Nadire Şahika Bedirbeyoğlu / My Reflective Journal by Nadire Şahika Bedirbeyoğlu Susamaz https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c en-us 2022-09-01 15:06:53 UTC 2025-10-20 08:30:28 UTC hello@padlet.com Hello! nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281185619 2022-09-02 21:32:26 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281185619 nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281201536 Answer 1)

I think it would be beneficial to include in my classes because students usually do the same exercises for the same purposes. However, these skills provide different views about English lessons. These skills make English learning more enjoyable and funnier. For example, let's consider the Hot Seat/Classroom Quiz. The upper-level students are the most likely to participate. On the other, the lower level ones may just watch and get bored. To overcome this issue, we can divide students into 3 groups. There may be "The Jury" group consisting of a maximum of 5 people. They check the answers whether correct or not. The second group can be "The Racer" which races on behalf of their group members. They answer the questions and when they don't know the answers, they can turn to their group members and ask for the correct ones. The last group is expected to keep the score. The last group especially must be from the lower level students because at first, they need to watch and monitor the task and must come to the conclusion that it's not as hard to speak in or listen to English as they think. All they need to do is to let them enjoy being a part of the task. Later, when the next round starts, they will be volunteered to participate as "The Racer." The teacher must prepare the questions beforehand and all "The Racers" must reply to the same questions with different answers. This is especially important since the upper-level students might get bored easily after 2 or 3 rounds later. In conclusion, the group which collects the most point becomes the winner. In reality, they speak English without even realizing it. 

Answer 2) 

A) pre-listening activities 
B) post-listening activities. 

A) Pre-listening activities are the most important activities as it is the backbone of a listening task. We must provide a context in order to make unknown things known to the students, and share what our purpose is for the task. It is essential to make them understand the topic of the listening task. With these in mind, the teachers can ask personal questions related to the text, they can provide clear context by giving keywords, make their students do brainstorming, and show pictures of the unknown words for them to guess the meanings or pictures related to the topic of the listening text.

B) Post-listening activities might be making a poster, summarizing, discussing, role-playing, multiple choice questions, writing a different end, choosing the best title, and many more. After everything is said and done, it should be clear that the goal has been achieved and students have learned something, some English, for that day. In order to reach that conclusion, we must receive feedback from them. They must be able to show that they are capable of talking about the text that they have listened to, changing the course of events as they like, understanding the main idea without any difficulties and so much more. By doing so, they prove themselves that they are actually being guided to speak English without even noticing. ]]> 2022-09-02 22:11:54 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281201536 nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281500381 Answer 1) 

The most common problem in my district is that students don’t want to use the new language in class very much. They state: “Where do I need to use it? It is no use for me.” So, they keep using their native language. Since they are very used to talking in their native language everywhere, they don’t expect to use it anywhere. 

Answer 2) 

It can provide an idea to focus on the solutions as well as the adaptations. Some of the suggestions are as the followed:

1) It is important to have a class policy. The teacher must emphasize that they are going to only speak in the new language during lessons. Students have to internalize the fact that they can’t get away with using Turkish most of the time. The learners can only learn through consistent speaking skills.

2) Sometimes teachers focus on the execution of the tasks, even more than the speaking skills. Teachers should keep in mind that their shy students, even the upper-lever students, need time to think and plan their wording and all. Learners can improve their speaking skills with better planning and timing.

3) Interactive games aimed to teach them collocations, frequently used words, etc. can be beneficial to improve both their listening and speaking skills. They hear first and next, they try to mimic them to learn English. This is a great way to make them use English in class. For example, if their favorite football player is included in the game, they tend to express their happiness in the same way. "Hooray! I am the best!"

4) At first, giving them constant praise or positive feedback encourages. Teachers must focus on the good and positive sides ("Thank you for your correct answer! Well done! You are learning fast!"), rather than negative aspects or mistakes. These can both make shy students participate in the speaking tasks more easily and make upper-level students challenge themselves for the next time. However, after a certain amount of time, using feedback and giving rewards should be limited to keep the magic going. 

5) If a teacher notices that her/his learners lack of the linguistic background required to speak in English, s/he can choose to leave the target language on the board so that the students can benefit from them and integrate with their speaking. After one or two rounds later, the teacher can opt to erase all the written things on the board and make them remember what's written earlier there. This can also allow students to learn the intended sentences for good and all.

6) Teachers can carry out small talks with their learners in the new language. (Saying "How are you feeling? What is your plan for the weekend?") This allows students to take part in the speaking without putting too much pressure on themselves. 

