Merve Oflaz | Teacher, Trainer, Materials Developer » david crystal https://www.merveoflaz.net Wed, 23 Jul 2025 02:27:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Unforgettables of Dogus University 1st International ELT Conference https://www.merveoflaz.net/unforgettables-of-dogus-1st-international-elt-conference.html https://www.merveoflaz.net/unforgettables-of-dogus-1st-international-elt-conference.html#comments Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:00:10 +0000 Merve Oflaz http://www.merveoflaz.net/?p=758 Dogus University 1st International ELT Conference provided hundreds of teachers new ideas, new techniques and approaches. The album below inspired me, so I made this crazy comparison between each thing I wanted to mention and a period in music:)

Name of the Album: Unforgettables of Dogus 1st International ELT Conference – Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

Genre: Nostalgic / Oldies

Release Date: November 26, 2011

Manufactured and distributed by: Dogus University

CLICK TO LISTEN!

 

Great Hits of the Conference

1. Speakers and Workshop Presenters > the 60s: The speakers and presenters of the conference were so special just like all those pop and rock’n roll songs of the sixties. The practical ideas they gave and the activities they shared were enlightening.

Here are my favourite parts of the speeches and workhops:

David Crystal:  “blogarrhea and tweeterrhea”  (like the word ‘diarrhea’ :) ) - I loved the expressions he made up for the addicts who overuse blogs and twitter. He compared electronic language versus traditional language.
George Pickering: “While focusing on the task, we sometimes miss the opportunities.” I totally agree with him. Here is another thing he mentioned:

Questions to be asked

Rod Bolitho: “Learners feel valued if their opinions are asked.” Absolutely right. Who wouldn’t?
Lindsay Clandfield: He gave many ideas about critical thinking.

A meaningful rewrite activity about the Passive voice

Jane Willis: “Start ‘small’. Simple but crucial.” That’s what we also have to do as teachers.
Paul Seligson: Categorizing mistakes as ‘serious’ and ‘non serious’ is a good way before the feedback.

About correcting mistakes

Tom Godfrey: We were really active during the wonderful drama and drilling activities involving the whole class.

Drama, "Cinderella"

Jamie Keddie: He showed many activities on using images and reading texts in our lessons.

Predicting, pre-reading activity

Isıl Boy: By using wikis in the class, students are able to read the other students’ tasks and  give feedback to each other. Wikis also enable you to check the plagiarism with one button. Who wouldn’t want to use this?
2. Special Guests > the 70s: The Henry Brothers reminding me of my childhood with their great acting performance on the stage involved the audience into their show. It was an unbelievable experience watching them through the story of the ‘paper theatre’ .

The Henry Brothers

3. The Roving Reporter > the 80s: Adam Simpson, the roving reporter of the conference popped up from 1980’s with his new beard style which really looked cool. As he twitted during the conference, with his new look he supports a movement about health. Adam took his place at the very back of the conference hall and tried to keep the virtual spirit of the conference alive with his tweets, photos and posts on the  facebook page of the conference.

Adam, Me and Sharon

4. Conference Attendees > the all-time hits: It was so nice to see enthusiastic teachers trying to improve their teaching, to share and follow the upcoming news on ELT. Because a big group of them are usually around all the time at many conferences, I named them as the all-time hits. They are like time travellers. You never know who you will see:) Meeting ex-colleagues and friends is good.  This is one of the best things of attending  conferences.
5. Me myself > the 90s: This was the first ELT conference I attended as a workshop presenter. The first is always special, so I will never forget it. I had emotional flashbacks going to 90s, my high school years with the butterflies in my stomach but thanks to my audience. They wiped it all by participating the activities. My workshop called “1 Coupon 1 Word, 1000 Coupons 1000 Words” was about an award system based on vocabulary teaching. It was so good to share it with other colleagues and getting feedback from them.

Me, at my workshop

6. Awards and the Raffle > the New Millennium’s First Decade: Just like the millennium surprises, the awards were great. I won the best workshop proposal award whereas Jeffrey Doonan received the best comment award. The presents given at the Raffle were also awesome. Spanish courses, resource materials for teachers, online teaching courses and so on.

7. Conference Team > the New Millennium’s Second Decade: Each member of the conference team was like a busy bee flying around to make the best honey for the guests and attendees. The rooms (the honeycombs :) ) were all ready without any technical problems. The colleagues that assisted the speakers and the workshop presenters were so polite and helpful.

Hope you enjoyed reading my reflections on the conference. If you want to watch the videos or have a look at the tweets, check out the links below.

Check the Conference Tweets: #DogusELT
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