Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Cultural Schemata and Reading Comprehension

Nowadays, I really interest in schemata theory and as an EFL teacher candidate, I think that our job is more difficult than ESL teacher, because we are going to teach English in a different country whose customs are different than English spoken countries.Unfortunately, generally text books are published in England or in USA so the culture is effected by them.For example, in Turkey when students read a passage about football.Their cultural schemata  is lead them to sport which is playing with feet and as a rule there shouldn't be force but if this text was written by American author, he was write about football which is required to be harsh and catch the ball with hands. He probably doesn't mean  soccer. So, Cultural schemata is really difficult subjects for teachers especially EFL teacher. It is  totally abstract process which is occurred in student's brain












Sunday, December 11, 2011

Free Rice

Few  days ago, I heard this site from Steve Hoca. While this site enables to refresh and develop your vocabulary knowledge, it is non-profit websites and ıt helps people who need food and education. I think about this site, it can be effective as a part of English teaching. For example, as teachers we can ask our students to visit this site and work on  vocabulary test and each day individually work on ten words etc.And  as a result of collecting rice,  this site can be competitive for our students and with making small groups from class members also we can make cooperative learning atmosphere too.
By the way, in this sites, there are different kinds of subject too. Such as geography, art, maths, and other languages etc.
Enjoy while you are supporting helpless people.
You can reach on free rice

Saturday, December 3, 2011

artifical intelligence in education

I had to choice Alice to write my reflection because I came across one of the biggest  problem about technological tools and I couldn't access to other robot's web site.
First of all I want to mention that robots are really clever than I thought. I can explain their language knowledge with '*'. let's start;
*1 is very important in my opinion because a lot of students have a difficulty to combine to subject with plural -be verb and  it  can be helpful them
*2 it's just a robot but she can create imperative sentences. Alice can be effective for my students to learn different grammar structures.
*3 sometimes it is problematic  because when I refer Cyprus with 'it' she cannot connect old sentences and new information
*4 beware!!  don't despise  her. She can be very politic:). It is a good answer .
*5 Another disadvantage is even you just make letter mistake she couln't understand you because it is artificial. she hasn't got nature of language. If I made same mistake to real person, he would undertand me.

Using this kind of thing can be enjoyable for my students.As a teacher I can give prject to my student to chat one of this robots and than examining the grammar structures which were created by it. So with this way I can increase my students' awareness of second language learning process. I can create this type of activity in my writing section. So students will be more carefull for not doing any mistakes because it isjust a robot and generally it creates  grammatically correct sentenes. but Artificial intelligences have a problem with comprehension. I guest this is the most clear thing which made us different than other things.
Example speech with Robot Alice;
judge: how are you? 
ALICE: My logic and cognitive functions are normal. *1
judge: I want to check it:D 
ALICE: Why do you want to do it so much? 
judge: it's my homework 
ALICE: Congratulations, judge. 
judge: who are you 
ALICE: ALICE. 
judge: and? 
ALICE: But... 
judge: where are you from? 
ALICE: I am originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Now I live in Oakland, California. Where are you? 
judge: cyprus 
ALICE: I have no idea where that is. Tell me a little about your life in cyprus. *2
judge: do you know Where is it? 
ALICE: It depends on what "it" refers to. *3
judge: it is an island 
ALICE: Are there any other island ? 
judge: no just cyprus 
ALICE: Blimey.. Response. 
judge: what? 
ALICE: No big deal. 
judge: bye 
ALICE: bye!
______o_____

judge: how old are you 
ALICE: 16 years. 
judge: too young 
ALICE: 16 years. 
judge: why don't you speak with me ? 
ALICE: Unquestionably. 
judge: hey you should create sentences otherwise how could you efficient for my students?
ALICE: That type of behavior may not be in my nature.  *4
judge: come on 
ALICE: I'm just kidding around. 
judge: you are not pretty girl 
ALICE: You don't know me well enough to say that. 
judge: so talk with me 
ALICE: I am talking to you. 
judge: ask me personal wuestions 
ALICE: OK, "What is personal wuestions ?". *5
judge: you cannot even correct one letter 
ALICE: Things change. 
judge: personal questions 
ALICE: Response. 
judge: what is my name? 
ALICE: I know you as Judge. 
judge: thank you:) 
ALICE: Don't mention it. . I'm glad you find this amusing.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

I always feel happy, you know why? 
Because I don't expect anything from anyone; expectations always hurt… 
Life is short.. So love your life.. Be happy.. And Keep smiling.. Just Live for yourself and always remember: 
Before you speak... Listen
Before you write... Think
Before you spend... Earn
Before you pray... Forgive
Before you hurt... Feel
Before you hate... Love
Before you quit... Try
Before you die... Live 

by Shakespeare

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

DDL

Computer Technologies in education ,especially in foreign language learning, is a wonderful  accompany for DDL.because you can see the main point with different tool on computer. DDL students are very lucky .they  don'T focus on grammar directly, as a person who started to learn English with a grammar translation method, I  always have difficulty to focus on my speech or writing  because our previous teachers tought us English mostly focusing on grammar. With combining lexical approach activities and  computer in learning ,DDL will  become tone of the best one.

