research Findings and Practical Classroom Considerations.? In the last two decades, Folse noted, we have seen a great deal of research on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in a second language. This research has important practical implications for our classes in terms of how our curriculum is arranged, what our textbooks could look like, and what teachers should (and should not) do in class with regard to new vocabulary. However, given that we have a limited amount of class time, what, Folse asked, does all of this mean for us classroom teachers? In teachers? meetings, he frequently hears teachers say, ?I think vocabulary is certainly important, but I really don?t have time in my class.? If so many teachers agree that vocabulary is important, then how are the students supposed to learn enough vocabulary if no one is teaching it? (Or are they?) In which class or classes should this supposedly important language component be covered? Whose job is it? Is teaching vocabulary the reading teacher?s job? The writing teacher?s job? The grammar teacher?s job? Is this in fact not the classic case of ?no one is doing anything because everyone thinks someone else is doing it?? In this talk on the teaching of vocabulary, he considered several concrete research findings along with three practical classroom limitations.

Rod Bolitho?s plenary talked about ?The Fifth Skill.? In this talk Bolitho argued that the development of thinking skills should be at the heart of language education, and that a language teacher has an obligation to attend to the quality of process in the classroom as well as to the imparting of content. He touched on the relationship between each of the four traditional language skills with thinking, and suggested that language classes offer a particularly favorable context for the development of critical thinking. Bolitho also hazarded a guess as to why many teachers choose to ignore this opportunity, and related this to the links between education and citizenship.

Leah Bosworth and Jonathan Smith collaborated with colleagues from Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus to plan the fourth FORUM ON CURRICULAR ISSUES: Collaborating with Colleagues to Consolidate the Curriculum (FOCI-IV) which was held at Eastern Mediterranean University on 9th and 10th December 2011, with participants from 11 different universities. The event explored ways of involving teachers into the curriculum innovation process and the interaction between curriculum teams and assessment/testing teams.

On the first day, participants also shared their experiences of how previous FOCI events have led to innovations in their curriculum or ideas they have been inspired to explore further. A couple of ideas which caught our eye included:
? A course for pre-faculty students where half the course will be taught by content lecturers and the other half of the course will be language support by English teachers. This course will be introduced at İstanbul Kültür University this semester and it will be interesting to hear how it goes.
? Students on repeat courses at İzmir University of Economics have been offered sessions with a life coach (and this has been offered to teachers too!). This seems to be an interesting approach and seems to be having a positive effect.

The FOCI project was set up in May 2010 by the Curriculum Team of Sabancı University School of Languages and is a chance for representatives from a range of universities in Turkey and North Cyprus preparing learners for their undergraduate studies in English to come together to discuss curriculum issues. These have now become regular events held twice a year in collaboration with different host institutions.

The FOCI-V event will be hosted by Koç University on 10th and 11th May 2012. This time the theme will be ?Pathways for Progress/ion: What We Do Do, Don?t Do and Could Do?. The forum will aim to explore the issues such as number, length & pace of courses/levels/whole programme, modular or non-modular approach, exit-levels, supporting weaker students, dealing with repeat courses and learners who are unable to complete the programme in the expected time, etc.

If your university is interested in sending a representative please visit our website www.fociturkey.com to find more details about registration for the next FOCI event as well as information about past FOCI events including the PowerPoints and minutes of sessions from this FOCI event.

The 15th International INGED ELT Conference: “Taking it to the limits“, took place between 20^th and 22^nd October 2011 at Hacettepe University in Ankara. There was a diverse range of presenters from Turkey and the international ELT arena, which meant a truly great selection of presentations.

Adam John Simpson

John Brown?s plenary, ?Beyond the Limits? was a collection of ideas, activities and movement from old comfort zones and dispelling old limits to new ones. He looked at what formulates our inner ideas in preparing lessons, making assumptions, doing activities and working within limits which we can bend, change, challenge or ignore. At the basis of this was not that his students learn the English they are supposed to but that they come to know more about themselves through the English he offers them and by this the English they need. Education, he suggested, is about changing both my and my students? limits cooperatively.

Marie Delaney?s plenary, ?Teaching the unteachable ? Why do some Pupils Make us Feel They are Unteachable?? asked us why we feel that some students seem unteachable? Why do tried and trusted behaviour management strategies and plans not work with some? What happens on those days when we feel incompetent and de-skilled? What is going on with us ? the adults ? and them ? the young people? The presentation addressed these questions with a view to developing a therapeutic thinking framework and a broader range of strategies to support these pupils in school.

Hugh Dellar?s ?Bridging the culture gap in the classroom? noted how the traditional concept of culture in English language teaching far too frequently involved facts and figures about Britain ? though in reality this usually meant England, and a rarified upper-middle class slice of English cultural life. Students, Dellar suggested, were sold visions of Windsor Castle and Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon and Stonehenge and perhaps given the occasional extract from Dickens or Shakespeare. The world, he exclaimed, has moved on. The notion of culture as being a fixed, easily definable monolith is dated, and the belief that language is inextricably linked to one particular kind of culture has also started being called into question. At the same time, English has become a global language used increasingly by non-natives talking to other non-natives. What, then, in the midst of all of this change and confusion, is the role of culture in the classroom lie today? What does intercultural competence really mean? How can we bring culture into the classroom? And how we help unlock and exploit our own students’ cultural identities in mainly monolingual contexts? In this lively, challenging talk, he aimed to answer all of these questions and more. He began by exploring a dynamic fluid model of what culture actually is ? and will then suggest some basic classroom implications of this. I then moved on to consider what aspects of culture are ? and aren’t ? worth focusing on in the classroom and show a couple of different classroom lessons that bring global cultural content into class ? and yet that have local cultural outcomes.

In his plenary ?Bridging teaching and learning in the language classroom: Who does what, and how?? Donald Freeman examined the following dilemma: since teaching does not ’cause’ students to learn, the basic challenge in the language classroom lies in how we connect what teachers do to what students learn. This challenge plays out on many levels from policies about teacher qualifications to curriculum about communicative teaching to practices about classroom management.  In this talk, he examined the tensions in this challenge and what teachers can do about them.

