FLED Seminar at Fatih University
by Adam J. Simpson
At the start of March 2014, I was delighted to give a seminar to the members of the Foreign Language Education Club (FLED) at Fatih University. This was a great honour for me, as there are few more enjoyable things in this wonderful profession than sharing your ideas and knowledge with the next generation of language teachers.
For my seminar, I chose to discuss the issue of coursebooks and especially why teachers should think carefully when using them. Together we looked at a number of issues, including the importance of choosing the correct course book for your course and why we should value the teacher’s book as a source of professional development.
I was originally asked to give a seminar by Mehmet Altınbaş, the current president of the FLED club. He was kind enough to answer some of my questions.
Can you explain about the Foreign Language Education Club (just a little bit)?
We organize activities to develop our foreign language skills, mainly English.
Why is it important for your education to invite educators to speak?
Because these meetings are valued by students and every word of the speakers makes a difference to the participants.
I’m impressed that you have made this a regular part of your academic calendar. How many people have you invited to speak?
So far we have hosted 8 speakers in total; Tony Gurr; Hakan Yeşilova; Yakup Çetin; Işıl Boy; Evridiki Dakos; Kristina Smith; Turgut Turunç and yourself
I’m pleased to see that Fatih University will hold another ELT conference a couple of months from now. What do you want to learn from your conference in May?
For me, organizational skills, and of course a lot of knowledge about English Language Teaching from experienced teachers.
I would like to thank Mehmet Emre Altınbaş, Sema Canlı, Esra Melis Suna, İpek Eröge, Kübra Özel, Esra İntepe, Fevziye Bayraktar, Ali Çağrı Ay, Yasin Giray Demir, Zeynep Çınar, Merve Gül Öğmen and Merve Deveci for a wonderful day and congratulate them on their incredible enthusiasm and the way they are embracing their future careers.
