Sunday, June 13, 2010



In my video, the teacher teaches some vocabulary items to the students, now I will analyze the video according to Gagne’s nine events of instruction step by step.

1. Gain Attention: The teacher gains attention by saying they will do a discussion something they used to, and adds that she is expecting an excellent lesson from them. Then she uses a power point to ask her questions which is a visual stimulus for students.

2. Inform learners of objectives: She is very clear in conveying the objectives. She says that she will explain the meanings of some words in a poem, so at the end of this lesson they will improve their vocabulary. Besides by doing discussion about the poem, they will be able to reinforce their speaking and analyzing skills.

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning: As the poem’s name is “mirror”, she asks some questions about mirror like “What is the significance of mirrors?” By asking these questions, she associates their previous concepts or experience. Besides, she asks about Socratic discussion to the students and after getting the answers like form, language, imagery etc., she adds that they will look for all of those criteria in writing their paragraphs.

4. Present the stimulus: She displays content in an organized way. After asking some warming questions and discussion techniques, she wants them to write a short paragraph link to “mirror” using the given unknown vocabularies, then assess themselves in pairs. She distributes them the handouts and says the time limitation too. She clearly explains what they are going to do.

5. Provide learning guidance: She helps them when they are talking about the issue and make comments about it. She explains the words which may be unknown to the students. Also when she gives them writing task, she says she will go around the class to see what they are focusing on.

6. Elicit Performance: After they finished their writing and discussion, and pair assessment, she asks students what they learn from Socratic discussion. Then, while students are giving their answers, she writes them on the board. By doing this, students are able to see what they have gained from the lesson and discussion.

7. Provide feedback: I think she gives an immediate feedback to student’s answer by always saying “good, excellent, well done etc.” This provides students to confide in themselves and motivate to speak.

8. Assessing performance: After students finished their discussion, she evaluates the students’ performance by saying “You have been absolutely fantastic and you infer the poem’s meaning beautifully, very well done” By uttering these praises, she makes them to feel their accomplishment.

9. Enhance retention and transfer: Just before finishing the lesson, she gives students an assignment. Students have to write a detailed analysis of the poem “mirror”. This assignment aims to transfer the listening skills and reading techniques into a written assignment.

I think, her teaching lesson is a good example, because the teacher integrates all the skills in a lesson, which is a great thing. She is effective in fulfilling the aim of the lesson. She delivers the objectives of the lesson clearly, encourages students, and gives enough feedback and guidance to students. I think the teacher is successful in employing the Gagne’s nine events of instruction. I see how effective these techniques are in the classroom, and I liked the lesson.

Group blog addresses

Dear FLE 200 Section04 members,
Below are the grup blog addresses that Section 04 members have prepared:
1. http://learningstylesandstrategies.blogspot.com (Tuğba Yıldız, Sema Yıldız,Songül Taş,Rabia Sönmez)
2. http://personalityfactorsfle200.blogspot.com (Belgin Şahin, Beyza Tezcan, Eda Türkcan, Zehra Savran)
3. http://socioculturalfactors2010.wordpress.com/about/ (Aslıgül Tüzen, Yasemin Türkaslan, Özlem Yıldız, Seda Yiğit)
4. http://personalityfactors.blogspot.com (Derya Yılmaz, Gamze Şahin,Kübra Yardım, Kübra Şahinoğlu)5. http://personal-factors.blogspot.com (Duygu Yazıcı, Hilal Yönet, Ceren Taşatan, Ayşen Sağdıç)
6.http://socioculturalfactors.blogspot.com (Sibel Tosun, Emine Uçar, Hatice Yurtman)
7. http://communicativelanguagelearning.wordpress.com (Osman Ulutaş, Zöhregül Durddyeva, Mesut)
8. http://nlpandmi.blogspot.com (Olcay Türk, Salih Demir,Canan Yurdakul, Şeyma Öztürk)
9.http://fle200-s-o-b-e.blogspot.com/
(Sevil ÖZKAN-Ebru TOMBALAK-Özge MAVİŞ-Buket TANYERİ)








Note: Due to my unexpected health problems,I could not post the group blog addresses earlier.I am sorry about that. The deadline for comment submission is June 16 (Midnight)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Lesson plan self evaluation (to be done individually)

SELF-EVALUATION OF LESSON PLANS
You need to report on the difficulties that you have had during the process of lesson plan preparation, the limitations that you have felt during the preparation of the lesson plan, the points that you would like to change about your plan, the benefits that you think you have gained out of the lesson planning process.