In ?Language play and creative language learning? David A. Hill noted that the ability to play with language is one of the fundamental competences of the native speaker, and yet it is sadly neglected in mainstream language teaching and learning. The talk rehearsed the background to language play, and then work through a range of activities which can be used in the classroom to include language play as a regular part of classes.

Görkem Şafak & Penny Ur

Penny Ur?s plenary ?Grammar teaching: research, theory and practice? provided a critical overview of current research and theory on the grammar in second-language courses.  The second part consisted of some suggestions how insights from the research literature may be combined with teachers? professional expertise and intuitions to produce optimal outcomes in terms of student learning, illustrated by some practical examples.

The School of Languages was also well represented at the conference. Eylem Mengi and Adam Simpson presented the findings of a study conducted in 2011 with both language teachers and preparatory school students at the School of Languages on their perceived characteristics of the exemplary teacher. Their presentation, entitled ?Teachers? and students? perceptions of the exemplary teacher: Do perceptions match?? indicated the rationale for the study, as well as introducing its findings. The session audience was also asked to add to the research and their thoughts were collected and collated as part of the ongoing research into this subject. Eylem and Adam hoped that the in-depth findings presented would encourage teachers to ?re-contemplate? their own teaching methodology and its impacts on students? learning processes, and, if necessary, make changes to their teaching to promote students? language competence and performance.

Görkem Satak also delivered a presentation at the event.

“Eclipsing Expectations: Sabancı University School of Languages 2nd International Conference on Language Education”
by
Meral GÜÇERİ

Sabancı University School of Languages organised its second international language education  conference on June 2-4, 2011 in Istanbul at Sabancı University Campus hosting delegates from 21 countries. The conference was entitled Eclipsing Expectations due to the solar eclipse which took place just before the conference and the lunar eclipse which was on the day following the conference. The conference aimed to enable students and educators to explore their expectations collaboratively. Thus, key note speakers were invited to highlight the crucial aspects of the teaching learning process. Learner plenary and concurrent sessions were also held to hear learner experiences and expectations in their own voices. It has been a very fruitful but also a challenging journey as learner and educator expectations met and eclipsed where possible. Eclipsing Expectations chat appeared in facebook, twitter, School of Languages (SL) blog before, during and after the conference. Sabancı University School of Languages blog published and SL TV broadcast interviews with the key note speakers and the delegates. Our official interviews with the plenary speakers, are now available on the School of Languages TV http://digital.sabanciuniv.edu/e-rezerv/e-video/do/sltv/ .

In these interviews speakers refer to their 2011 Eclipsing Expectations presentations: http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/#en. Finally, as the fruit of the loom, a collection of selected papers, summaries and experiential essays by the delegates has been published.

Plenary speakers were Prof. Kathleen Bailey ,Monterey Institute of International Studies and Anaheim University (United States), Dr. Christine Coombe, Higher Colleges Of Technology (United Arabic Emirates), Prof. Howard Gardner, Harvard University (United States),  Dr. Tony Humphreys, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Senior Fellow at National College of Ireland (Ireland), Dr. Nur Kurtoglu-Hooton, Aston University (United Kingdom), Prof. Patsy Martin Lightbown, Concordia University (Canada) and Joe Pereira, British Council (Portugal).

The main themes of the conference can be listed as follows:

-Noticing critical incidents and learning to reflect critically
-?A bit like taking your hands off the handlebars on your bike or something?: When we experiment with learning
-Transfer-appropriate processing: How can we ensure that classroom learning is transferable?
-Comprehension in second language acquisition: Listening and reading as the basis for language acquisition
-Bridging Student Learning and Teacher Development with Dialogue Journals
-Using Communication Strategies to do More with Less
-Foreign/Second Language Teacher Assessment Literacy:  Issues, Challenges and Recommendations
-Burnout in ELT:  Strategies for Recovery or Prevention
-The art and science of changing the mind-sets of learners and educators
-The Inner Course of Teaching and Learning
-?I?-sight in the Classroom
-Question Time on Teachers? and Students? Challenging Responses
-A narrative at war with a crossword: an introduction to Interactive Fiction
-Playing and learning outside the box

The language of the conference was English in order to create a forum for research and practices in foreign language education through one common language, which allowed language educators to share and exchange ideas across languages and across diverse language learning and teaching contexts.

The very first plenary talk was by Patsy Martin Lightbown who began her speech by stating that transfer appropriate processing (TAP) is synonymous to Transfer-appropriate learning. She emphasized that practice does not make perfect if practice is merely drilling students. Dr. Lightbown claimed that de-contextualized drills have no resemblance to the natural way we usually learn languages; hence, isolated drills can not really foster language learning. So she asked ?what kind of learning and practice can actually lead to automatized procedural learning??. She is cautious in her approach to content-based instruction. She claims that if we have to focus a lot of attention on content, less attention may be given to the language and hence processing of the features of language. In other words, focus on general meaning can distract focus on meaning and structure. Patsy ended her speech by saying that the TAP classroom needs to provide opportunities to use language communicatively, focus on linguistic features that cannot be learned through communicative interaction or have been learned incorrectly and provides practice that leads to proceduralization and automatization. She also highlighted that task meaningfulness must be defined relative to learning goals. http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/2011/06/02/summary-of-patsy-lightbowns-plenary/#en

Kathleen Bailey discussed how dialogue journals bridge the gap between learner and teachers as they provide students the opportunity to use the language as well as to express themselves.  Pedagogical scaffolding by Walqui & Van Lier (2010) is ?progressive help provided by the more knowledgeable to the less knowledgeable.?  And she explained the significance of these journals in terms of how teacher responses can help students reflect critically. What is important about scaffolding is that actually once the individuals are capable of performing themselves, the ?scaffold? is removed. Kathleen ended her talk by posing some questions about student home culture and dialogue journals. http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/2011/06/05/summary-of-kathleen-bailey%E2%80%99s-plenary/#en

Nur Kurtoğlu-Hotoon of Aston University quoted Dewey: ?We do not learn from experience but from reflecting on experiencing?. She argued that critical incident analysis promotes this learning. Then, she provided a definition of ?critical incidents? as an everyday event, a memorable happening, a problematic situation which promotes reflection and has a possibility for personal change and development. She claimed that critical incidents can open up learning opportunities as described in ?Critical reflection is a way of life? Larrivee (2000). In order to learn from a critical incident we need to reflect and when we reflect we fit new understanding into what we already know. Nur shared the following five levels of reflection by Bain et al. saying that reflection requires mental space:

