Department:

English Preparatory Division

Education:

• M.Sc. Applied Linguistics, Georgetown University, USA, 2009
• M.A. Applied Linguistics / TESOL, Ohio University, USA, 2006
• B.A. Foreign Language Education, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2003

Other Diplomas & Certificates:

• TESOL/TEFL Ohio University, USA, 2006
• B.A. Study Abroad Linguistics, SUNY Binghamton University, USA, 2002

Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae:

Present: Aysun Balkan has been affiliated with the School of Foreign Languages as a Faculty Member since April 2011. She served as the Assistant Director in the years of 2013 and 2014, and the Director in the years of 2021 and 2022 at SFL.

2007-2009: During her M.Sc. study in Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University, she worked as a Teaching Assistant for the course Linguistics 001-Introduction to Language and a Research Assistant for Prof. Jeff Connor-Linton in the Department of Linguistics. As an RA, she organized 574 presenters and 1,200 participants for the 2009 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado with Prof. Jeff Connor-Linton and Elizabeth Kissling.

Following her graduation, she was employed as an Executive Assistant by the Embassy of Turkey Office of Press Counselor in Washington, D.C. and later an Assistant Coordinator in Americas Regional Coordinatorship by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK) in Istanbul. She coordinated Turkish-American (TAIK), Turkish-Canadian, Turkish-Mexican and Turkish-Brazilian Business Councils at DEIK and organized business summits participated by Turkish/ Foreign high officials. Two major international events she organized were 8th Annual Joint Conference of Turkish-Canadian Business Council / Canadian-Turkish Business Council in Toronto, Canada and 29th Annual Joint Conference of Turkish-American Business Council (TAIK) / American-Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington, D.C., USA in 2010.

2004-2006: During her M.A. study in Applied Linguistics/TESOL at Ohio University, she worked as an Assistant ESL Instructor at East Elementary School in Athens, OH, a Research Assistant for Prof. Zinny Bond and a Teaching Associate for the course Linguistics 270-The Nature of Language in the Department of Linguistics at OU. Additionally, she taught English to international graduate students in English for All Program, marked SPEAK Tests of international graduate students awarded with Teaching/Research Assistantship and served as a Reading Lab Tutor at Ohio University Program of Intensive English (OPIE). In 2005 summer term, she did internship as an ESL Instructor and Camp Counselor at Grier School in Tyrone, Pennsylvania where she taught English to international secondary school students and coordinated the camp activities.

Following her graduation, she worked as an ESL Instructor for a year at Sanz School in Silver Spring, Maryland and at Carlos Rosario Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. She also taught Conversational Turkish III to American professionals at US Department of Agriculture Graduate School in Washington, D.C. and Survival Turkish to American high-officials appointed to a governmental duty in Turkey at Dictyon Language Services in Greenbelt, Maryland.

1998-2003: She completed her teacher training at ENKA and Darüşşafaka Schools in Istanbul during her undergraduate study at Bogazici University.

Research Interests:

Crosslinguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition (SLA): language transfer; Cognitive Semantics: the polysemy network of spatial nouns; Task-based Instruction: the effects of explicit/implicit corrective feedback

Publications :

• Balkan, A. (2016) A Polysemy Account of Turkish Spatial Noun ‘Üst’ in Dative Case Marker. In C. Periñán-Pascual & E.M. Mestre-Mestre (Eds.), Understanding Meaning and Knowledge Representation: From Theoretical and Cognitive Linguistics to Natural Language Processing (pp.109-161). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. [1 Jan 2016]
• Balkan, A. & Kissling, E. (2009) Report on Graduate Student Event at Conference. The Newsletter of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Vol. 21 (2), p.5. [12 Jun 2009]
• Balkan, A. & Kissling, E. (2009) An Evening for Graduate Students. The Newsletter of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Vol. 21 (1), p.4. [9 Feb 2009]

Talks / Presentations: