Theme, rationale, structure, and the community we are building
English Language Teaching stands at a meaningful crossroads. Research continues to generate rich insights into how people learn, teach, and use language — yet the distance between academic findings and everyday classroom realities remains a persistent challenge in the field.
ELT Conference 2026 is built around a simple but powerful conviction: that researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners learn best when they learn together. The conference does not privilege one voice over another. Instead, it creates genuine conditions for dialogue — where a classroom teacher's question shapes a researcher's thinking, and where a theoretical insight finds its way into tomorrow's lesson.
Hosted by the ELT Program at Yeditepe University, this national conference invites participants from across Türkiye to share their work, challenge their assumptions, and strengthen the professional communities that make teaching and learning possible.
While artificial intelligence and educational technology may appear as topics within sessions, they are not the central theme of this conference. Our focus remains the human dimensions of language teaching: teacher development, community, and the relationship between knowledge and practice.
Submissions are welcomed across these broad areas
Studies that bridge the gap between academic research and classroom realities, including practitioner research and evidence-based teaching.
Pre-service and in-service teacher education, mentoring, reflective practice, professional identity, and teacher wellbeing.
Action research, classroom-based inquiry, collaborative research, and the role of teachers as knowledge producers.
Curriculum design and reform, language assessment practices, learner evaluation, and programme development in ELT contexts.
Emerging challenges and opportunities in the field, including technology integration, inclusive pedagogy, Global Englishes, and learner diversity.
Partnerships between schools, universities, and professional bodies; policy implications; and community-building in ELT at national and local levels.
A tribute to a life's work in teacher education
Dedicated to
This special panel honours Professor Ayşe Akyel's extraordinary contribution to English Language Teaching and teacher education in Türkiye and beyond. The panel will feature former graduate students of Professor Akyel who are now active researchers and educators in the field — carrying forward a tradition of rigorous, humane, and deeply committed teacher inquiry.
The panel will explore themes at the heart of Professor Akyel's scholarly legacy:
This conference is designed for everyone involved in English Language Teaching