1. reporting the event
2. responding to the event
3. relating it with past experience
4. reasoning about the event in terms of alternatives
5. reconstructing the event in terms of theory and applying to experiences

She concluded emphasising that we need to promote reflection through critical analyses.
http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/2011/06/03/summary-of-nur-kurtoglu-hootons-plenary/#en

Christine  Coombe talked about the practical application of teacher involvement in assessment, alternative forms of assessment, burnout and toastmasters. Dr. Coombe discussed how teachers and students view assessment and continued explaining four models of in-house test development, namely ?Teachers Write the Tests?, ?Testing Specialists Write the Tests?, ?Administration Buys the Test? and ?Teachers/Testers Write the Tests?. She said that the last option is the most preferable. However, she added that in order to apply this model, teachers had to acquire certain assessment skills, such as learning how to design tests, to analyze test results, to provide diagnostic feedback to students, evaluate the quality of tests/tasks, evaluate learner performance according to rating scales and write evaluative reports. Christine expressed her concerns on the time pressure related to ?testing training, insufficient resources, trust issues, getting institutional and administrative support, overcoming increased workload, mismatch between teaching and testing and the fact that alternative assessment still had a few slippery slopes.? She highlighted the crucial role of testing professionals and teacher collaboration for quality assessment. For more please visit: http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/2011/06/06/summary-of-christine-coombe%E2%80%99s-plenary/#en

Joe Pereira of the British Council has reflected his personal experience of gaming. He highlighted the crucial role of interactive fiction and its role in language learning and also focused on the  anti-social stereotypes surrounding gaming and karaoke. Joe shared one simple game where the reader is able to influence the pace and to determine how the story unfolds through input in natural language. The game takes the readers input, analyses it and responds to it. The reader can also back-track and discover different paths through the narrative. It is a little similar to the idea of a ?Reading Maze?, but at a more sophisticated level. The reader is engaged in the story as an outcome is sought through the second person narrative and logical puzzles. He also gave some useful links:
http://digitalplay.info/blog has information about creating classroom activities for computer games www.IFDB.tads.org and www.wurb.com/if and www.brasslantern.org have IF downloads
http://parchment.toolness.com and www.iplayif.com have online IF games.

More information about Joe?s session is available on : http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/2011/06/06/summary-of-joe-pereiras-plenary/#en.

Tony Humphreys discussed how we can create a climate of emotional and social safety in not only staffrooms but also classrooms so that both parties involved in a relationship can have a chance to express themselves freely. Dr Humphreys highlighted the fact that each teacher and each student has a unique story which he describes as ?inner core? (our ?unconscious?). Tony adds that this core includes our background, experiences and feelings, thoughts etc, and determines the way we see the world, act, react, think, behave, work and so on. In educational settings, the unconscious determines the way teachers teach and the way students learn. He also said that conflicts, disagreements and confrontations are inevitable in any context. In classrooms, when hidden conflicts are consciously worked at, a mutual sharing of the teacher?s experiences of teaching and the student?s experience of learning becomes possible. Tony emphasized that although we live in an age of ?Internet? where interconnectedness is indispensable to catch up on what goes on, many people seem to lose connection with themselves. Our relationship with ourselves and our individuality is important and inhabiting our own individuality is our main responsibility as individuals. Tony claimed that pupils are always ready to learn?not necessarily for what we teach. He believes that the mission of teachers is to discover what they are ready for learning. Tony Humphreys completed his talk with a quotation by Chomsky: ?99% of teaching is making students feel interested in the material.? And the following thought provoking questions: ?How do we as teachers / learners / managers become aware our inner core? Who can help us to keep in touch with our unconscious??.  For more about Tony Humphreys? session please see: http://www.eclipsingexpectations.com/2011/06/03/summary-of-tony-humphreys-plenary/#en for more.

Howard Gardner was the last plenary of day one in the conference. His talk was entitled “Eclipsing Expectations: The art and science of changing the mind-sets of learners and educators”. His talk briefly defined what ?Individuation? (teaching each person in the way they understand best) and ?Pluralisation? (teaching something in many different ways) meant in education. He said that in relation to the theory he has put forward, he was posed questions as to whether there were many ways of being creative or just one and whether leadership was connected to a certain kind of intelligence. His answer to these questions was the one common feature of highly creative people like Pablo Picasso, Atatürk or the other leaders was that they changed not only the way people think, feel or behave but their entire lives. Prof. Gardner suggested that people who want to change minds either directly or indirectly use seven different approaches:These seven levers of mind change are listed as: 1. Reason / Argument 2.Research / Data, 3. Resonance that is, some leaders are very charismatic ? they resonate with large populations, that is, teacher?s role is significant as students need to feel comfortable with us and we need to feel comfortable with them. 4. Redescription involves presenting what we are trying to teach students in many different ways so that we reach more students and demonstrate what it is to understand. 5. Reward and Punishment are essential in changing behavior but may not change attitudes. 6. Real World Events were explained by Gardner as ?a good leader takes real world events and uses them to his advantage,? a good teacher should bring the real world into the classroom to enhance learning. 7. Resistance; was explored as trying to understand the origin of the resistance to change which should take precedence over trying to change somebody?s mind.

Learner voices were heard not only in plenary sessions but also in learner concurrent sessions where learners shared their learning experiences by giving tips and hints relying on their language learning experiences. It was amazing to listen to learners who reflected more than 3 or even 4 foreign language learning journeys that they had been exposed to. Learner voices backed up Gardner?s seven approaches that he put forward in his plenary talk. We hope that learner and educator experiences were eclipsed in this 2^nd Language Education Conference at Sabancı University in İstanbul.

One of the great things about being a geeky nerd is that I can relate to what?s going on in the minds of a lot of my students. Like (too) many of them, I?m fascinated by the concept of zombies. I?ve spent many classroom breaks hypothesizing with students about the impending doom that will be brought about by the zombie outbreak. Anyway, that?s only a slight part of the focus of this post. This interest has led me to a resource that I think might make for a fun class activity. Firstly, take a look at this picture. Here?s the situation: you?ve fought your way past a horde of zombies and made it to your vehicle. While you are making your escape, you find a survivor. He bangs on the window and begs you to let him into your car. He looks to have been bitten and is covered in blood. You have twenty seconds to make your decision. As a teacher who has decided to show this clip in your class, what would you do now to exploit this situation? Where could this go? Here are a few things I might do?

