The 38th YADOT Working Meeting, titled “Digital Applications Enhancing Speaking Skills in Turkish Teaching Activities,” was held on Saturday, April 20th, in a hybrid format at the Istanbul Atlas University Atlas Vadi Campus, hosted by ATLAS TÖMER.
In the opening speech of the program, Associate Professor Dr. Mustafa Özkat, director of the Language Teaching Application and Research Center, shared his experiences in the field and expressed his satisfaction with the current state of teaching Turkish as a foreign language and the joy of being the host. Following this, Atanur Memiş, president of YADOT Education Association, expressed his happiness to be present at the meeting held in collaboration with YADOT Education Association and Istanbul Atlas University, and touched upon the history and current status of the YADOT Education Association.
The first presentation of the program was given under the title “Interactive Digital Materials Supporting Speaking Skills in Language Teaching: Language Tree Project.” The details of the "Language Tree/Dil Ağacı" Erasmus+ Project, carried out under the coordination of Kastamonu University and with YADOT Education Association as a partner, were shared with the audience. The presentation was conducted by project coordinator Harun İlçioğlu and project partners Dr. Feyza Altınkamış and Dr. Himmet Sarıtaş. In the first part of the presentation, Harun İlçioğlu from Kastamonu University stated that they aim to develop a digital language learning application within the scope of the "Language Tree/Dil Ağacı" project, which allows speakers of Turkish as a heritage language and as a second language to practice speaking Turkish independently, and he introduced the details and stages of their approach to achieve this goal. In the second part of the presentation, Dr. Himmet Sarıtaş from YADOT Education Association explained the curriculum development stages of the "Language Tree/Dil Ağacı" project and discussed the issues related to what kind of a guide should be prepared for interactive speaking activities. The final speaker of the presentation was Dr. Feyza Altınkamış from the Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research in Belgium. She talked about the needs analysis of the project and the steps followed in relation to this analysis.
The second presentation of the program was delivered by Research Assistant Yasin Taşdemir from Istanbul University under the title “Changing Language Teaching with Artificial Intelligence and the Languagehood Application.” Yasin Taşdemir emphasized the impact of innovative approaches brought to the field of language teaching by artificial intelligence technologies on learning processes and introduced the Languagehood Application.
The final presentation of the program was given by Instructor Anıl Şen from Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University on “The Use of Google Classroom Application in Teaching Turkish to Foreigners.” Anıl Şen shared practical insights on how Google Classroom can be effectively used for creating classes, communicating, sharing materials, assigning tasks, and evaluating them.
The 38th YADOT Working Meeting saw significant online participation. The questions and evaluations of all participants enriched the working meeting even further. In the closing section of the program, Atanur Memiş, president of YADOT Education Association, and Associate Professor Dr. Mustafa Özkat, director of the Language Teaching Application and Research Center at Atlas University, spoke together about their visions for the future. Finally, participation certificates were presented to the speakers, followed by a closing photo with all participants.