Gagne's nine events of instruction


GAIN ATTENTION: the teachers have the students attention by saying " now we will play a game". And games are always percieved as enjoyable and not didactic. Also, that she will give chocolates to the winners motivates students very much.

IDENTIFY OBJECTIVE\INFORMING LEARNERS OF THE OBJECTIVE:She explained and clarified what the students will do in detail.

RECALL PRIOR LEARNING\STIMULATING RECALL OF PRIOR LEARNING: She has thought the topic beforehand, so she gives an example and says in which stiuation the students use them(for comparison).

PRESENT THE SITIMULUS: As she didn't introduce a new topic she didn't present the new content.

PROVIDING LEARNER GUIDANCE: In order to avoid misunderstandings, she showed how the game would work herself at first. When the students are shown how to do it, they will feel more comfortable.

ELICITING PERFORMANCE: after the game finished, the teacher wanted the students to use the things that they had written on the board in a sentence.

PROVIDING FEEDBACK: When a student makes a mistake whle forming sentence she corrects it immediately, and the student repeats after her.

ASSESSING PERFORMANCE: she doesn't apply a test or something like that, but she uses some words and phrases such as "good job" and "good!"

ENHANCE RETENTION\ TRANSFER: as the students made practice and us them in sentences, they get comprehensible input and that will help them to acquire the rule.

I think she is a qualified teacher and when the students have fun, she has fun: this is very important for a teacher. she knows what she is doing.

Monday, June 7, 2010

SELF-EVALUATION FOR BLOG OWNERS

SELF–EVALUATION FOR BLOG OWNERS

1.Explain the steps you went through during the preparation stage of your own blog (i.e., how you set up the blog, how you chose the layout and the group name, how you collaborated within the group, how you decided on the job division, your selection criteria for the relevant materials that you put in your blog, the sources of the blog materials, any difficulties (i.e., technical difficulties, etc) that you experienced while preparing your blog, the length of blog preparation)
2.Reflect on the blog preparation experience as a group ( mention your feelings about the group work experience, the effectiveness of the group work, how effective you think the blog preparation experience is for you, the benefits that you think you have made by preparing the blog, the things that you have learned through the blog preparation experience, the aspects that you like about your own blog, the aspects that you would like to change about your blog) .
3.Choose the interesting comments that you have obtained in relation to the the entries in your blog (including the comments on the video extract and the discussion questions) and explain why you find them interesting.

EVALUATION QUESTIONS FOR BLOG READERS

EVALUATION FOR BLOG READERS

1.Choose any TWO GROUP BLOGS that you liked and comment on them (on all the parts on the blog: Reading materials (articles and/or different extracts of information, discussion questions, pictures, videos, the group blog video and the questionnaire/poll). For each blog, you need to choose ONE FROM EVERY PART (e.g., one reading material, one discussion question, picture(s), one video, the group blog video and the questionnaire/poll). Give the rationale for your choice as well(i.e., why do you think so).
YOU NEED TO GO TO THE GROUP BLOGS AND MAKE YOUR COMMENTS ON THESE BLOGS WITHIN THE BLOGS THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN INDIVIDUALLY.
2. Evaluate the group blogs that you have chosen according to the following criteria.
(TO BE DONE ON THE CLASS BLOG INDIVIDUALLY)

1= Strongly agree 2= Agree 3= Neutral 4= Disagree 5= Strongly disagree



Put an X next to each of the options that you prefer (Please specify which group blog you are referring to when evaluating)



Features:

I. Pictures:

a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



II. Questionnaire / Survey (If available)

a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



III. Articles

a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree











IV. Discussion Questions



a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree





V. Videos



a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



VI. Useful Links



a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree

VI. Group blog preparation video
a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree

GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GROUP BLOGS
1.What did you find interesting about the blogs that you have chosen? Why?
2. What did you find informative about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on? Why?
3. What did you find useful about the blogs that you have chosen? Why?
3. Was there anything that you did not understand about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on and needed further clarification /explanation? If so, what was that?

