Report 1 / Hilal Cemre Altıparmak - Ozan Berk

 Report 1

Hilal Cemre ALTIPARMAK - Ozan Berk

Week 1&2
School: Celaleattin Sayhan Primary School
 Date: 10.10.2015-17.10.2015 
Class: 4/D - 4/E

Yonca ÖZKAN
Yasemin ÖZDEMİR

TASK 1

We have observed the speeches of the teacher and the students in a fourth grade classroom. We found that the teacher effectively uses target language while teaching new structures and for practice purposes while using Turkish for classroom management and giving complex instructions.

When teacher comes into the classroom she greets the students in English and they answer back in English. After that she talks to the students about real life situations like how they feel that day, how the weather is and so on. She uses English while explaining new grammar structures as well with the help of body language. She asks simple questions like “May I come in”, “May I sit down” by demonstrating them at the same time. In order to reinforce understanding she uses role-playing. She picks a student to ask something to another student in English and that student answer the question in English by using the particular structure as well.  She provides a context during practice in English and uses mother tongue when students can’t understand it. She also recasts what students say in mother tongue to English. Utterances made by students and the teacher are both less than 5 words because students are beginners in English.

Teacher uses mother tongue on purpose especially for classroom management. She warns students by saying “Are you listening to me”, “Look at me”, in Turkish. She also uses Turkish to reinforce understanding of the pupils. When students don’t understand the explanations in the target language she repeats them in Turkish to make her points clear. She also gives homework in Turkish to avoid any confusion and misunderstanding. Utterances in Turkish are usually longer than five words because students don’t have difficulty in understanding Turkish as it is their mother tongue.

To sum up, teacher uses English effectively while teaching but uses Turkish to reinforce understanding and make her points clear. She also uses Turkish for classroom management. 

Task 2

We have observed a fourth grade classroom to answer questions like “What kind of questions teacher asked”, “What type of question it was”, “How long the teacher waited for the students response”, “Whether teacher gave any feedback to the student and if so how?” and “How the students reacted to the feedback?”

We were asked to determine what type of questions the teacher was using. We found that she was mainly using display questions as she already knows the answer beforehand. When she asks question students can possibly answer in a negative or positive way she says if she whether wants a positive or a negative answer beforehand. She usually asks questions in English but often recasts the question in mother tongue to make sure everybody understands the question. For example;

T: Now, I am your mother and I am cooking something, a cake. But I you want to eat a hamburger. Yani anneniz kek yapıyor ama siz hamburger yemek istiyorsunuz. Ask the question… Hamburger yiyebilir miyim?

S: May I eat hamburger?

T: Peki ben izin vermiyorum, ne demem lazım?

S: No, you may not.

As it can be seen from the example the teacher asks questions in English but recasts it in Turkish when she thinks the question is too complex for students to understand fully in target language. She also often gives positive feedback when students answer questions correctly, saying things like “very good”, “excellent” etc. Students are usually happy to get the answer correctly when they hear those words. For example;

T: May I use your computer?

S: Yes, you may

T: İzin vermeye de bilirsiniz çocuklar

S: No, you may…. not

T: Excellent!

She usually waits for a few seconds for students to come up with an answer before helping them or asking to another student. If she thinks that number of students willing to answer the question is not enough she waits up to a minute while encouraging more students to answer said question, saying things like “You already know how to answer it, think about it a little”.

To put it in a nutshell, the teacher mainly asks display questions, wait for students to come with an answer for few seconds and give positive feedback when they answer correctly.