Dr. Kamile Hamiloğlu has been working in the field of education, Applied Linguistics and ELT/EFL over 30 years. She holds a PhD in Educational Sciences from Boğaziçi University, Turkey; and an EdD in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from the University of Leicester, UK. She also holds a certificate in Critical Thinking from Oregon University, USA. She has taught various EFL and educational sciences courses in undergraduate and graduate programmes at Boğaziçi, Marmara and Bahçeşehir Universities and is currently working as a lecturer in the department of Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching at Marmara University, İstanbul. She has also worked as a teacher trainer for Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press and as an academic consultant for several private schools in Istanbul so far. She is the author, co-author and editor of several EFL coursebooks such as Win! (Orient Express Publishing) and various academic books such as A-Z to Critical Thinking (Academic Study Kit Publishing) and Reflection and Identity in Foreign Language Teacher Education (OmniScriptum Publishing). Her academic research interests include professional identity, professional development, curriculum and coursebook evaluation and design, culture, critical thinking and reflection in education,  in Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) and in English as a foreign language (EFL).

Transformative Foreign Language Education through Critical Pedagogy for a Better World
Asst. Prof. Dr. Kamile Hamiloğlu

This talk aims to explore and develop understandings of how transformative foreign language education may contribute to the development of the conditions for a better world within and outside the school through the lens of critical pedagogy.
The theoretical framework of this presentation is built on the socio-cultural, socio-cognitive and transformative views in foreign language education including critical pedagogy. Given that the socio-cultural approach portrays human learning as a social process and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture, referring to the fact that social interaction plays a basic role in the development of cognition and socio-cognitive view deals with how language is learned and should be treated; transformative learning gives way to actual behaviour that learners should establish to contribute to and participate in the community where they live.
Regarding this, socio-cultural and socio-cognitive transformation could be led by critical pedagogy, in schools initially, then in the whole society, addressing radical concerns and the abuses of power in intercultural contexts in the acquisition of foreign languages, English as a Lingua-Franca in this case, and in their circulation.
Considering critical pedagogy as a way of life, not just as a method, this study aims to look at the EFL context and how knowledge regarding the language and relevant reflections, perceptions and understandings of that knowledge are built up through materials and also are transformed beyond the walls of schools. From this perspective, it is believed that critical pedagogy may allow foreign language educators and their learners to look at political, ideological, social, cultural, economic, and historical issues “to name, to reflect critically, and also to act” as Wink (2005, p. 3) suggests.

Volker Hegelheimer, (M.A., PhD., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Professor and Chair of the Department of English, researches applications of emerging technologies in language learning and language testing.  His publications have appeared in journals such as Language Learning & Technology, Language Testing, System, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, ReCALL, CALICO Journal, and he contributed to several edited volumes on Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and co-authored the TESOL Technology Standards for ESL teachers and learners monograph (2007-2009). He co-edited for the spring 2016 CALICO Journal special issue on automated writing evaluation (AWE).  Professor Hegelheimer has presented his research and held academic workshops at numerous national and international conferences and has secured over $1.8 million in funds from funding agencies such as Pearson, Educational Testing Service, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of State. He teaches courses on technology in language teaching and research, language assessment, and research methodology

Effective Use of Technology to Support the Development of L2 Writers
Prof. Dr. Volker Hegelheimer

Some might argue that teaching writing and learning how to write in 2019 is not the same as it was even 10 years ago.  New information and communication technologies are continually altering writing practices in important ways (Li et al., 2017) and impact the writing habits of tomorrow’s students, who will need to navigate a myriad of discourse situations that may not even exist yet (Relles & Tierney, 2013).  The proliferation of technology tools to help compose and distribute written texts has led to a gradual expansion of what it means to write and to teach writing.  In this presentation, I will outline the affordances technologies can provide to support the development of writing. I will discuss ways in which such technologies can be effectively integrated at the planning, drafting, writing, revising and editing stages of writing at the K-12 and at the higher education level. In particular, I will outline integration options for automated writing evaluation tools and collaborative writing applications in the writing classroom.