4. What would you like to change about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on? Why?

5. What did you like best about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on?

6. Specify something useful to you that you learnt from the blogs that you have chosen to comment on and did not know until you read the blogs, and specify in what ways you find that piece of information useful

7. By referring to the group videos that the group owners made, how similar and how different their blog preparation experience is as compared to you?

LESSON PLAN EVALUATION

You also need to examine TWO of the lesson plans submitted by other groups and evaluate it from the following aspects:
a) the appropriacy of the lesson plan format (for the teacher and for the observer)

b) the relevance of the objectives for the teacher/learner activities (Are the objectives stated in the lesson plan well-formed ? /Do the objectives in the lesson plan cover all the activities?)

b) clarity concerning the descriptions of teacher and student activities (can a teacher or an observer follow the teacher and student activities by looking at the plan?)

c) Variety (does the lesson plan include a variety of activities with different interaction patterns, and in different teaching modes (i.e., the pair/group work, individual activities)

d) smooth transition between activities (whether there is a link between the activities)

e) timings ( Are they clear? Do you ‘believe’ them? Do you think they are realistic? )

f) who does what? (Do you approve of the patterns of interaction?)

g) What do you think of the effectiveness of the closure part (the follow-up task and the assessment of learning)?
h) Is it a good plan? (i.e., what would you a) leave out? b) add to? c) bring in? or d) change completely?
i) Do you find their rationale realistic/ In what ways?
j) Is the learners' previous knowledge specified clearly?
k) Are the unexpected problems and their solutions adequately specified? In what ways?

Sunday, June 6, 2010



In my video the teacher teaches comparatives to ther students and she manages it with an enjoyable game. I will analyze this video according to the Gagne's nine events of instruction:

1. Gain attention: At the beginning of the lesson, teacher tells students that they will play a game and it will be a race among two groups. A game and a race will increase the attention of children in class. They will be curious about the game and its topic and it will motivate studetns.

2. Inform learners of objectives: The teacher doesn't inform students about the objectives of the lesson. However, she gives them some instructions about how they will play the game and what will be the rules of the game. She demonstrates and plays the game at the beginning as an example for studetns.

3. Stimule recall of prior learning: The game is about the comparatives in English. Teacher divides the board in two and wirtes some words both side of the board. Then she writes -er and more two side of the words and asks students to write the correct form of comparatives. This requires a prior knowledge about the comparatives, how they are composed or if they take "-er" or "more", otherwise, students can't write the correct answer.

4. Present the content: Teacher tells the game and teaches studetns how they will play the game. She tells that it will be game about comparatives. Thus, students get ready themselves for the game and lesson.

5. Provide learning guidance: The teacher give the first example. She does the first word as an example for students so that they can understand what they will do. She explains the rules of the game and she tells there is a reward for the winner group. This also motivates students and they become more active in the game.

6. Elicit performance: In this stage, learners begin to play the game. It gives students an opportunity to understand what they know about the topic and what they don't know.

7. Provide feedback: After the game, teacher begins to control the answers with the students. She asks them if the answers are correct or not. And then she asks them to make a sentence about that structure and she corrects their mistakes when they make one. She also uses some expressions such as good job, great, very good etc. This provides incentive for students.

8. Assess performance: The teacher doesn't give a test or questions about the topic at the end of the lesson. She just distributes the chocolate for the winners.

9. Enhance retention and transwer to the job: The race and the game about comparatives provides students to learn abput their mistakes in an enjoyable way. Students learn their mistakes and the correct answer will pass to the long term memory more easily. They also use these see these words while playing and after the game they use them in sentences, so they can understand the topic easily.

I think she will be a good teacher in the future. Her teaching techniques are very enjoyable and students will like it. They are also useful and the teacher can integrate these techniques to every lesson. She uses almost all of the nine principles of Gagne's, but she can prepare a test for the end of the lesson for students to learn about what they learn and what they don't.



