Reflection_on_Conference+2+Mehmet+Ali+Başak

First of all, I would like to start with the aims of the seminar. These are to step back and look at why contextualized language and literacy is important, to explain what language and literacy as a social practice do and what are the implications for teaching and learning. Pauline Moon, with over 25 years of experience in EFL and ESOL, uses activities and discussions to consider how this idea might help us to support learners to use the culturally situated language and literacy practices they encounter in daily life. In this seminar, I have had a chance to learn how to use identity and everyday events in a class for language teaching. Moreover, I observed that identity activities can be very effective in teaching a language and learned what literacy practice means. As for the main three topics that were talked about in this seminar, I can say that they are what language and literacy as a social practice means; how to use them in our classroom and finally what are the topics for classroom and identity. I believe that notions suggested in this seminar are suitable for the target levels, though I would also like to add that I believe the higher students’ proficiency in the target language, the more successful these ideas can become. I agree with the ideas of the presenter as well as the activities she suggested because I think that they are all applicable and include situations everyone may encounter in daily life. In my opinion, identity and everyday events hold a large importance for language teaching and learning. These two elements are parts of our language. Pauline Moon gave many interesting and well-thought examples that piqued the attention of listeners. However, I wish she had given more examples for language practices and show a sample of activity, if possible. If I had a chance to ask her a question, I would ask how one can apply language practices in his classroom. In addition, I would love to ask her how to put identity in our classroom activities. I believe that identity and everyday events she mentioned in the seminar can be applied in Turkey because these two terms are universal, which means we can talk about them wherever humanity and language exist. As for her performance in presenting her speech, it was absolutely perfect. Paula Moon always asked questions to the listeners so that they are not in a passive state. She also did not forget to give information on researches that were done. She used her body language really well as well as her verbal language. In the activities she used in the seminar, she said she wanted the listeners to be part of it. At the beginning of the seminar, I was hoping to learn some literacy activities that can be helpful for my future career as a foreign language teacher as well as the place of language and literacy in daily life. It was a really useful seminar for me, and I enjoyed it a lot. I also plan to follow her seminar when I start my career.
 * Reflection on Language and Literacy as Social Practice Seminar **

I can say that I agree with you wholeheartedly on your views for the conference. Literacy and everyday events are very important for our students’ improvement and growth because once they move on and encounter English on their daily life; they will be in great need of pre-experience, which will have the role of a basis for their skills. In addition, I also think that practice makes perfect, and we must give our students as many chances as possible to hone their skills. Another point I would like to mention is that language, in the end, is a means of communication in social environments successfully, and it is the need for such a feat that drives us to be better at what we do, teaching a language. I agree with Pauline Moon and on her examples that signify the importance of social events and practice. Finally, I can say that it is a very well-though and written conference paper. At first, the topic did not seem so interesting to be honest, but as I continued to read, I liked it very much.
 * comment by Özgür Can Kaya**