Workshop with Prof. Dr. Cem Alptekin Held

On Tuesday, April 16, Prof. Dr. Cem Alptekin, an eminent lecturer from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, paid a visit to the International Burch University and held an interactive lecture on the role of age-related neurocognitive factors in second language acquisition for students and academic staff.

Before the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Dr. Azamat Akbarov, Vice-Rector for Scientific Research and International Cooperation, held an introductory speech and kindly welcomed this distinguished guest.

As context for an amazingly interesting topic of the lecture, Prof. Dr. Cem Alptekin elaborated on the link between age and bilingualism, focusing on most subfields of linguistics. Mr. Alptekin provided the audience with effective visual aids and vivid examples while talking about the issues of sensitive vs. critical period, ‘ultimate attainment’, Chomsky’s idea of an ideal speaker-listener, lateralization, brain plasticity, cognitive flexibility, neuroplasticity and linguistic and pedagogic implications classified in accordance to ages.

The conclusion of this refreshing and enjoyable lecture included the lecturer’s statement that, no matter what, the ultimate attainment was impossible to accomplish. The 90-minutes long lecture was followed by a brief question-answer section where Prof. Dr. Cem Alptekin was quite interested in thoroughly answering the audience’s questions.

Prof. Dr. Cem Alptekin is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Foreign Language Education at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. He has published internationally in various journals, including the TESOL Quarterly, The Canadian Modern Language Review, Second Language Research, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Journal of Research in Reading, System, and the ELT Journal.