Saturday, June 5, 2010


Instructional Event ---------- Internal Mental Process

1. Gain attention: Stimuli activates receptors
2. Inform learners of objectives: Creates level of expectation for learning
3. Stimulate recall of prior learning: Retrieval and activation of short-term memory
4. Present the content: Selective perception of content
5. Provide "learning guidance": Semantic encoding for storage long-term memory
6. Elicit performance (practice):
Responds to questions to enhance encoding and verification
7. Provide feedback: Reinforcement and assessment of correct performance
8. Assess performance: Retrieval and reinforcement of content as final evaluation
9. Enhance retention and transfer to the job: Retrieval and generalization of learned skill to new situation.

I think in this video the woman teaches Gagne's nine events of instruction effectively by using the task to feed the pets at home. as the learner already knows the task, it is easier to get the idea of "nine events of instruction"

Sunday, May 30, 2010



1. Gain attention: The teacher asks students about movies on a person’s life. Talking to students about movies definitely attracts their attention.
2. Identify objective/informing learners of the objective: The teacher distributes cards and pens to students and tells what they are going to do with these.
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning: During the activity the students use their prior knowledge of past tense. Also it is clear that linking student’s personal experience and knowledge with a new subject facilitates their learning.
4. Presenting the stimulus: The teacher first presents the stimulus talking about his past life and introduces the content which is past tense to students.
5. Providing learner guidance: The teacher guides the students telling them to make the sentences like him and gives examples.
6. Eliciting performance: The students make their sentences using past tense and share them with the class.
7. Providing feedback: While students sharing their sentences, the teacher corrects their mistakes nicely and provides immediate feedback.
8. Asssesing performance: The teacher doesn’t give a test or something like that, but asses their performance by saying ‘good job’, ‘excellent’.
9. Enhance retention/transfer: I think choosing something related to student’s life is the best thing to enhance retention. Also, the teacher repeat the correct version of the wrongly said past form of verbs few times to enhance retention.

I think he is a qualified teacher. He creates content of what he teaches and that would help student’s meaningful learning making the information permanent. Also, he makes communication possible even in a grammar lesson and this is perfect for integrating the different skills.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Assignment on the use of native culture in the teaching of EFL

1.What do you think of the idea of using student native culture as content in the EFL classroom as a means of fostering cross-cultural awareness? What might be the possible benefits and shortcomings (if any) of using student native culture?

2.Choose a or b :

a) By referring to the article by Post and Rathet (1996: 12-17) in English Language Teaching Forum, suggest a new language learning activity for Turkish learners of EFL where you use the Turkish culture. The activity that you will design could appeal to any levels of proficiency (i.e., beginners, elementary, intermediate or advanced) and it can involve any language skills. You need to specify the aim(s), your learner profile preparation, procedures of the activity.

b) By referring to the article by Tavares and Cavalcanti (1996: 18-23) and examining the suggested activities in the article, suggest one activity of your own design to develop cultural awareness in EFL classroom (if you like, you could choose a feature film in English and you might prefer to take up a certain cultural practice in the film and compare and contrast it with the Turkish culture.

Assignment on conversation analysis

Choose one or two scenes in a feature film/a TV serial that you like. Do two of the following tasks:

1.Try to identify the language functions used in the conversation.
2.Try to analyze the communicative competence of the interlocutors from the following perspectives (grammatical competence, discourse competence, strategic competence, sociolinguistic competence)
3.Try to analyse the conversations from the following aspects:
a) attention getting

b) topic nomination

c) topic development (clarification, shifting, avoidance and interpretation)

d) Topic termination

4. Try to analyze the conversation in terms of Gricean maxims (quantity, quality, relevance, manner )

Please do not forget to illustrate your comments by giving relevant examples.

Reflection assignment on your cognitive styles and learning strategies

Which cognitive styles do you think you have? Give some examples to illustrate your points. In what ways do you think possesssing these specific leaning styles has a positive impact on your academic and private life and in what ways do you think it prevents or challenges you in your academic and private life?