? Put the students in groups and get them to hypothesize about what might happen if either of the two options is taken. ? Get them to report back to the class what they think will happen if they follow each choice. ? Take a vote on which course of action to take.

This activity cries out for the use of conditionals. Assuming for one minute that what they are watching is real, you could use the situation to get them to reflect on the likelihood of what they think will happen actually happening. Something like? Before making the decision:

?If we let him in, I think he will eat us.?

After the consequences of the decision have become clear:

?If we hadn?t left him, he might have been able to help us later on.?

This might all become a little clearer if you embark on the journey yourself. This is a fairly short video clip of about four minutes, leading on to four or five more (sorry, I lost count) additional episodes, each with a dilemma at the end. The dialogue is natural, but not overly challenging. The premise is simple: chose the correct path and you avoid death. Deliver me to Hell

Ok, I think you get the idea. I should warn you about a couple of things with this adventure. Firstly, it gets a bit bloodthirsty and gruesome, so consider your ?audience.? Secondly, this is actually an advert for a New Zealand pizza delivery service, so if you have any concerns about promoting products, you may wish to use one of the other clips I?ll introduce later on. Things I particularly like about this format:

? The video clips are only 3-4 minutes long, so students get short, sharp bursts of information on which to reflect and respond. ? The dialogue is natural, even if the situations are sensational. ? The clips promote vibrant discussion. ? The activity fosters creative thinking. ? There are opportunities for language focus (think about my conditional sentence examples). ? You can develop reflection and narrative skills (write a paragraph summarizing the events and / or what you would have done differently).

Because all my students have laptops and campus-wide wi-fi access, I often find them watching funny clips on YouTube during the breaks. When this happens, I try to get them to tell me what they?ve been watching and discuss it in class. They are often reluctant to do so, and you get the feeling that they consider this as something wrong. This is a real shame, as it could make a springboard into a nice class discussion. This is another reason why I like to bring YouTube into the class. As I mentioned, this zombie story is just one of a number of interactive adventures on YouTube. Here are the first episodes of a couple of others. The Time Machine This one is less gruesome than the zombie adventure. If you like this, go to Chad, Matt and Rob?s website for many more adventures.

Choose a different ending This is what public service announcements look like these days.

A bit of advice Play through all of the options for each adventure. This will help you to decide if the content is appropriate for your learners and enable you to plan activities depending on how things go. A request If you use these in your classes, please let me know how it goes.

Transparency
One concept that seemed to come up often during the event was transparency: that this was essential in everything we do to encourage learner autonomy. Are our expectations explicit to the learners right from the start? Are our objectives and assessment criteria explicit to the learners (in language they can actually understand – not “TeacherSpeak”)? The teacher too needs to be a model of autonomy: so maybe we should encourage teachers to be open about their reflection on their own practice; letting the learners see that the teacher is a learner too and is reflecting on the learning process and how to improve it.

Special role of speaking
From the questionnaire discussion it seemed that maybe there is something particularly motivating for learners when they experience success in speaking and this maybe needs to be investigated more. Speaking is all about confidence and is closely linked with self-esteem – maybe more so than other skills. So maybe this is a key to fostering autonomy. Speaking is maybe not seen as very important in learners? future academic needs and is hard to test and so on. But maybe we can’t afford to ignore it?

Learners? beliefs about language learning underlying their behaviour in and out of class
It seemed evident from the discussions in the forum that we need to understand what the students bring along with them (i.e. their beliefs about language learning). Even if their beliefs seem incompatible with ours, we should start from the point where they are (this will minimize conflicts of expectations) and bring them to the point where we are. This can help us to better understand why they do what they do in and out of class and the insight we will gain will help to make informed decisions about our teaching and learning practices.

Self-reflection & frequent success
Learners’ evaluating their strengths and areas to improve after exams through self reflection can guide them for their further studies, which is a practice that can be exercised across levels. Also, it is not always motivation that leads to success, but it is sometimes the feeling of success that leads to further motivation. Therefore, it seems wise to provide the students with opportunities to experience the feeling of success through frequent quizzes, which is a practice that could be much appreciated by our “exam-oriented” students. The feeling of success they will experience is likely to motivate them to study more for upcoming exams.

Learners’ Voices
Hearing the learners’ voices on autonomy and using what they have experienced to inform other students’ further development in this area was a topic that we discussed at length. To do this we can use our previous learners (those with a decent level of autonomy) for both information gathering and working with current students. These ‘old’ students can provide a wealth of information as well providing ‘live’ inspiration/motivation and guidance on the keys to success. The information gathered could also inform some kind of ‘booklet’ which students could refer to as and when required.

The FOCI project was set up in May 2010 by the Curriculum Team of Sabancı University School of Languages and is a chance for representatives from a range of universities in Turkey and North Cyprus preparing learners for their undergraduate studies in English to come together to discuss curriculum issues. These have now become regular events held twice a year in collaboration with different host institutions. The FOCI-IV event will be hosted by Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus in December 2011. If your university is interested in sending a representative please visit our website to find more details about past FOCI events: www.fociturkey.com.

