International Ataturk Alatoo University is inviting proposals for presentations, for the first international conference on the teaching of foreign language to be held on Thursday, May 13th 2004. The conference will be a one-day event with the theme “The Importance of Efficient Foreign Language Teaching and Its Application in Central Asian Countries During the Transformation Period.’

The conference will provide an opportunity for language teachers and others to share their views and initiatives, and to focus on what exactly goes on in the classroom.

Learning is a mix of the materials, the teacher, and the ways in which the learners are encouraged to interact with the materials and develop their own learning patterns and skills. Ultimately, it is the level of motivation which largely determines 'success' in language learning. How can we, as teachers, ensure that materials and methods reinforce and enhance the learners' own motivation? The following list of possible topics is intended as a general guideline only:

Contributions to this 1st conference are likely to consider such questions as the following:

• How can we determine/modify the suitability of materials, from the pedagogical, cultural, cognitive, affective, points of view?
• Adopt or adapt? To what extent can/should published materials be adapted to our own contexts?
• Can in-house materials compete in terms of quality? Is relevance to needs, appropriateness to context, and cultural sensitivity sufficient?
• How can we expand resources for learning materials? (Using the internet, using our students' own ideas and interests, etc.)
• How to facilitate the sharing of in-house materials, within and across institutions, and so avoid the constant re-invention of the wheel?
• To what extent should there be teacher input/interference in the learning process?
• How may the roles of teachers and learners be redefined?
• What should the role of technology be in shaping the Teacher : Learner interface, and what impact will this have on conventional classroom teaching?
• How can learners contribute to what they are learning in our classroom contexts, and to how this should be presented and practiced?
• How can learner motivation be increased and sustained over a period of several months?
• What effects do marks and grades have on student motivation and how can this be harnessed?