2. Using the list of learning startegies (see pages 125-126 in Chapter 5 of Brown (2000) and communicative strategies (see page 128) in Chapter 5 of Brown (2000), describe examples of two or three that you have already used or you are currently using. Pick one or two that you don’t use very much and provide your reasons for not doing so.

Assignment on learning styles

Choose a character in a feature film/a Turkish or English TV serial that you like and make comments on the learning styles and the learning strategies and communicative strategies that he or she displays in the film/ TV serial by giving examples. How effectively do you think he or she uses them in the film? In what ways does he/she benefit from them and in what ways do they have a negative impact on him/her?
In this video, I would like to talk about how Gagné's Instructions are demonstrated by the teacher.

In the beginning of the class, he asks a question: "Does everybody know charades?" By asking this question, he introduces the game which they're going to play and makes sure that students know the game. At this point, students will wait him to tell more about the game and this draws attention. This is GAINING ATTENTION.

Later on, he gives the instructions of the game and demonstrates it for the students. It makes everything clear. Students understand what they are going to do during the game. He also says that he wants students to form full sentences in present continuous tense. This is INFORMING THE LEARNER OF THE OBJECTIVE.

Students begin to play the game. They form 2 teams: Team A and Team B. One of the team member tries to tell the word with gestures and mimics, and the other one tries to guess the word. When the student find the word, s/he has to form full sentences such as "You are laughing" or "You are pulling something". This needs prior knowledge of present cont. tense and students recall this knowledge and use it during the game. This is RECALLING PRIOR LEARNING

During the game, he says " Good job!" and he also writes the points down on the board. By doing this, students can see their team's condition and their competitors'. This is the stimulus of the game and it's PRESENTING THE STIMULUS.

At the beginning of the game, he gives the instructions and demonstrates the game which gives students an idea about the game. In addition, he usually assures students and guides them by saying "Yes", "Alright". With those expressions, students understand that they are on the right track. This is PROVIDING LEARNER GUIDANCE.

At this point, students play the game by guessing the action words and forming full sentences including this vocab. item and they complete the game. This is ELICITING PERFORMANCE.

During the game, the teacher always gives them immediate feedbacks by saying "Yes" "Excellent" or "Good job!". Students understand whether they're wrong or not by these expressions. This is PROVIDING FEEDBACK".

At the end of the game, the teacher announces the winner team by looking the charts on the board and it is the assessment part of the game. This is ASSESSING PERFORMANCE.

In the end of the video, the teacher talks about other ways to use charade games while teaching vocabulary or grammar. He says that teacher can take it further and makes the lesson enjoyable, interactive and useful. This is ENHANCING RETENTION AND TRANSFER.
We've seen Gagné's nine events of instructions and their demonstrations in the esl lesson. I think the teacher clearly demonstrates these steps. His lesson is enjoyable as well as informative and this is the most important one: to be able to put these 2 items together.


Saturday, May 15, 2010




1) Gain attention :We can't see the beginning of the lesson, but as I understand from the video teacher has written the course name,objectives to the board and in this way teacher draws student's attention.

2). Informing the learner of the objective: The objectives of the lesson are on the board and the teacher talks about them showing them on the board.She says that we are going to write a radio advertisement and guess what products are being advertised.

3)Stimulating recall of prior learning: Teacher ask what comes to their mind about the products that she has mentioned or related to topic and during the lesson, while preparing the subject and creating a product and advertisement, they use their previous knowledge, grammar structures and vocabulary knowledge.

4)Presenting the stimulus: Students give some answers related to the teacher's question such as luxury, modern, popular and they will answer the other question (how do we get information about that products?) as advertisement.

5)Providing learner guidance : The teacher gives the rules of the acticity. She want them to meke groups and create their products and later on present and introduce those products.

6). Eliciting performance Students present their products using charts.

7)Providing Feedback: While students are preparing their product's advertisement, teacher walks around the each group and give them feedback.

8)Assessing performance:While they are presenting and after presenting the the teacher gives them feedback, shows her pleasure saying that wonderful, welldone...etc.

9)Enhancing retention and transfer: The activity provides them to to use present and future tense while presenting their products and the use some adjectives which defines their products, so this provides retention and transfer.