Jacqueline Einer and Jonathan Smith attended the fourth ELT Symposium organised by Dünya Aktuel & Cambridge University Press in Antalya on 21st and 22nd May, 2011. The title of the symposium was Keeping it Real and the sessions which most stood out for us were:

Corpus Linguistics and the English Profile Project by Branko Stojanovic (CUP Serbia)

The aims of the English Profile project are to investigate what learner English is like for speakers of different languages at different levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) and to describe each level in terms of the lexis grammar and functional language which learners are able to use. In order to achieve this, a corpus of learner texts is being complied to supplement the existing Cambridge International Corpus and the corpus of learners performance in Cambridge ESOL exams. The CEFRL is now very widely used but is designed to be applied to any language; the hope is that this the English Profile project will provide better linguistic specificity to flesh out the CEFRL level descriptors specifically for English and be a publicly available source of corpus-based evidence for course designers and teachers. You can visit the project?s website and sign up to be able to enable your learners to contribute samples of their English to the corpus: www.englishprofile.org

Inside the Minds of the Internet Generation by David Marsh (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Taking the mobile phone as a starting point, Marsh argued that these devised are not new in themselves (we have had clocks, cameras, phones etc for years) – the innovation lies in the integration of these functions into a single device. The young people who have grown up using these and other integrated technological devices are generating their own habits of learning such as a preference for learning in a hands-on way and ways of thinking. This has implications for the teaching of English for academic purposes (EAP) namely that English language teaching should be embedded further into the curriculum of faculties and scaffolding the learners with with both content and language skills. Marsh envisages English language teaching professionals conversant with a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach being more fully integrated with the content lecturers and becoming an integral part of the faculty teams rather than isolated in a Language Centre and that this approach would better suit the learning approach of the Internet Generation.

The Magic of Teaching by The Henry Brothers with Doruk Ülgen

The Grand Finale of the whole event was an innovative and imaginative exploration of the parallels between teaching English and performing magic, performed by professional magician Doruk Ülgen and his two glamorous teacher-trainer assistants John Henry Moorcroft and Paul Henry Zarraga. thehenrybrothers.wordpress.com

Reyhan Ok, Nurdan Çoksezen, Leah Bosworth, Jacqueline Einer and Jonathan Smith

Olwyn Alexander from Herriot-Watt University gave a concurrent session entitled ?Not just some random English class: Raising the profile of in-sessional provision through the CEM model?. The CEM model (Sloan & Porter ?Changing international student and business staff perceptions of in-sessional EAP: using the CEM model.? Journal of English for Academic Purposes Vol 9 No 3, 198.) provides a way of organising adjunct language courses for students in their faculties. The model has 3 ?lenses?:
? Contextualizing (the content and tasks are based on the reality of the particular faculty course)
? Embedding (the EAP instructor should be working in close contact and as part of the programme team together with the content lecturers)
? Mapping (the academic competencies are dealt with at the appropriate time in the course when students actually need it to do the assigned tasks by the content lecturer)
It was seen as successful by the content lecturers because it was branded as training the students to become scholars rather than an added on remedial language course.

David Hill (not our Freshman teacher!! But author of Academic Connections and EAP Now! Coursebooks) gave a concurrent session on ?Critical thinking or critical expression?: Meeting students critical needs?. In this session, he argued for the use of the term ?critical expression? rather than critical thinking as, after all, how can you teach someone to think? But we can teach someone how and when to express their critical thinking appropriately. He also suggested that the idea of teaching ?critical thinking? implies the risk of underestimating our learners? existing ability to think critically.

Karen Nicholls from Sheffield Hallam University?s concurrent session ?Transitions, autonomy and a pre-sessional course? described research she had carried out into the transitional changes that students face when they come to university and the coping strategies they adopt as well as the relevance they could see between their pre-sessional English courses and their studies in faculty. As a framework to analyse her findings she used Fazey & Fazey?s (2001) definition of autonomy (‘The potential for autonomy in learning’ Studies in Higher Education vol 26 no 3, 345) which sees learner autonomy as having three components:
? Intrinsic motivation (?I like doing this?)
? Perception of competence (?I can do this?)
? Internal locus of control (?What I do affects the outcome of this?)

Erich Cutler ?Guided Observation: The transition from language study to full-time matriculation?
Erich explained how intermediate level and above students at Oregon State Univeristy have 18 core contact hours and 6 hours of elective courses in their prep programme. One of these elective courses is called ?Guided Observation? which involves the students attending real lectures in faculty and receiving support from a language instructor. The course also focuses on the ?rhetoric classroom? i.e. helping students grasp the essential skills, knowledge and awareness necessary to be successful in their future faculty courses. Students are required to do a number of tasks, including reflective tasks on an online discussion board. He strongly believes that it is important for students to develop a real and permanent link with their future faculty courses in order to be successful.

David Button in his session titled ?Noticing by Design? explained how some principles of graphic design in materials could be best used to focus attention on what we want to focus on. He described where the ?given? and ?new? information should be (given on the left and new on the right), which fonts should be used for what (serif fonts for body text; non-serif fonts for display) and how coloring could be used to maximize effect. He also reported research findings related to text alignment: left-aligned texts increases reading speed. If a text is justified, the reading speed is reduced bur the comprehension is increased. Other graphic design features he mentioned were proximity and contrast. Some audience members stated that some of the points mentioned might be specific to western writing systems, but they may not hold true for those who read from right to left or top to bottom. He agrees that this may be true, but through following the principles he listed, foreign students could be introduced to an aspect of English culture.

Glenn Fulcher and Jenny Kemp: Performance Decision Trees: operationalising domain specific criteria for teaching and assessment

Glenn Fulcher and Jenny Kemp explained how and why they developed (PDTs) at the University of Leicester. They first expressed their views on speaking evaluation criteria based on CEFR. Their main criticism was there was some inconsistency across levels and that some points in them are not necessary in university context. They then introduced the criteria they developed which look at certain the presence or absence of certain elements in a candidate?s performance. They claim PDTs aim to ?capture more of interactive and communicative nature of speech? than traditional criteria. They also believe that PDTs can be designed in such a way that they can be used to assess language, give feedback and develop programs. They illustrated their use with the example of a travel agency encounter and the use of PDT developed required the assessors to make a yes/no decision regarding different aspects of the learner?s performance.

A workshop by Jane Mandalios ?Using RADAR to evaluate information sources

In the workshop Jane explained the importance of finding the relevant source in the sea of information on the internet. She used a simple method called RADAR to evaluate the usefulness of information that students look for. Instructors can teach this simple set of criteria to their students to reach the most relevant and academic texts.

R elevance ? How is the information that you have found relevant to your
assignment?
A uthority ? Who is the author? What tells you that they are authoritative, someone that can be relied upon or trusted?
D ate ? When was the information published? Is it important to use current information?
A ppearance ? Does the information look serious and academic? Or does it look as if it was written by a non-professional?
R eason for writing ? Why did the writer publish this? Make sure the source is well-researched, unbiased and professional.

