How to Improve Your English Speaking Abilities

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Voki

Poster

Reflection on Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, we discussed the four different learning perspectives which are behaviourist perspective, cognitivist perspective, constructionist perspective, and social psychology perspective. Although all these perspectives have their own advantages and disadvantages, the one that I think is the most efficient is the constructivist perspective. The reason why I think that way may be related to the fact that the teachers I liked very much during my high school years were constructivists and I think they were the best teachers at the school.

They were very effective teachers because rather than just lecturing and telling the students how to do things, they encouraged us to be active during the courses and engaged us in authentic tasks in meaningful contexts.

To compare them with the teachers that I had earlier, who were usually behaviourists, I think we need to look at the learning outcomes. For me, they weren't very successful at teaching. I didn't learn much from that teachers because I need to be active during the classes in order for learning to occur. From the constructivist teachers, however, I learned a lot. Because we were all involved in the lesson and we were doing tasks that are related to real life problems, the learning occurred without even realising that we were learning something.

Now that I am a teacher-in-training, I am trying to prepare myself becoming a constructivist teacher as well. The only difference between my high school teachers and me is going to be that I am going to use technology way more than they did.

TED Ed - Technology Integration

When I become a teacher, I think that I am going to provide my students with “Authentic Learning” at the “Infusion Level” of Technology Integration Matrix. Authentic learning at the infusion level simply means that in order to complete given activities, which need to be at an authentic context rather that just the instructional settings, the students need to find the proper technological instrument and be comfortable using it. This means that as their teacher, I am going to need to encourage my students to use technology to connect their education with the outside world and with their interests.

Although it seems a bit ambitious to use technology that much, if we take today’s conditions, where technology is an inseparable part of our daily lives, it would be our conservativeness not to fuse technology to our students’ educations. Therefore, it is what should be done if we want to raise people who are capable of dealing with 21st century problems.

Of course there are going to be a lot of problems while I am trying to integrate technology to my class. First of all, most of the experienced teachers in Turkey believe that the traditional methods of teaching are the best ways to teach. If we take into consideration that my administrators are going to be ones of them, I am going to have lots of trouble trying to convince my administrators to use this system in their school. In addition, because most parents also are fond of the traditional methods, it is very likely that they are going to cause me problems because of the stuff their children doing as homework. However, all these problems are surmountable. In my opinion, everyone can be convinced to believe in anything; it depends on how determined we are.

All in all, although applying authentic learning at the infusion level seems quite difficult because of the current conditions in Turkey, I don’t think that the problems that I am going to face be unmanageable; the important thing is not giving up. As Elbert Hubbard says, “There is no failure except in no longer trying.”

The ASSURE Model and My High School Teacher

Back at the high school, I had a great English teacher who I think was a very effective teacher. I think she was equipped with all the skills that a good teacher should have. Also, she was the person who made me like English. When I look at the ASSURE model, I can see that she was doing pretty much everything that the model requires.

First of all, she was a great observer. Therefore, her skill of analysing characteristics of the learners was very efficient. She was able to identify all of our general characteristics and learning styles by the end of the first week.

Although, it wasn't possible for us to know if she stated objectives of the course, in my opinion, she did because she seemed to know what she was doing and why she was doing it all the time.

In addition, because she was a great observer and she knew how we learned, she selected perfect methods and materials for us. She not only selected but also utilised those materials so that we all could take advantage of them.

One of her best feature was that she always required our participation. She knew that learning something is easier when we are involved in it. Therefore she always created discussions to make us learn by questioning.

I have no idea if she evaluated the methods, materials or learning outcomes. However, I think in order to become that effective, she should have evaluated all the things she used on us earlier.

Although there is no way for us to know whether she followed the ASSURE model or not, when I look back now, I can say that she was following it even if she didn't intend to.

Teens and Social Media Chart

In the 20th century, there was no connection between the students and the teachers beside the classroom. So, the teachers were supposed to give every bit of information to the students during the class sessions. However, with computers, internet and social media, students and teachers are connected better than ever before. Today, for example, teachers can assign their students a homework at 9 PM after the class thanks to the technology.

By looking at the chart above, where we can see clearly that almost every student we are going to have use social media (especially Facebook), we can conclude that our understanding of teaching needs to change. Because teenagers use these kinds of communication and like doing it, maybe we can use these sources as well. For instance, we can create some fun activities for our students using social media. Or we can use social media to share audios or videos that are related to our course.

In short, as we can see from the chart, the world's orbit is changing and it is becoming to revolve around technology. If we don't adapt ourselves to this change, we never are going to be successful teachers.

TED Ed - Being a Teacher in the 21st Century

When I start teaching, I don't think that I will be an underdeveloped person in terms of technology because I always follow the new technological inventions, innovations, trends etc. The reason why I do that is of course not because I will become a digital teacher but because I like technology. However, thanks to the skills I have related to technology, computers and internet, I will become a teacher who uses these sources very often. Also, since my students are going to be very interested in technology, as the time they live in requires so, I won't have any difficulties talking to them in the same language.

However, I might face some obstacles trying to use technology in my classroom because I need school administration's approval and their sources as well. If I am lucky enough to find a school that is fond of using technology, I will try my best to exploit technology as much as possible. For example, unlike many teachers these days, I would ask my students to bring their tablets, laptops and smartphones to the class so that they could use these types of sources as well.

In short, technology is everywhere in our world now and in order to be effective and efficient teachers, we need to adapt every aspect of life to technology including learning environments and I think that I am going to be one of the teachers who do so.

Reflection on Chapter 1

Before I started university, I was lucky enough to be at an high school that tried to teach me all kinds of literacy skills we studied in Chapter 1. Our teachers made us learn what they were trying to teach by making us use all those literacy skills. However, I wasn't feeling competent at all of them when I started university to study English teaching but now I feel that I am. For example, before I started university, I wasn't competent in visual literacy but after I started university, I learned it because I needed it. 

In my opinion, all the teachers should be competent in al those skills we discussed because they need to be able to teach to everyone. If one of the skills is missing, for example, nobody can guarantee them that their students won’t need that certain skill to learn. Also, teachers should always try to renew themselves because the world is always changing and the teachers should learn the literacy skills of the current time.

Turkish Schools and Technology

Use of technology in education in Turkey has gone a long way during the last decade. Earlier, what classrooms only had was a blackboard and a teacher. However, today, most schools have computer classrooms, smart boards, televisions etc. and the education system encourages teachers to use these sources.

By the time I graduate, I don’t think that there is going to be differences in terms of technology use in classrooms. The reason why I think this way is because Turkey is a slow adapting country. Considering I have only two years before I start teaching, it is not difficult to say that everything is going to be very similar to the way they are right now. But this doesn't mean that I am not going to use technology in my classrooms.

When I become a teacher, I will try to use technology as much as possible because, although many people are against this idea, technology makes the teachers’ lives easier. People think opposite because they are having difficulties adapting themselves to technology, computers and internet but for me using them is very natural. So, I see myself using lots of technological stuff in my classrooms when I become a teacher.

Seconrary Education Enrollment Rate of Country Groups