Vocational School of Justice
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
English language instructors and teacher trainers working at schools of foreign languages in Turkey came together and established “English Language Teaching and Professional Development Association (TESOL)”. Fifty representatives from 20 institutions attended the first meeting of the association hosted by Izmir University of Economics (IUE). Participants selected Asst. Prof. Dr. Bahar Gün, Instructor at IUE School of Foreign Languages, as the President of the Association. TESOL, a second association founded by English language instructors, will work on improving the quality of English Language education in Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
President of TESOL Association and Instructor at IUE School of Foreign Languages, Asst. Prof. Dr. Bahar Gün stated that the association brought English language instructors, teacher trainers, and administrators together. “We had been working on improving language education with trainers working at schools of foreign languages for 5 years under the name of T – PLUS (‘Trainers’ professional learning and unlimited sharing’). Today, number of our members has reached to 265. Our group, which is based on volunteerism, decided to become an association. We held our first general meeting with 50 members,” said Gün.
They would get support from TESOL in America and IATEFL in England, reported Asst. Prof. Dr. Gün and said that they were planning to hold an international conference in October of 2018. Gün, who stated that the headquarters of the Association was in Izmir, said that they would focus on activities regarding language education and professional development. Gün said, “We are seeking answers to how to make language teaching more efficient. Our purpose is to improve English language teaching in Turkey, and to contribute to the professional development of instructors. Regardless of their nationality, an instructor who knows efficient teaching methods, who self-develops constantly, is a good teacher. There are foreign instructors among our members. We will have not only higher education instructors but secondary education instructors as members as well. We will work together to ensure English language education becomes more efficient.”