“Our paths first crossed with the British Council in 1982, when the Anadolu University Faculty of Education was established, thanks to Michael Smith, who was appointed by the institution at the university.
When Anadolu University Open Education Faculty started its education studies, English course was among the courses that should be prepared according to distance education principles. At that time, we knew that we needed a lot of information and support in language teaching with distance education, which has never been applied in our country before, and has few examples in the world.
Our search for information and support ended with the help of the British Council. Michael Smith and I attended a three-week distance learning seminar at Brighton Polytechnic, with a British Council scholarship. Again, with the support of the institution, we were able to meet with the producers of the ‘Follow Me’ program prepared by the BBC and our expert friend who has successfully implemented this program in China. We have had a long working process, which includes both the writing of books and the adaptation of television programs. During that busy working period, the British Council was always with us, and they even provided us with our IBM typewriter, which was rare to find at the time so we could write our books in English.
These programs, which teach English by distance education and are the first in our country, attracted great attention not only from our students but also from the public. The contributions of the British Council in this success and interest cannot be underestimated. In my view, this support is one of the most important projects realized in Turkey.”