I AM IN A DILEMMA !!!

            It is a new trend that I heard in methodology course last semester. Instructor mostly talks about how it contributes to ELT education. I cannot deny its value in supporting both language teaching and also learning; however, what I expect more is to become aware of its drawbacks or deficiencies in application. What I am talking about is Task Based Language Teaching abbreviated as TBLT. There are some question marks concerning TBLT in my mind for approximately six months. These question marks make me confused and urge me not to use TBLT in the coming years.

            First problem is related to its burden to the teacher in terms of economy, time, and work. What I recall is that presentations of last semester costed a lot of money for many of us. What is more, it was really a time-consuming and worrisome process because you had to plan each stage according to learner needs attentively.

What about TBLT in a crowded class? While its application is a daunting job even in a small class in terms of discipline, control of mother tongue, and noise etc, it is will probably be much more problematic in a crowded class.

Tasks carried out especially in groups make me think that TBLT neglects individual responsibility to some extent. While some learners are doing the task, the rest may be indifferent to the task. So, it necessitates a perfect observation, supervision and organization skill.

            “Learn by doing” seems to me as a memorized chunk in TBLT. I find it right but lacking, “With enough help, support or scaffolding” should be added to the end of it. If they could “learn by doing”, then no need for teachers!

            One of the paramount targets of TBLT in education is to increase communication in the foreign language among learners through real-life tasks. What I experienced last semester was the opposite this scenario. There was little or no communication among my class- mates in English or they mostly switched to mother tongue even though they are able enough to use English. As a result of this condition, I questioned TBLT for the first time: “Does it really increase communication in foreign language in a class whose members have the same native language?” I am convinced that it will have a positive impact on multilingual classes sharing different mother tongues, but I am in a dilemma particularly with classes having the same native language. Again for these classes, the rate of risk may increase as the proficiency of students decreases. So, I need a research result showing the effectiveness or non- effectiveness of TBLT in supporting communication in the foreign language in any class sharing the same mother tongue. 


If you read this post, write me soon…

HOW DOES YOUR BRAIN WORK?

In linguistics, code-switching is defined as the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. According to this description, I am a code- switcher. When I found out that I had a good potential for code- switching, I analyzed in which conditions I code switch. As a result, I found out these facts about myself:

1. When I switch to Turkish, following to the prolonged and intensive exposure to foreign language, I code switch unconsciously. This is a real example of my code- switching taken from a break after a course.

“Teacher, bu article blogging in learner ların language development ını nasıl support ettiğini değil, writing development ını nasıl support ettiğini gösteriyor değil mi?”

2. I have a considerable difficulty in passing from L2 to L1 especially after presentations in English. The example is after a presentation.

“Presentation, sorry, sunum biraz long oldu yani uzun oldu.”

3. The next condition I code switch a lot is the time when I am convinced that my listener/partner knows what I am citing for. I do never feel a necessity to use Turkish equivalent of the word. This is again a model taken from real life.

“…ELT ile ilgili kısa textler yayınlamayı düşünüyorum”

“… makale de tanıtıp discuss edebilirim.”

4. I apply to code- switching on the condition that I cannot find the Turkish equivalent of any word while talking.

“Para exchance edemedikleri için adamın biri para vermiş.”

Note 1: Exchange, text, expose, input, support, development, paragraph, learning, teaching, context, meaning, criticize etmek, discuss etmek etc. is a list I mostly code switch. I even sometimes think that my brain does not accept Turkish equivalents of these words. It may stem from that I am exposed to these words in English more than I do in Turkish.

Note 2: I found out that I code switch after presentations and courses (1, 2) more than I do in casual life (3,4). I will explain its reason below together with why I code switch.

I am very curious about how my brain works so I sometimes consider in this way: “Regarding for linguistic abilities, my brain has possibly just one part for both English and Turkish, not distinct areas for each language. There is a line dividing this part into two for both languages and letting transition of words between them, which is the reason of my code- switching. While using (speak, listen, write, and read) Turkish in casual life, this line is fairly normal and lets transition of words from English to Turkish in some cases (3, 4). Whenever I use (listen, speak, write, and read) English the most, this line gets tense and separates the spaces for English and Turkish from each other strictly. The moment I pass to Turkish, the line confuses, perhaps gets worn-out, and the flow of words from English to Turkish increases. This scenario may explain why I code switch after courses and presentations (1, 2) more than I do in casual life.  After some time, everything gets back to normal.”

You may question why the line does not get tense while speaking in Turkish. Speaking in Turkish is what my brain is accustomed to more than in English. This is a just prediction I made on how my brain works. What about you? How does your brain work?

 WILL WE GET RID OF THE IMPACT OF GTM?

Roles of Teacher and Learners

One of the priorities of today’s life is learning a language, especially English. Whatever language it is, there are many factors creating challenge when learning that language. Some of these factors are learner- oriented; however, there are some other reasons, not learner- oriented, as Grammar- Translation Method (GTM). It is the number one potential to pose difficulty during language learning process on its own.

Unfortunately, because of GTM, learning English was seen as being proficient at grammar that is a great misunderstanding. So, sadly, we were like machines loaded with structures and rules waiting to be active one day; however, that day never came. It was because of the reason that little or no communication lies on the ground of GTM. I strongly think that language should act as a communication creater among people. And communication, at first, means being able to speak and being able to understand (listening) what is said. There is no or little emphasis of GTM on listening and speaking, directly on communication. Because of this reason, there is a mismatch between the meaning of language for GTM and for me. So, I do not appreciate GTM.

 Secondly, there is a great gap between the language use in GTM and outside the classroom. During the courses, teaching stands on sentence- level not on discourse level in GTM. What about real life? We use the language in discourse level not in sentence- level.

The roles of teacher and the students in GTM indicate to what extent it can be successful, what is more, why it fails in teaching English. Comically, learners are passive and teachers are active in general. There is a mismatch between roles since teachers, at least, are already better than students in English. That is, students should be on floors.

Our generation was mostly subjected to GTM so I think that our generation is the victim of this method. I frequently hear this question: “Although we have been learning English for 9- 10 (sometimes more) years, why can not we speak English? Do WE have problems?” Definitely, no one (except for people who have problems mentally) has problem. The answer of this question is hidden under GTM. If we had exposed to another method, we would be able to communicate easily instead of forcing ourselves to create the most grammatical sentence unnecessarily.

I could realize the traces of GTM on me when one of my friends from Indonesia told me: “Why do you, the Turks, force yourself to be a grammar book?” She was completely right; however, it was the result of the pressure GTM put on us. While chatting with a friend of mine from Philistine, I realize that I make up my sentences as grammatical as possible that is again due to the pressure of GTM on me. Yet, what he does is to just convey his message directly as long as it is comprehensible enough. It seems to me that, at least, our generation will never be able to get rid of the impact of GTM.