BUSEL to Hold 12th International ELT Conference

The Bilkent University School of English Language (BUSEL) will hold its 12th international English Language Teaching (ELT) Conference at the Bilkent Hotel June 8-9. This year's theme is "English for Academic Purposes (EAP)  within the University Curriculum: Trends and Challenges."

The conference aims to explore the place of EAP in the university curriculum, the nature of EAP instruction, and the challenges that EAP learners, instructors, course designers, assessors, teacher trainers and administrators face.

The school will host over 250 delegates and 46 speakers representing 15 countries, including Britain and the US. This year's keynote speakers will be John Swales, professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Michigan; Kathleen Graves, clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan; and Averil Coxhead, senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington.

Prof. Swales is best known for his work on genre analysis, particularly with regard to its application to various fields, including English for Academic Purposes. Prof. Graves's research focuses on the role of classroom practice in curriculum renewal and on teachers' professional development as the key to successful educational reform. Dr. Coxhead has developed "The Academic Word List" (2000), a compilation of specialized vocabulary for learners intending to pursue academic studies in English.

The annual BUSEL ELT Conference is now an established event in the ELT world, attracting prominent names from around the world. The conferences have provided a rich forum for teachers, lecturers, teacher trainers, researchers, curriculum and testing experts, materials writers and educational managers from a variety of institutional contexts to explore issues and share their views, perceptions and experiences. The last conference (2010) was described as "extremely positive" with particular mention being made of "the quality of presentations and the stimulating atmosphere of the conference as a whole" by the IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language)journal Voices (Sept.-Oct. 2010, issue 216, p. 21).

The members of this year's organization committee, Asst. Prof Tijen Akşit, Dr. Semih İrfaner and Ayşen Güven of the Faculty Academic English Program, are hoping that the 2012 conference will prove to be another not-to-miss event for EAP professionals around the world.
For registration and the full program: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~eapconf2012/