1984 George Orwell
29.11.2013
Atılım University Department of Foreign Languages organized a conference on 27 November 2013 within the framework of One Book One Topic activities. The conference took place at 14:30- 16:00 in the Kemal Zaim Sunel konferans Hall . The speaker was Rachel Gader Shafran from the American Embassy.
The conference was meant to start the 3rd One Book One Topic activity organised by Educational Technologies and Pedagogy Office (ETPO) at Atılım University.
This activity was first introduced to Atılım students and teachers as an extensive reading activity in the spring term of 2012 . The aim was to read and disscuss a selected book by the whole campus community to create a common discusson grounds in the campus thus to promote a community culture where sharing and caring is valued, interaction cooperation, tolerence towards diversity, team work joining in social events are encouraged.
This year’s book was ‘1984’ by George Orwell and the discussion topic was ‘to what extend the controlling mechanisms mentioned in the book have emerged in todays word?’
The conference started with a brain storming activity on George Orwell’s novel "1984" as a pre reading activity to create curiosity and motivate students. The speaker asked provoking questions about individual freedom, sharing personal space, security of personal space, rules, use of social media and privacy, etc. She also gave students some questions to answer before after they read the book . Afterwards she suggested that they should compare thier ideas and feelings.
The Department of Foreign Languages values these kind of activities and takes them as alternative learning opportunites. Therefore the instructors whose programs were suitable have taken their clsses to the conference. It is hoped that the students will buy their books and start reading. They will be guided to do some extracurricular activities to be carried out and shared in the spring term.
We appreciate the support of the US Embassy and the staff of the English Language Teaching Office.
Below is the bio date of the speaker, Ms Shafran:
Rachel Gader-Shafran is a senior English language fellow and a teacher trainer. She has been invited to Turkey by the American Embassy to work for the English programs at the Bar association of Ankara.
She has an LLM Certificate in Law and Government with a specialization in Intellectual Property and a JD from American University, Washington College of Law, cum laude, an MA in Applied Linguistics from UCLA and a BA in Political Science from UCSB.
Ms. Gader-Shafran has taught as an Adjunct Professor at American University, Washington College of Law and has published The Patent Law Dictionary, The Trademark Law Dictionary, The intellectual Property Law Dictionary, The International Students’ Survival Guide to Law School in the United States, as well as, several articles on Intellectual Property Law.
In the field of Applied Linguistics, she has taught and run programs at UCLA, Georgetown University, The George Washington University and in Japan for Nippon Steel Corporation. She has several publications in the field of Applied Linguistics.