7) Last but not least, a teacher can monitor and see if the students use the new language while doing speaking activities. (S)he can move around the groups and listen to them while speaking. And when it becomes necessary to warn them about using English during their communication with each other, s/he can do so by saying "Do you remember our class policy? Do we use Turkish in the class?" And the students turn back to using English as the first communication language.]]> 2022-09-03 13:56:12 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281500381 nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281979947 Answer 1)
 
Personally, I have learned that we must differentiate the tasks, not the text and reading out loud is not a useful skill to practice when developing reading skills. 

Answer 2) 

The first statement made me realize that we had better provide a text which is higher than their levels so that they can manage to learn more things. However, that would create some gaps between the upper-level students and the lower-level ones. In order to overcome this issue, we can prepare different tasks suitable for each level. For example, we can create a crossword puzzle involving the keywords to help them to understand the text. For the higher level, we can provide antonyms of the words and they can challenge themselves to find the answers. On the other hand, for the struggling students, we can prepare a puzzle giving the definitions of the words or providing the first letter of the answers. For another idea, we can use the “Pass the Parcel” technique to teach the blocking words in the text. If necessary, we can provide the Turkish words and they can find the English words for them in the text. For another option, we can create two different post-listening activities. For the lower-level students, we can ask them to match the pictures with the paragraphs. The upper-level students, however, may write a different ending to the text. It is just a matter of considering the students level on the task preparation stage. 

The second statement made it clear for me that reading out loud makes the pronunciation perfect. While reading loudly, learners just pay attention the pronunciation or the sentences they are going to read to the class. Nonetheless, we want them to focus on the text, on the topic. To address this matter, we can provide them with time to read quietly and then continue with the tasks. Afterwards, we can ask detailed questions about the text based on their levels. For the lower-level ones, we can pose an easy question for them to find the answer to. E.g. “At what time does the train leave the platform? Who is John?” When it comes to challenge the upper-level ones, we can ask questions like “Sarah is feeling sad. Why is she sad? What happened to Jack?” That would make the students feel motivated, self-confident and ready to participate in the next tasks.]]> 2022-09-04 14:04:44 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2281979947 nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2283253601 Answer 1)

In my local context, product writing would be the most appropriate and useful approach because classrooms are too crowded to monitor each learner’s improvement. Product writing provides us with the quick outcome for a short period. After we give learners a time to show whether or not they have understood the topic we have been trying to teach or the skill we have been aiming to improve. With limited time we have during lessons, it is very practical to use.

Answer 2) 

I think my colleagues would be the most interested to learn how to group or pair up the students and give the best tasks to achieve maximum improvement. First of all, they can pair or group up learners based on their levels, for instance the struggling students are matched with the struggling ones. Next, my colleagues can benefit from this idea that I have learned today from my colleague Sayid and his team members: They can divide texts into paragraphs to match the each member of the groups. Teachers ask from students to write about someone imaginary. Then, teachers can provide a card which keywords of the example text are written on it. For example, the text is about one person introducing themselves. The physical traits can be given one student, the character features can be given a different student etc. A card for physical traits could include  age: _____ years old, name: ______ Coffee, eyes: _______ and all. Students can fill the blanks finding in the text and later, use these keywords to use for their own imaginary person. As a result, they put together their own writings to create a whole text about an imaginary person. This is a perfect example for a product writing, too and gives us a benefit of monitoring many students all at once.]]> 2022-09-05 15:55:33 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2283253601 nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2284743028 Answer 1)

I think it would be best to use an eclectic method to achieve an intended teaching method. For example, we can choose either implicit teaching when necessary or opt for explicit teaching to adapt the tasks to learners' levels. However, I am inclined to use explicit teaching the most because of crowded classrooms. I would try to use the inductive method of teaching in my classes more from now on, though.
 
Answer 2) 

Personally, my colleagues would want to discuss the checklist you have provided us with. It gives teachers an outline of what to look for when they want to introduce the grammatical structure for the first time. I would prioritize especially "avoid using the target structure questions and 50:50 questions" because without using target structure, teachers would make learners guess the grammar topic they want to teach and learners both feel a sense of achievement and internalize that structure easily. When it comes to 50:50 questions, it would be easy to direct or guide the learners to that specific grammar structure. 

Answer 3)

I think “ball throwing” activity is the most effective way to teach learners the language. It makes them categorize the words under one umbrella term. It is also useful to retrieving the already learned words. Since the classrooms are too crowded, it is beneficial to monitor the learners and make them have fun while learning, too.

]]> 2022-09-06 14:21:22 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2284743028 Post-Listening Activities nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2286568605 Teachers will be able to:

1) identify the pre-, while-, and post-listening activities in the listening activities.

2) discuss the advantages of the post-listening activities. 

3) share ideas for implementing into their course book materials. 
]]> 2022-09-07 14:47:49 UTC https://padlet.com/nadiresahikabedirbeyoglu/hfcgb99s6kg4y42c/wish/2286568605