Nik Peachey is an author, teacher trainer and co-founder of PeacheyPublications Ltd, a company specialising in developing materials for online and digital learning environments. He started working as a teacher in the early 90s and has worked all over the world as a teacher, CELTA and Delta trainer as well as a technology trainer, educational consultant and project manager. He has worked for most of the established ELT publishers as well as companies like International House, British Council, EtonX and Google. He was Head of Learning at EnglishUp a virtual school for more than two years and has since moved into instructional design.

He is a two time British Council Innovations Award Winner and his books include:
Digital Video - A Manual for Language Teachers
Thinking Critically through Digital Media
Digital Tools for Teacher - Trainers Edition
10 Short Image Lessons
He also co-edited Creativity in the English language Classroom and  
Global issues in the English Language Classroom with Alan Maley.

Tools and Technologies for Developing 21st Century Skills
Nicholas Peachey

According to research, the skills that our students will need to thrive in the 21st century have a greater connection to what makes us human than they do to our ever changing relationship to technology. Our students will, however, need to be able to use these skills in an environment that is increasingly mediated by digital tools and communication technologies.
In this talk I will look at the relationship between 21st century skills and technologies and explore how we can utilise technologies to help develop the skills that students need and develop a greater awareness of the global issues they will face.

Gölge SEFEROĞLU is a professor in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Middle East Technical University. She received her B.A. in English teaching from Boğaziçi University and she holds MA, EdM, and EdD degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University in the fields of TESOL and Applied Linguistics.

Gölge SEFEROĞLU has served widely as a consultant to many language teacher education projects and programs in Turkey contributing to the Turkish education system at large. She has worked in various national projects including the development of the national English curriculum for high schools and structuring the national English teacher competences framework.  She published various research articles nationally and internationally that deal with various aspects of teaching and learning English, teacher education, and the use of technology in language learning/teaching. Her research interests include technology enhanced language learning, pre- and in-service teacher education, and teaching speaking and pronunciation.

Aylin Ünaldı is currently working as an assistant professor at the Department of Foreign Language Education; Education Faculty of Boğaziçi University. She has an MA in Applied Linguistics (University of Reading, UK), a PhD in Applied Linguistics-Language Testing (Bogazici University, Turkey) and a PhD in Language Assessment from the University of Bedfordshire (UK). She has extensive experience in foreign language teaching, teacher training, test development and validation. Her research interests include language test validation, academic literacy (reading and writing) in foreign language, reading across texts and reading into writing as an integrated academic skill. She worked as an ELT instructor, test writer, researcher and assessment and curriculum development consultant in national and international institutions.

English-medium instruction in higher education and the changing roles and responsibilities of English language teachers
Assist. Prof. Dr. Aylin Ünaldı

The beginning of the 21st century has witnessed multidimensional changes and challenges making international economy increasingly complex and individual nations increasingly powerless, undermining democracies and creating existential ecological threats (Jacobs, Kiniger-Passigli & Chikvaidze, 2019). Optimism regarding the destiny of humanity has diminished despite impressive advancements in science and technology. Resurgence of neoliberalism has threatened hard-earned achievements of social democracy instigating populism, corruption and despotism. Expansion of market ideology has resulted in accelerated privatisation of public services and the sale of public assets, increased competition for resources and erosion of rights and entitlements of citizens (Lawson, 2018). In line with the above stated universal dynamics, higher education has been substantially transformed through neoliberal commodification and marketisation processes since 1990s (Choi, 2010). More than being valued as public service to meet the needs of the society, higher education is prized more for its exchange value, students perceived as customers, academics as employees who need to compete in research publication, performance and customer satisfaction (Mahony and Weiner, 2017).
As higher education takes on more commercial nature, existing in international markets to generate income from overseas students becomes an important target for universities (Jiang, 2010). The dynamo of internationalised higher education is the capacity of supplying education in English language, English-medium instruction, to meet the demands of the competitive global market. The spread of English-medium instruction in higher education, both at international and national levels, has created new challenges and responsibilities for English language professionals, giving them more central role and increasing their accountability in the success or failure of the system.
In this talk, I would like to present my observations through the years of working in the field of English language teaching at higher education institutions by situating schools of foreign languages, i.e. preparatory English programmes, in a broader social and political context and discussing the tensions between expectations of the wider university and the realities of language teaching and learning. I would also like to propose that in training students ‘towards higher education’, preparatory schools can use a niche to ‘prepare’ the students for the changes and challenges of the neoliberal 21st century.