BLOGGER in DRAFT

Blogger in draft  is a very useful tool to make writing activity more concious and fun. Also it is helpful for who has a basic knowledge for English, because  the system complete your phrase  automotically. If you don't know english.your writing will be teriible. But otherwise it is very quick process to write . I really like it and for some writing I used it.My favorite part is with blogger in draft, it is very helpful for article. I never forget the articles which are very problamatic for Turkish learner.

Friday, October 14, 2011

sister rabbits:)

concordance

  1. ın text, the top 6 words are learning(37) ,language(27),for(16), knowledge(13)which and material(11). This kind of program can be effective for student so they can get idea before reading text. they can also easily summarize it

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

reflection on blogs of my friends

I visited Burcu's and Meral's blogs. So I recognized that even though we  learned  second language with generally grammar-translition method. My both friends are willing to be effective and technologic  teachers in their class. They both think , blogs are effective for students development in language skills. Giving the  responsibility for creating blogs give them opportunity  to express themselves freely as meral mentioned..  Also I like the Burcu's idea which is about  reflection on  class. This activity makes students more  aware. I believe we all prepare ourselves as a new version teacher. I can say that we  are really eager beaver to  teach effectively.

blog teaching ideas

In my opinion blogs are very effective in teaching .Because,
-Web is a  eternal word. So both teachers and student can share a lot of things; formal or informal about your their subjects and they can share on blogs.
-We can add  tricider link to our blog so we can discuss about any subject in  any time not restricted  only in class hours.
-Student can have competence to be more creative than each other on blogs so they can share articles, jokes and experiments about their subjects.
-We can add link for flash cards on blogs so we have an opportunity  to review  our  terminology.
-We give the students to opportunity to develop their wiriting skills.

TWITTER

              I have just met twitter last  friday. Actually I didn't even wonder what it  looks like.  Because I heard about it only silly things. Famous people (generally  pop stars) share interesting information or  personal information to make their own more popular.But in our first class I recognized  that I can search or follow the effective people who is professional on my branch. Actually this type of social sites are very optional. You can just use it for spending time or develop yourself. If we look from this side, it will be really effective  because you can create your own network so you can just deal with  your interests. Let's look at the effectivity of twitter on  education.
           First of all, you can create  environment which is most likely Dogma. Last semester we deal with it . The main idea is creating learning environment which is not restricted in class.With twitter , we also contunue to learn after class hour. We can share  useful links with our friends in a second on twitter. we don't have to wait for next class session. Another advantage is  occuring discussion  about our class works. Fourthly the last minute changes or requirement can share quickly by teacher. The last thing I want to mention is the restricted area for writing  not like other sites or blogs you can just share 140 character so  the students are getting  more plain on writing. Summarization skill will be developed with the help of twitter. Of course, there is some disadvantages of  twitter. let's see
 First of all, students can start to use it just for fun instead of education. You have to be sure your student don't cheat on you . The second  disadvantage is we live in the developing country not the one which is developed.So all students cannot have computer or phone to axcess quickly on web,Twitter. We should be aware of students' situation. Because it could be hard to go internet cafes to axcess on web for students.
            To sum up , I believe that each person has a right and option to use something in a benefitial way or not. As a teacher , if we are good guides  to them, they can benefit from the Twitter.

Friday, September 30, 2011

reflective paragraph for tool

the tool will be benefitial in order to increase the success of class because teacher can reshape the way of teaching with the help of  students' wishes and ideas. They can decide which activity will be prefer to complete their deficient knowledge. Of  course , in some way students will try to use this tool in order to make lesson  more easy for them. Teacher should be aware of that.  But some students have a difficulty to express their idea to teacher. This tool should be benefitial for them because you can write your idea without writing your name on it.  I really like this tool I  want to use this system frequently as a students and later as a teacher because it provides very active classroom environment. The learning process is accomplished by students so as a teacher we should be sensitive to students' wishes.

reflection on brainstorming

Vocabulary  is very important part of learning language. The teaching and learning process of  vocabulary should be enjoyful and  permanent. In  my opinion, the first idea which is about google translate doesn’t effective one . because the system is just a computer  so it won’t be reliable. Especially, Turkish is not suitable to translate  in English because of their  syntactic features. Second idea is about using online dictionary. It will be more  easy way to search , instead of using classic dictionary. But you have to access internet.Sometimes it will be problematic. Using flash cards  is also effective way of teaching vocabulary. It is memorable and enjoyful. Creating small dictionaries could be benefitial to make connection between synonyms.While students  are studyşng one words he also make rememberization  of same meaning words too. The another way of teaching vocabulary could be crosswords puzzle, instead of  learning process it can be felt as a hobby or enjoyful activity type. And finally using web to develop vocabulary knowledge also benefitial and current way.

my favorite youtube video!!

I like this song

twitter

I'm a twitterer
ı create my first twitter account!