A session on Audio Feedback in EAP: the way forward? By Steve Bond, Gwyneth James, and Alison Standring

This concurrent session focused on the provision of audio feedback in in-sessional classes. The presenters collected feedback both from the teachers and the students. The instructors used voice mail function of Moodle with Wimba. Some teachers combined the voice mail with Jinx to give both written and audio feedback. They found out that the students preferred this type of feedback to audio feedback or written feedback on its own. However, the instructors who gave audio feedback indicated that recording the feedback took a similar length of time to written feedback. Those who favoured it said that it was motivating for their students in that it offered a different mode of feedback.

John Slaght one of the authors of the Garnet books that we use at Upper Intermediate and testing guru from the University of Reading. Slaght proposed that we should be using Open Book Exams as proficiency exams. He felt that the in order to help students with their needs on Faculty courses it was vital that we improve their reading skills. To do this he believes that we need to use authentic tasks in exams that reflect the need in EAP for “a task-based approach where conveying meaning through real world challenges is primary.” He believes that the authenticity of Open Book Exams will have a great washback effect on the amount of reading that students do as well as improve the way that they approach reading. He also feels that despite the logistic challenges of using OBEs for large cohorts of students, the benefits to be gained should encourage us to do our utmost to implement such exams.

Dr Janette Ryan, Director of the Higher Education Academy Teaching International Students Project gave a plenary that was thought provoking and relevant for our situation. Dr Ryan talked about how academics expected students to adapt quickly to the expectations of university but at the same time they felt unprepared to deal with the demands of teaching students whose first language was not English. They also did not really take advantage of the expertise of language instructors to help them overcome these shortcomings. Dr Ryan proposed that academics and language and learning instructors should be working together to improve the teaching and learning experiences of international students. (In our case as we are a English-medium university, our students are in a similar position to international students in the UK).

Nothing really new so far but how she and her colleagues at the UK Higher Education Academy have put this into practice with the Teaching International Students Project is. The project is aimed at enhancing collaboration between subject specialists and language support teachers. To support this, they have set up a website that is a “one-stop shop – a data base of teaching and learning resources”. The website includes resources on academic preparedness, guidelines for lectures, stories from staff and students amongst many other things. It can be found at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/home It seems like a good way for academics and language instructors to share their expertise and to learn from each other.

Mark Osbourne talked about a commercial program, Wordready, that creates vocabulary exercises based on words from the academic word list found in texts that students supply. The program provides introductory, practice and revision activities which are based on students’ previous activity outcomes as well as the need for providing spaced repetition and consolidation of words. Students’ progress can also be tracked and monitored.

Tony Lynch reminded us that our approaches to teaching can be influenced by concepts from outside the EAP arena. He used the metaphors of a monkey, a locust and a flying pig to make 3 very useful points: an EAP teacher should not be overly helpful but should create a space for unexpected answers and wait for learners to find their own answers.

Deniz Kurtoğlu Eken on My Space, Learner Involvement, GISS and Reading Outside the Field

Mark Andrews from Eötvös Lorand University in Budapest and co-ordinator of the IATEFL Hungary Culture and Literature Special Interest Group was roving reporter at the 2nd İstek Schools International ELT Conference 2011. He interviewed presenters and participants.

You can find Mark’s report on SL Director, Deniz Kurtoglu Eken’s concurrent plenary and the interview by clicking here.

AAAL 2011, Chicago
Meral Güçeri

The American Association for Applied Linguistics, (AAAL) 2011 Conference was held in Chicago this year. The conference provided a forum to share research and to meet colleagues from around the world. The conference created an environment where/in which I was able to meet many people I already knew through their published work I was invited to the conference by one of the colloquium organizers as a presenter and had the opportunity to share my research findings and represent our university.

AAAL 2011 was not only a professionally stimulating conference but also intellectually challenging and socially warm and refreshing. The interactions that were formal as well as informal served to push the boundaries of our discipline forward as it has always been in the previous conferences of AAAL. Days were from 8:15am to 8pm, and the sessions were geared to deal with all aspects of applied linguistics in relation to areas as diverse as computer-mediated communication, disability, intercultural communication, language revitalization and literacy. In addition, a great number of issues related to language learning were explored. In her opening speech, the president of AAAL, Heidi Byrnes greeted all of the conference participants and emphasized the key role AAAL plays in developing a more active voice in the public arena on issues involving language.

I would like to share this unique experience starting with a brief summary of one of the most stimulating sessions that I attended.

Emancipation of the Language Learner

The winner of AAAL Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award 2011 was Diane Larsen- Freeman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The purpose of this award is to recognize and honor a distinguished scholar for her/his scholarship and service to the profession, in general, and to the American Association for Applied Linguistics, in particular. Prof. Larsen-Freeman gave a lecture entitled ?Emancipation of the Language Learner? where she invited the audience to join her on a journey starting from her very first TESOL experience in Malaysia. She explored the answers to the following questions, explaining that they needed to be answered within a specific context:

- What is language teaching? Who is the language teacher?
- What is learning? Who are the language learners?
- What is language? What is culture?

Diane Larsen- Freeman visualized how learner profiles have changed from in her years of TESOL since 1960s.

Learner as a/an

? parrot?(in behaviourism, repeating after the teacher)
? cognitive being (in cognitivism, where the learner is seen to be figuring out the rules from the input)

(It was at this point in our history that the learner?s active involvement was acknowledged, which led to the establishment of the field of second language acquisition (SLA).)

? affective being (with feelings and emotions)
? social being (who learns from interaction with others)
? political being (global) (who is empowered by knowledge of another language)
? physical being (learners? bodies interact with the world, including non verbally)
? neural being (language acquisition involves regions of the human brain)

Prof. Larsen-Freeman then went on to suggest that there still existed at least one barrier to full learner emancipation. And that lies in our understanding of language (language İdeology (2004, Kroskrity). For instance, when language is seen as a closed system, described by static rules, then learning is seen as conforming to uniformity. This is not liberating. She then went on to suggest that Complexity Theory could offer us a new way of viewing language, which would emancipate learners.

She argued that patterns emerge through language use– by soft assembly and co-adaptation which lead to self-organization (Mitchell, 2003). Larsen-Freeman claimed that a complex system is dynamic rather than static. She said that complexity exists only in interaction and that organisms create their own environments (Lewontin 2000:54.)

