English Language Office                                                          Anadolu University

Public Affairs Section                                                              School of Foreign Languages

American Embassy                                                                 Yunusemre Kampüsü

32 Paris Caddesi                                                                    26470, Eskişehir

Kavaklidere 06540

Ankara

January 14, 2005

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Anadolu University will be hosting a two day conference on “Best Practices for Teaching Writing” March 4-5, 2005 in Eskisehir. The audience for the conference is writing teachers in both preparatory schools and service English programs at universities throughout Turkey.

As requirements for the use of English increase in academic programs and in other aspects of daily life, the ability to write well in English becomes ever more important for learners. New approaches to teaching writing have developed in recent years focusing on genre awareness, discourse structures, and more complex views of language in use. Assessment of writing, too, is changing in relation to these developments, with greater emphasis being given to portfolios of student work. How these new ideas can be best applied in the context of Turkish universities is area of growing concern. This conference will provide an opportunity for participants to address these issues, learning from each other about their practices and sharing what has succeeded in their institutions.

As special guest of the conference, Dr. Christine Feak of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan will lead sessions each morning of the conference.  Dr. Feak is the co-author with John Swales of the well known books Academic Writing for Graduate Students and English in Today’s Research World.  She has also written numerous articles and chapters in books on English for Specific Purposes and on academic writing.

Another growing trend in Turkey is the establishment of academic writing centers at universities. In order to support development in this area, the organizers of the conference have invited members of the writing center at Middle East Technical University to lead a workshop on the METU writing center, explaining to participants the purposes of the writing center, how it works and how similar centers might be developed at other universities.

One afternoon will be reserved for concurrent presentations by conference participants of their own best practices in teaching writing in their institutions. We invite the submissions of abstracts of no more than 500 words describing a workshop or paper presenting a best practice in teaching writing for preparatory or service English classes. Abstracts should be sent to the e-mail addresses given below no later than February,4?  20055.

The schedule for the two days of the conference are as follows:

Friday, March 4^th

Morning:          Opening

                        Workshop with Christine Feak

Afternoon:        Concurrent Sessions

                        Reception

Saturday, March 5^th

Morning:          Workshop with Christine Feak

Afternoon:        Workshop: The METU Writing Center (Aylin Atakent)

                        Feedback/Networking Session

The fee for the conference is  35 YTL/ 35 000 000 TL  Participants must pre-register for the conference by February 18, 2005. Limited lodging will be available on campus for participants and can be reserved on a first come, first served basis.  see the attachement for details. Reservations should be sent to (Dr. Aysel Bahçe abahce@anadolu.edu.tr , with a copy to Ms. Aycan Yaman yamana@state.gov.

This conference will provide a gathering place for representatives of all Turkish universities to come together and exchange ideas aimed at improving the teaching of writing in their institutions. We hope that it will also lay the foundation for cooperation in developing programs for teaching writing across institutions in the future. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at Anadolu University in March

Dr. Handan Yavuz                                          Thomas Miller

Director of School of Foreign Language           English Language Officer         

Anadolu University                                          United States Embassy, Ankara

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