In my opinion, she is an effective teacher, because she provides the student to like the lesson and this is the most important thing in teaching period and the activity provides students to make brain storming, creating a new idea and comminicating with group members and making presentation to class and in this way it increases the students' self confidence.

1) Gain attention :The teacher comes to the class and that she will distrube a envolope for each group.Envelopes are good materials for drawing attention of students.

2). Informing the learner of the objective: The teacher says what they will o with these envelopes that is, gives the instructions.She makes the groups of 2 people.The students will match the parts of the sentences according to tag question structure.

3)Stimulating recall of prior learning:During the exercise the students recall their past learnings abour tag questions.They think about the rules and form the sentences.

4)Presenting the stimulus:Students give reactions according to stimulus and starts to make questions by group members.

5)Providing learner guidance :The teacher in advanced gived the rules .We don't see that part so much. In the beginning part of the video the teacher talks about the strategies about how to teach tag questions with diffrent games.

6). Eliciting performance :The teacher askes learners the responds.The students starts to giving answer by one by after finishing the exercise.

7)Providing Feedback: After each answer the teacher asks the class whether it is true or not.She doesnt give the answer directly, takes the learners opinions."She ask what do you think."

8)Assessing performance: She asks the class about answers and then verifies the answers.All of the students give the correct answer. The teacher shows her glad by saying "thank you "and very good"

9)Enhancing retention and transfer :The teacher talks about other ways of tag questions with an enjoyable way in my opinion.For example one students form a question other one complete it ,or giving incorrect tags them to correct. So this structure becomes permanent in their memories.

In my opinion the teacher uses different tecniques to use for teaching Tag questions, but we dont see this part namely while she is teaching the rules to the students. The video shows us only the part that after the students has learned the subject.Then she makes the students do enjoyable activity. Because this way is much better than to make them o practices from a book or sheet. This activity make them curious about the exercise (envelope activity ) Than at the end , she also talks about other ways of teaching a grammer. They are creative I think. As the learners like the games an fin them more interesting than common ways the teachers generally use.

1) Gain attention :The teacher comes to the class and that she will distrube a envolope for each group.Envelopes are good materials for drawing attention of students.
2). Informing the learner of the objective: The teacher says what they will o with these envelopes that is, gives the instructions.She makes the groups of 2 people.The students will match the parts of the sentences according to tag question structure.
3)Stimulating recall of prior learning:During the exercise the students recall their past learnings abour tag questions.They think about the rules and form the sentences.
4)Presenting the stimulus:Students give reactions according to stimulus and starts to make questions by group members.
5)Providing learner guidance :The teacher in advanced gived the rules .We don't see that part so much. In the beginning part of the video the teacher talks about the strategies about how to teach tag questions with diffrent games.
6). Eliciting performance :The teacher askes learners the responds.The students starts to giving answer by one by after finishing the exercise.
7)Providing Feedback: After each answer the teacher asks the class whether it is true or not.She doesnt give the answer directly, takes the learners opinions."She ask what do you think."
8)Assessing performance: She asks the class about answers and then verifies the answers.All of the students give the correct answer. The teacher shows her glad by saying "thank you "and very good"
9)Enhancing retention and transfer :The teacher talks about other ways of tag questions with an enjoyable way in my opinion.For example one students form a question other one complete it ,or giving incorrect tags them to correct. So this structure becomes permanent in their memories.

In my opinion the teacher uses different tecniques to use for teaching Tag questions, but we dont see this part namely while she is teaching the rules to the students. The video shows us only the part that after the students has learned the subject.Then she makes the students do enjoyable activity. Because this way is much better than to make them o practices from a book or sheet. This activity make them curious about the exercise (envelope activity ) Than at the end , she also talks about other ways of teaching a grammer. They are creative I think. As the learners like the games an fin them more interesting than common ways the teachers generally use.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

1.Gain attention: The teacher spreads flash cards on the table when she comes to class and want them to come around the table, which takes student's attention and make them curious about what they are going to do with those flash cards.