She went on to show the creativity of language users/learners. She provided a list including ?refudiate?, ?watchale?, ?informations?, ? this data?, ?whoppingly small?, ?more clear?, ?researches?, and asked whether they were innovations or errors. Then, she provided examples in context and explained the intention of learners and explored why they could/not be errors.

Diane Larsen-Freeman continued her argument by saying that ?learning is patterning, an autopoietic process that involves a change not only in the language, but in the learner. (Emergentist processes contain within themselves, therefore, freedom (Osberg 2007). She added ?learners actively transform their worlds; they do not merely conform to it.?

Since learners create in learning multi-language repertoires, language learning should be viewed as boundless potentiality. Teaching should be recognized as guiding not leading; teaching should be observed as teaching adaptation and managing the learning process.

Do not get surprised if Diane Larsen-Freeman publishes a new article on ?complexity? sometime soon.

Language, Literacy, and Learning in a Digital Age

The very first plenary talk was by James Paul Gee from Arizona State University. Prof. Gee stressed the role of digital media and popular culture as tools to change language and literacy practices, as well as creating new forms of learning. He argued that these changes are transforming issues about equity, education, and language and languages in the modern world. He argued that digital media, as well as new forms of social organization facilitated by digital media, are giving rise to a great many new social languages or registers. Prof Gee als claimed that these social languages are often as complex – if not more complex ? than the styles of academic language that give many learners so much trouble in school. He extended his argument further and said that in digital communities of practice of a type that he called ?passionate affinity spaces,? we see new and powerful ways in which language, literacy, learning, participation, and problem solving were being integrated. He added that these changes were at the forefront of real ?learning reform? in a society like the United States today- not the more publicized efforts at ?school reform?. At the same time, they call for new forms of work in Applied Linguistics.

Identity vs Subjectivity: Different timescales, different methodologies

Claire Kramsch from University of California, Berkeley , claimed that there is some confusion regarding identity vs. subjectivity and said that ?the confusion between identity and subjectivity in applied linguistics needs to be explored and differences should be made clear.? She explained the differences first by providing definitions from the literature and then in research questions and methodologies in language learning. Here are some of her definitions that I noted down: ?Identity is the marginalization of minority, whereas, subjectivity is the marginalization of nation.? (Kramsch,2011)

Identity is not just psychological self-awareness but political consciousness (Norton 2000, Pavlenko 2005, Block 2007.) We understand others by understanding ourselves as others (Kristeva,1991.)

Becoming a multicompetent professional in an EFL context

Leo Van Lier of Monterey Institute of International Studies discussed how to become a multicompetent professional in an EFL context: a multi-layered narrative inquiry. The primary data of his study were detailed narratives from seven TESOL graduate students ; these provided deep understandings of Taiwanese English learning ecologies using three analytical lenses corresponding to critical sources of time, place, and people. Progressive focusing and dialogical inquiries were said to reveal complexity of development, challenging linear progress.

An empirical appraisal of the construction of nonnativeness

Lourdes Ortega from the University of Hawaii shared her recent research on an empirical appraisal of the construction of nonnativeness as deficit in applied linguistic discourses. Ample support was found for the claim that L2 users are frequently characterized as ?less? rather than ?more ? in applied linguistic research.

Effects of form-focused instruction on explicit and implicit L2 knowledge

Nina Spada of the University of Toronto argued about the effects of form-focused instruction on explicit and implicit L2 knowledge. With her graduate students Spada reported on quasi experimental classroom study with adult ESL learners in which the contributions of form-focused instruction are examined in relation to learners? explicit and implicit L2 knowledge, the former measured by an error correction task and the latter by an oral production and elicited imitation task.

Writing for the ?center?: Studies of Genre and Publishing in Science and Engineering

This colloquium aimed to explore the challenges faced by students and multilingual professionals in penetrating the inner circle of English writing and publishing in science and engineering. Written genres of science and engineering as well as the social practices and policies involved in publication were analysed. Fredricka Stoller of Northern Arizona University reported on analyses of chemistry research proposals, emphasizing how to prepare undergraduates to write for the discipline. Prof Stoller highlighted language of proposals as well as conventions related to audience, purpose, organization, writing and content.She shared the research findings as: basic language-related focus, chemistry genre vs. applied linguistics genre, organisation, discipline required genre, and audience consideration. A detailed handout with a reference list is available .

Seeking refugee: Language learning as a means to escape

Kubota Ryuko from the University of British Colombia argued that language learning is linked to not only sociocultural or psychological perspectives but also symbolic meanings such as desires, emotions, and values. Her qualitative research in Japan revealed how two Japanese women who experienced personal difficulties sought emotional refuge in language learning. She discussed issues of popular culture, gender, and race.

Language Learning Roundtable:Language Construction in Applied Linguistics

Suresh Canagarajah organised this roundtable where six applied linguists from around the world reflected on the state of the art. They analysed how social and philosophical changes in the context of globalization shape the discipline. They also outlined more inclusive discourses in an effort to accommodate the diversity of practices that characterize our field. Ben Rampton of Kings College, London, Dwight Atkinson from Purdue University, Lachman Khubchandani,CMSP, Kwesi Prah, CASAS, Huhua Ouyang Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Ulrich Ammon from Universitat Duisburg-Essen had very heated discussions on the issues raised above.

Meral Güçeri, Silvia Passa, Jodi Crandall, Naoko Taguchi

English-medium curricula in the global society: Opportunities and challenges for the development of functional English abilities

Naoko Taguchi of Carnegie Melon University and Jodi Crandall, University of Baltimore, organized a colloquium entitled English-medium curricula in the global society: Opportunities and challenges for the development of functional English abilities. This colloquium discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by English-medium universities/programs in five expanding circle countries: Akita International University in Japan, Sabanci University in Turkey, Carnegie Melon University-Qatar, Zayed University in Dubai and Sookmyung University in Korea.

Taguchi stressed the intricacy of opportunities and challenges for pragmatic development in Akita University, an English medium University in Japan.Taguchi?s presentation discussed a case study conducted at an English-medium university in Japan. The study revealed that academic proficiency and pragmatic competence in English did not develop at equal rates. Findings demonstrate an intricate interaction among institutional goals, teachers? and students? expectations, and patterns of social interaction at the institution.

