Simla Course is one of our plenary speakers at the conference in May. She has taken the time to tell us about her talk and her career:
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am currently working at the University of Akdeniz, Antalya as a teacher trainer and English teacher. I am particularly interested in the issues of agency, control, power, autonomy and critical language awareness in ELT. I believe control and power operates on many levels with different role relationships in foreign language education; so it is vital that teachers and learners have their voice in the language classrooms. Also as a former member of the editorial team of the LASIG newsletter, Independence, I now more keenly advocate the merits of building and working within a community of teachers, researchers working on learner autonomy; collaborating and learning from each other.
What is your teaching background?
Immediately after graduating from an English language teacher training programme, I worked with very diverse learners, from very young learners in kindergarten to teenagers, and adults. That was a very challenging but also a very good learning experience for me as a teacher. Then I took a break from teaching to continue my studies; and since then, I’ve been teaching in an ELT department. Now my job involves teaching both English language courses and ELT methodology courses to our students.
Tell us a bit about your session.
As I said, I am particularly interested in the issues of power, control and agency in language classrooms and my session will focus on teacher autonomy. Teachers, especially language teachers, can find themselves positioned in the periphery by a number of social structures including policy makers, exams, ‘experts’, and so on, although it is the teachers and learners in reality that are at the centre of the learning process. In my session, I will discuss the need and role of teacher autonomy and action research in gaining voice and taking control of the learning/ teaching process in the language classroom.
Why are you interested in the area you’ll be presenting on?
My earlier work on critical language awareness eventually led me to working on fostering learner autonomy as they share common concerns such as learners taking control in the classroom. As part of my current job, I work both as a teacher of English language and as a teacher trainer. I was surprised to see how ready my students were to assume more control in their learning as language learners; but resist the possibility of fostering learner autonomy in their future classrooms. Their reasons for such unwillingness have always been very similar to each other and were speculations of what may lay ahead, such as curriculum, centralised exams, and ironically, even their future learners themselves, rather than actual experiences. This eventually led me to consider the role of teacher autonomy for agency and learner autonomy.
What should your audience expect to learn?
I am not sure if I would say ‘learn’ but I am hoping that my talk will resonate with some of the experiences of the members of the audience.
What is one phrase that sums up your session?
I think I can say ‘teacher autonomy for agency’.
Which other presenters are you looking forward to seeing?
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Leni and Jo and hearing their talks. Their contributions to autonomy in language learning and building a community of teachers and researchers through LASIG are invaluable.
Do you blog? Tell us about it.
Unfortunately I don’t. But having to give the same answer to my students on many occasions, I am aware that I should start to.
Can we find you on Twitter or Facebook?
Yes, you can find me on both mediums, though I am ashamed to admit that I do not use them to their full potential, or use them very often! I would be, however, very happy to follow teachers, researchers working on, or interested in, learner – teacher autonomy via Twitter (@SimlaCourse), or Facebook (Simla Icmez).
What other aspects of the conference are you looking forward to?
I’m definitely looking forward to meeting colleagues from Istanbul and from Sabanci University. I think these local conferences are priceless opportunities for like-minded teachers to meet and share ideas and experiences and sometimes to take a step back and give these experiences new meanings. I have also very often found these opportunities to be very inspiring. So on my part; I am definitely looking forward to hearing from colleagues, meeting and sharing ideas with them.
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