2. Identify objective/informing learners of the objective: The teacher gives the instruction of the game and she herself shows what they will do. Then she remind that the one who understand first and react fast will win the game. She reminds them to be competitive before start to game.

3. Recall prior learning/stimulating recall of prior learning: During the game students remember what they have learnt about time expressions and they use previous learning to win the game.

4. Present stimulus: The teacher reads the time therefore presents the stimulus, and the students give reaction to stimulus.

5. Guide learning: In the first part of the game, the teacher herself reads the expressions in order to guide learning, but in the second part, one of the students reads them, which makes the activity more student-centered.

6. Elicit performance: Most of the students give reaction to stimulus and grab the correct flash cards.

7. Provide feedback: When the students grab the card she wants him or her to hold it up and show it to the friends and asks the students "Is that right?". By doing so, she immediately provides feedback and make the other students involved in the feedback part.

8. Assess performance: The teacher thinks that this activity is useful for them as it involves visual elements, physical movement and competion.

9. Enhance retention/transfer: As the game is about the time expressions they have learnt previous lesson, the activity enhances their retention and make these expression transfer to the long memory.

Sunday, April 25, 2010


1.Gain attention – she gained an attention of the students by explaining and demonstrating the action by herself at first.
2. Identify objective/informing learners of the objective - she identified the objects and showed how it should work, how the game should work, to which topic it is related.
3. Recall prior learning/stimulating recall of prior learning – because they were learning new topic I could not identify the recalling topic of the lesson.
4. Present stimulus – she gave definition of each room she was explaining and in which room the particular equipment or things are used mostly.
5. Guide learning- first of all she demonstrated how the game works; she did the actions pointing each word and explaining the meaning of each word.
6. Elicit performance – then she asked them to perform the actions or game.
7. Provide feedback – she was saying good or bad but she did not totally give the feedbacks to the students and did not correct their mistakes but leave not answered question and continued the game. The mistakes or not answered questions were going on with other students so that other students correct or control the answers.
8. Assess performance- in the game she provided students or each team with scores and with little remediation in the second game but not fully explained the reason why some answers are not given correctly which could provide students with self-assurance of their actions.
9. Enhance retention/transfer – she provided students with repetition of the rooms she taught and during the lesson all the games were related to the topic of the rooms.

In my perspective the teacher used very good examples and games to illustrate each room and the topic related to the rooms. Repetitions which she was doing during the lesson helped the students not to memorize but learn the topic and where to use all those stuffs placed in particular room. However, I do not think that it was really effective teaching in terms of the giving feedbacks, because in general students quickly learn the stuff they learn at first place so it is useful to give them feedback after they made mistakes, so that they learn the correct answer of the questions and topic.

Also, she was a good guider, but had difficulties in teaching the men part of the class or in other words, the men part had lack performance in explaining the vocabulary. However, she did not help them improve their performance but gave chance other students to give correct answers which can be badly perceived by the students who were failure in answering.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Reflections on a skills lesson video

Find a skills lesson video from the internet (e.g., from the Teacher's tube) and upload it to our blog or provide us with the link to the video. Taking into consideration the nine events of instruction proposed by Gagne, try to identify the stages in the video, describe them and account for the learning theories underlying each stage.
To what extent do you think this skills lesson illustrate an example of an effective teaching sequence in your own perspective as a prospective teacher, considering the principles of the teaching /learning process and the learning theories that we have discussed in class?

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Reflections on the Post-method Era (2)

To what extent and in what ways do you think your previous EFL teachers in Turkey reflect the characteristics of the post-method era?
To what extent and in what ways do you find yourself as a prospective post-method era teacher?

Reflections on the Post-method Era (1)

a) Taking into consideration the macro and micro strategies that are offered within the strategic framework for the L2 teaching in the post-method era (See Kumaravadivelu, 1994), please comment on which of these strategies do you think your previous EFL teachers put into practice? Also comment on to what extent and how effectively they implemented them.

b) How do you think of integrating the macro and microstrategies suggested by Kumaravadivelu (1994) into your own teaching as a prospective EFL teacher? Where would these strategies stand in your own teaching philosophy?

What are the possible challenges and obstacles concerning the integration of the macro and micro strategies in the EFL context?