The Workshop Festival in the 2019-2020 Academic Year

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMME – TDU WORKSHOP FESTIVAL

28 MAY 2020, THURSDAY

INSTRUCTORS

TIME

ABSTRACT

LINK

DR. DONALD STAUB

KEYNOTE

10:00 – 10:30

Where do we go from here?

 “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

For the coming academic year, there are two possible scenarios. Plan B, and arguably the easier one, is fully online. In this scenario, simply keep on keepin' on. But let's say we need to go with Plan A. Then we are talking some form of a blended model. This session will explore this latter scenario. What in fact might blended learning look like? How will it be executed if social distancing is required? We are planning our responses now so that whichever model we land on, our students will continue to receive a quality education.

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AKKADIN ÇANKAYA

SESSION 1

10:55 – 11:15

In this short talk I would like to talk to you about my topic dialogues in class. There are rarely any problems in the introduction of dialogues, but the transition to the dialogue phase is usually problematic. Conducting dialogues in the classroom is usually not authentic, the learners lack the environment and they cannot connect. For this reason I have considered situations that are close to the learners and help them to conduct the dialogues more easily.

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MARIA ELMA CORUJO GONZALES

SESSION 2

11:20 – 11:40

The purpose of this research was to determine a curriculum design for a Business Spanish Course. Curriculum designs endeavour to address four curriculum components, why do we initiate instruction or aims?  What should we teach to realize our set aims and objectives? How can we interconnect target learning experiences? What have we realized and what actions should we take accordingly in relation to the instructional program, learners, and teacher? We have reflected on the teaching-learning process and the role of the teacher in business Spanish to develop this program.

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RALPH JOHN BERNEY

SESSION 3

11:45 – 12:05

Acquisition of a foreign language is a substantial reward in itself. Testing counts when the results show both learner and teacher how much progress – learning with understanding – has been made: the measure of success. Achievement is not about examining, punitive grading, discriminating and ranking, rather it stems from cooperation, collaboration, encouragement and enthusiasm, building confidence. Best to begin in the sound footing of L1 as the building blocks to acquire L 2. What may seem a regressive move is actually a progressive step.

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JUAN DAVID MORCOTE SANTOS

SESSION 4

12:10 – 12:30

By looking through the learning process of our students, it was not difficult to find their weakest point; production of communicative skills in Spanish, especially speaking.

It was necessary to develop several activities in the classroom that allow students to advance their speaking skills. It was also crucial to find out how beneficial these activities were to them.

In short, the information about those activities will be delivered to who may be interested in, so as to present why they were created and what was the outcome.

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SIMON MUMFORD

SESSION 5

(10 min. short talk)

12:35 – 12:45

Content and language are seen as two competing aspects of writing, with language further divided into grammar and vocabulary. This project aimed at understanding students’ views on the relative importance of these aspects, through class discussion and in-class writing. The data, 39 short pieces of writing from three classes, reveals that students gave more importance to language than content, and slightly more to vocabulary than grammar in their academic skills courses. More interestingly, the data also reflected a wide range of purposes, goals, and motivations in writing, reflecting textual, cognitive and social aspects.

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DR. MELTEM AKTAŞ DOĞAN

SESSION 6

13:00 – 13:20

This presentation will be about activating students’ creativity in writing skills.  We will look at creativity first as a brain activity then in foreign language teaching.  The presentation will talk about language skills and especially writing skills which are considered as a process.  After theoretical framework I will share also an example that how we can make our writing activities more creative in digital age. The study has been made with A2 level Italıan language students in Italian Art and Culture Elective Course.

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AKSEL EPİK

SESSION 7

13:25 – 13:45

Online courses have expanded rapidly and have the potential to extend further. Although much research has focused on the impact of e-learning on students, little has been done in the way of how the growth in the world of online education impacts course instructors. Stress is normal and quite healthy. Distress occurs when the normal ability to manage day-to-day stressors does not meet the level of stress one is experiencing. Online teachers experience unique set of challenges that may cause distress. Teacher burnout is regarded as a serious problem in school settings. The issue of burnout in online teachers is going to be the focus of this presentation.

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UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMME – TDU WORKSHOP FESTIVAL

29 MAY 2020, FRIDAY

INSTRUCTORS

TIME

ABSTRACT

LINK

HEATHER AUSTIN ÖMÜRLÜ

SESSION 1

10:00 – 10:20

Put together an undergraduate English course over the summer,” they said. Panic ensued. Then - with hard work and magic - ENG 410 English for Career Development came to be. After nearly three years of evolution involving needs analysis, assessment, materials and curriculum development, and student and teacher feedback, ENG 410 has transformed from a bony framework to a meaty, living, breathing course. This presentation includes a comprehensive summary of that process, an outline of future plans for the course, as well as a brief overview of how all of this has impacted me, the course coordinator.

