We cordially invite you to attend the closing event of the Boğaziçi University Sociolinguistics Research Group (BUSRG) Lecture Series for 2024-2025 Academic Year.
The meeting will be hosted by BU Faculty of Education, Department of Foreign Language Education and Sociolinguistics Research Group (BUSRG) members. Professor Ryuko Kubota from University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada will be joining us as our international guest of honor and featured speaker for our meeting.
If you have any questions please contact Safiye Zaman (safiye.zaman@bogazici.edu.tr) or Yasemin Bayyurt (bayyurty@bogazici.edu.tr).
On behalf of BUSRG,
Yasemin Bayyurt and Safiye Zaman
Please register for the event from the following link:
The details of the meeting are as follows:
Date: 28 May 2025
Time: 14:00-15:30
Place: South Campus, Demir Demirgil Auditorium (the Theatre building)
Registration (by Monday the 26th of May): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnStwPGOBjiH2CPcyNxfzj9dRBGeC5...
viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=103809134244212512193
The details of the talk are as follows:
Title: Contesting Normative Assumptions in Language Teaching
Abstract
Language teaching has long been dominated by normative assumptions surrounding which varieties of language and which groups of language users are more legitimate than others, perpetuating linguistic and racial hierarchies. However, these beliefs have long been challenged by anti-normative paradigms, especially in English language teaching, disrupting normative ideologies. Despite scholarly efforts for over 50 years, the status quo persists. One of the obstacles to transforming the status quo is a tendency to circulate critical discourses only within academic bubbles. Transforming the real world requires the enactment of criticality beyond scholarly discussions. This presentation will offer ideas for knowledge mobilization by sharing some examples of film-making for raising awareness of the global diversity of English and English users and the intersectionality of race and language in North America.
Bio-Data: Ryuko Kubota is a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her research draws on critical approaches to language, culture, and education, focusing on antiracism, intersectional justice, language ideologies, and critical pedagogies. She is a coeditor of Race, culture, and identities in second language: Exploring critically engaged practice (Routledge 2009); Race, racism, and antiracism in language education (Routledge, 2025), and others. Her
publications also appear in such journals as Applied Linguistics, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, ELT Journal, Journal of Second Language Writing, TESOL Quarterly, and World Englishes.
