I graduated valedictorian from the English Language Teaching Department at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey in 2018. Throughout my BA, I strove to lay solid foundations for my prospective academic and/or professional research and teaching career. Also in my third undergraduate year, I completed an Erasmus+ Student Mobility Program at the Department of English Studies and Education at Adam Mickiewicz University. Although I was a successful student and learned as much as I could, I became even more curious as I went along, which led me further to pursue an MA degree at Hacettepe University which I completed in 2020 as well. In my MA thesis titled “Semiotic Approach in English Classes and Its Effect on Students’ Achievement and Attitude in Speaking”, my focal point was to promote the integration of the said approach based on the insights I had gained from my academic knowledge and teaching experience up to that point. My undergraduate education provided me with the core background knowledge and fundamental skills in the English language in itself, teaching in itself and the combination of both. I could say that it rendered me well-versed in the essential terminology, techniques, methodologies and approaches related to my field, which helped me find my way easily throughout the rest of my academic and professional endeavors, via which I fine-tuned my knowledge and skills further. Moreover, having spent considerable international time in another country as part of my Erasmus+ program, I gained a whole new range of experience attributable to the regular and academic international life, providing me with valuable skills such as adaptability, flexibility and intercultural affinity. Perhaps most vitally, accumulating university-level teaching experience working as an instructor at Hacettepe University School of Foreign Languages for 2 years while also working as a preschool English teacher at the same institution, I believe I had the chance to hone my skills of classroom management, record-keeping, material design and review as well as coordination with counterparts and superiors. As a result of COVID-19, I had to shift from teaching in-class to online teaching and I developed a skillset which has proven aptly beneficial for the future of education involving online systems and distance learning. 

Right now, I am working as an English Instructor at Bilkent University and pursuing my Ph.D. degree at Hacettepe University ELT Department.