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MARCO ANTONIO DA COSTA BODELON

SESSION 2

10:30 – 10:50

This talk is based on the project carried out in the elective course on Spanish culture (SPN 330) to publicize one of the classics of Spanish literature such as Lazarillo de Tormes (1554). With the help of the translation made into Turkish by the Spanish teacher Arzu Aydonat (Can Sanat, 2015), one of the main objectives was for students to develop their intercultural competence through a series of activities as well as their critical thinking with relation to the novel and the world around them.

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NİLAY ALTINKURT GEZGİN

& HÜLYA ESER

SESSION 3

10:55 – 11:15

Many of our students come to the classroom, bring their materials (or not), settle, and try to do their best. However, the question is: "How intensively do they learn in this way?" This query was the main starting point of our project. Why do we sit, listen and write in an old fashioned way, when there is an interactive education opportunity.

In this presentation, we are sharing our experiences on the topic with you.

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PAMELA MCARTHUR YALÇUK

SESSION 4

11:20 – 11:40

The focus of this study was to investigate whether increasing student engagement in the topic would enhance their participation throughout the unit in question and to what extent we could use technology to achieve this. Five different techniques were used which were group discussions using the questions in the book, a Kahoot! quiz on the topic, the showing of a series of videos on the topic followed by group discussions, using the online discussion software Mentimeter and, finally, using the discussion board function of the Blackboard Platform.

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YUAN PENG

SESSION 5

11:45 – 12:05

This research aims to use a series of classroom communicative tasks to facilitate students’ practice of Chinese language in elementary and lower intermediate levels. The research shows a positive significance: tasks offer students equal opportunities to participate and practice; tasks also create a real and vivid Chinese language context, this motivates students to understand the language patterns and to use communication skills in a meaningful context; tasks can also increase students’ self-confidence and enhance their interest in learning Chinese.

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ARZU AYDONAT

SESSION 6

12:10 – 12:30

Have you ever entered a classroom with an idea of an enthusiastic activity and you get out with this sentence making echoes in your mind? “But we were going to have fun.” If your answer is yes. So, check your instructions. Because, so did I. The aim of this short talk will be about how to economize the teacher talk time in a Spanish class and meanwhile the positive effect of giving effective instructions to increase student talk time.

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ANNAMARIA LAPIRA

&  ANASTASIYA PETUKKOVA ÖZKAN

SESSION 7

12:35 – 12:55

The aim of this PD is to facilitate the acquisition of grammar gender both in Italian and Russian: masculine and feminine in Italian and masculine, feminine and neuter in Russian. The successful acquisition of these gender differences is the basis for the further understanding of other grammatical topics.  Furthermore, Turkish learners of these and other languages face problems as Turkish lacks the concept of grammatical gender.

Using an inductive approach in our classes, students were able to apply gender rules even while speaking. Our project concluded by gathering some students from our classes together to compare their findings.

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RICHARD SMITH

SESSION 8

13:00 – 13:20

What was the most effective activity that you did with your students online? If you ask this kind of question about your teaching, then you are practising reflection, and educational theorists state that in this way, you are opening a whole further realm of learning. But what about our students?  Last autumn, Richard realised that he was not encouraging reflection amongst his students. This is the story of how he experimented with different methods in class to encourage his students to reflect on their learning.

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ARTHUR GORDON JONES

SESSION 9

13:25 – 13:45

In the SFL English department, we have successfully bridged the gap between our Preparatory curriculum and our Undergraduate curriculum. Yet, are we doing enough? Over the past five years there has been an observable change in the number of students who never attend a Preparatory program. These students come directly from high school to university, and they experience a semester system for the first time being taught at the university level of instruction. My objective is to provide evidence of student numbers who did not attend a Preparatory program, and then brainstorm ideas how we can bridge the gap between high school and university.

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INSTRUCTORS

ABSTRACT

ANIL UÇAK

SEZİN AKSARAY

EBRU DEMİR SABUNCUOĞLU

No teacher is perfect, but reflection can help you identify those barriers that are keeping you from improving. In this project, we aim to examine the effect of reflective teaching practices on teachers’ performance. “Reflective Teaching” helps teachers to plan, implement and improve their performance by rethinking about their strengths and weaknesses. How about being watched and commented by a group of teachers and then get together to discuss your focus? Let us share with you our challenging but definitely motivating and fun experience!

Look at the Poster

INSTRUCTORS

TIME

ABSTRACT

LINK

THOM KIDDLE

KEYNOTE

10:00 – 11:00

“Are you with me?”: Physical, Digital and Virtual Participation in Synchronous Online Learning

This presentation will look at ways of activating and maintaining student engagement in live online sessions, and encouraging participation through this mode of online teaching and learning we have all been thrust into. We will consider the typical tools available in online webinar platforms and how they can be used for student-centred activities; activities we can do using the space around each student in their own home environments; and ways to embrace the digital world to encourage variety in participation, just as we would in a face-to-face classroom setting.

GÜLGÜN İNAN
GÖKÇELER,

DİDEM 
SEÇER &

REYHAN
KÖSE

SESSION 1

11:00 – 11:30

This short talk will focus on our survey which examines the factors that lead our AST students to success or failure. As the Monitoring Project Team, we will share how we started this process, how we gathered the data and our observations and the results for the first two modules. During the talk, we will also share our aim and questionnaires and talk about our future plan based on the outcome and feedback.

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MONIQUE
GÜMÜŞ &

DONALD
DUNGAN

SESSION 2

11:30 – 12:00

Almost anyone can do any job with the proper training and feedback. However, how effective they are at that job very much depends on how they approach the job mentally. We think a positive work attitude leads to a better result. If we are happy, we have a better interaction with students with, ultimately, a better learning and teaching experience. In this very personal professional development trajectory, we look for ways that enable us to go into the classroom feeling more positive. Please watch this video before the session.

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AYGÜN BODUROĞLU,

MASSIMILIANO
DAMIANI &

FRIDAY
LONGWE

SESSION 3

13:00 – 13:30

The main objective of our PD in Edu-tech was to train in instructional technologies and technology-enhanced reflective practice. The focus is on professional development through the enhanced multi-modal feedback by the course tutor and course participants prior to individual self-reflective teaching. This course is not only a great opportunity to delve into the available assistive technologies and programs on the market but is also critical in determining how effective these technologies are in serving the learning needs of the students.

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BEATRICE YAVAŞER,

DENİZ
PEKTAŞ &

ARMAĞAN KIRIŞMAN

SESSION 4

13:30 – 14:00

Mastery Learning is an instructional strategy and educational philosophy that challenges students to apply what they have personalised from the learning or content in the classroom by doing various tasks either individually or with peers. This approach allows students to move forward at their own pace while they master content. IUE Prep Students from different levels were involved in various tasks such as writing, listening, reading, and speaking. Student performances in these areas were observed and analysed using different tools.

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AYLİN
GÜR

SESSION 5

14:00 – 14:20

I was once a technophobe. Then... I decided not to be a technophobe. At the beginning of the academic year, I had two goals in mind: getting out of my comfort zone to overcome my technophobia and improving my students’ digital skills. Thereafter, I decided to run a Listening and Speaking project in which my students sent their monologue videos, and asynchronously interacted with each other about their videos on the LMS platform.  This short talk will be on the process and outcomes of this PD.

METE
ÖZKAN

SESSION 6

14:20 – 14:40

Many students dismiss their papers once a writing assignment has been corrected and given back to them. As a result, students have the tendency to make the same errors repeatedly. This project aimed to encourage learner autonomy by giving more control to the students during the correction process. Students corrected their own writing assignments using an error log after the initial phase of the grading process was carried out by the instructor. This project shows that error logs can be an effective tool for writing teachers to promote learner autonomy but results regarding repeated errors were inconclusive.

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DENİZ
ATILGAN

SESSION 7

14:40 – 15:00

This short talk will be about both my students’ and my own reflections on the study I have been working on for the last two years. Having been inspired by the presentation given by the TDU, I started this effective practice both in and out of class exercise by encouraging my students to keep vocabulary journals. During this talk, my focus will be mainly on student performance in terms of its effects of this study on both receptive and productive skills and students’ own feedback through short videos.

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ÖZLEM
EVANS &

TIM
EVANS

SESSION 8

15:00 – 15:20

This session explores the impact that teacher input has on student comprehension and participation in lessons based around TED talks featured in Perspectives at intermediate and upper intermediate levels. Over two modules students were surveyed about and required to reflect on their ability to participate in these lessons while the presenters observed and recorded student levels of engagement.

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JOHN
ROBERTSON

SESSION 9

15:20 – 15:40

A lack of vocabulary is a common problem among all language learners. So how can we help them to improve their language learning skills? How can we help them to retain this newly acquired vocabulary? Can we turn this rather mundane task of learning vocabulary into a habit?  Will they ever learn to enjoy it? Throughout the modules I tried various methods. I would like to share my findings along with my conclusion for vocabulary building.

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PELİN
KUYUM &

BAHŞENDE
BESEN

SESSION 10

15:40 – 16:00

How can we make grammar easier to understand and more enjoyable to learn? What methods and techniques do you use in overcoming difficulties in teaching grammar? This short talk will focus on motivating support students in particular through interesting and engaging means. There will be the opportunity to witness the results and reflections of our experiences with lesson planning, materials preparation and team teaching. Let's get together on the 19th of May if you wish to find out more!

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