BIO
Dr. Simon Phipps is Director of ATI (Anatolia Training Institute) in Ankara, and also a freelance teacher training and educational consultant. He worked as Deputy Director of Bilkent University School of English Language in Ankara for 20 years, where he was responsible for in-service teacher training and development. He designed and directed an in-house MA programme (Management in Education in ELT), and taught MA courses on linguistics, lexis and educational management. He set up and ran the Centre for Instructor Development, Education and Research (CIDER), and also helped establish a group of ‘English Language Teacher Education Researchers’ (ELTER) in Turkey. He has worked in ELT in the UK, Germany and Turkey since 1985, and has been involved in teacher education since 1989. He has worked on Cambridge ESOL courses (such as CELTA and DELTA) since 1993, and has been an External Assessor for the DELTA course since 1997 as well as Principal Examiner for Module 3 since 2008. He has a PhD in Education, from the University of Leeds, UK, with a focus on teacher beliefs. His current professional interests include teacher cognition, teacher learning, teacher education research, and educational management.
ABSTRACT
Linguistics and Language Teaching: Insights into the Brain of the Learner
This talk aims to provide fresh insights into how students learn English, and why they find certain aspects of learning so challenging. It begins by looking at theories of learning and language learning to establish the fundamental features of learning a second language in a classroom setting in a non-English speaking environment. It then draws on SLA research findings and Psycholinguistics to explore the main challenges learners face, and suggest ways of overcoming these challenges. The last part presents a model for language learning which can help us conceptualise the learning process for our learners and enable us to reconsider the activities we use.
Bilgi ELT Conference 2015 