I was the second speaker of our colloquium and shared the research study that I conducted on public speaking. My discussion was based on a case study which aimed to identify the differences and similarities in learners? use of strategies and sub-skills in L1 and L2 seminars and whether they transfer certain skills between the two languages. This case study analyzed 20 students’ oral performance in seminar presentations in Turkish and English. The study also attempted to explore the methods and materials used in the English and Turkish classes and their impact on students’ development of oral competence. Recordings of student presentations, field notes, classroom observation data of Turkish and English seminars, student peer feedback, and seminar presenter?s self-reflections were collated and analyzed. The study revealed that certain skills are transferred from one language to the other in public speaking and a range of variables, not limited to language abilities, affected students’ seminar performance.

Fredricka Stoller, Jodi Crandall, Naoko Taguchi, Silvia Pessao, Meral Güçeri

Silvia Pessoa, the third presenter, was from Carnegie Melon University in Qatar, and her presentation reported on two studies that examined the role of English-medium education on students? academic and personal development at an American university in Qatar. The findings indicated gains in English literacy, personal growth, and an understanding of the students? linguistic and cultural reality in which Arabic may be lost.

Then, Bryan Gilroy?s case study which was conducted at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was shared. Based on the data from government and private sector sources, this study addressed the standard of English being used across the Emirates as well as social attitudes towards English. The findings demonstrate that the UAE faces several academic challenges to improve English language standards (not least amongst males.)

Jodi Crandall of the University of Maryland gave the final presentation of this colloquium . Her research was entitled ?Integrating English in a TEFL post-graduate certificate program: Content-based, proficiency-oriented instruction.? Prof. Crandall explained how a post-graduate certificate program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language could address the need for English language proficiency in a number of ways: setting a very high English level for admission into the program; providing English language classes along with the content courses in second language acquisition, language teaching and testing methodology, or intercultural communication; or integrating the teaching of English into those academic content courses. The focus of this presentation was on the decisions made by a post-graduate TEFL certificate program at Sookmyung University in Seoul, Korea, as it has worked to both improve the English proficiency of candidates, as well as their language teaching knowledge and skills.

Last but not the least, I would like to summarize Schumann?s , UCLA, colloquium with his PhD students.

Exploring the Interactional Instinct and Language Acquisition

Prof John Schumann with Dina Anna L. Joaquin?s colloquium explored several issues that are raised by interactional instinct(II) theory: the relationship between first and second language acquisition, the manifestation of the II cross-culturally and in observed interaction, and its relation to other theoretical constructs (Pedagogical Stance, Willingness to communicate, and Interactional Hypothesis.)

The following photograph welcomes plenary speaker Charles Goodwin (UCLA) and Prof. Schumann and his colloquium team to our conference!

Reflections on ?Squaring the Circle?: the 1st IEU International ELT Conference

Adam John Simpson

The issue of competence versus performance in students? learning was the focus of this event: matching students? ability with their performance was compared to the notion of trying to square a circle. The same terms, the conference suggested, are just as relevant when discussing teachers, teacher training, schools, managers and curriculums. In their first international ELT conference, the Izmir University of Economics sought to promote discussion and reflection of competence and performance right across the ELT spectrum.

The plenary speakers included Donald Freeman (“The Baltic Light Index: Trying to Predict What Teacher Education has to do with Student Learning”), Kathleen Graves (“Problematizing the Relationship between Curriculum and Classroom Practice”), Adrian Underhill (“From Teacher to Facilitator”) and Rod Bolitho (?Questions and Questioning in Teaching and Training?). There were also several presentations from School of Languages instructors.

Adam Simpson?s presentation on Friday afternoon was entitled ?Bridging the gap between Foundation Year and Freshman.? One of the great strengths of the upper intermediate program at Sabancı University School of Languages, noted Adam, is the extent to which it acts as a bridge between the preparatory English year and the kinds of lectures the students will be attending and the language they?ll be encountering when they progress to their freshman studies. A major part of this bridge is the series of lectures in mathematics and natural sciences (EMS) which the students attend for one hour a week and which form a percentage of their overall course grade. As teachers, our hope is that our students enjoy the valuable opportunity to experience something of what life will be like for them when they are attending lectures in their freshman classes. Additionally, we aim to show the students that, although the content of the lectures may already be familiar, they need to remember that, this being an English course, they need to become familiar with the language used in these lectures to showcase their competencies. This presentation was an exploration of the extent to which this is actually happening.

On Saturday afternoon Görkem Satak delivered her workshop entitled ?Thinking, Creating, Acting, Moving and Talking: Role Play.? Learning a language, Görkem stated, is not simply a one dimension intellectual activity, but involves the whole person. Our students are intelligent, fully functioning humans. When they come to the classroom, they bring not only their books, pencils and notebooks, but also their background knowledge, their experiences, their hopes, their fears, their jealousy, their illnesses, etc. Therefore, they are not merely individuals sitting on a chair and listening to their teacher. They learn by being both mentally and physically active, involving in activities, doing things themselves rather than by being told about them. We, as teachers, should give them an opportunity to create their own reality and to develop their ability to interact with other people. Role-playing is a unique learning tool as it allows them to engage in experiential learning rather than passively accepting information that is given to them.

Michael Thomas, SL

Denise Özdeniz delivered her session, ?Writing = content + organization + topic related language. Fine! But, here the difficult component seems to be identifying, organizing and expressing the relationship between content ideas? on Sunday morning. In university faculties, Denise noted, students write to demonstrate their understanding of course content, of key concepts and the causal relationships between them. This usually involves reading into writing. Read a text, extract the relevant information and use it to answer the question (writing prompt). In academic writing students are asked to produce text based written responses. The key ideas needed for a written reply are not their own general opinions, but details taken from informative texts, as students are reading to expand their knowledge base and writing to help organize and articulate this information. Her talk therefore aimed to acknowledge the importance of the information collation stage in the reading into writing process, especially in text based assignments, to generate ideas of how students can collate ideas (questions phase of the talk), and to encourage teachers to incorporate the collation stage in their writing.

Part two of the report on the conference will reflect the School of Languages instructors? reflections on sessions they attended.