CLASSROOM CONTEXT AND LANGUAGE TASKS

AYŞE ŞAHİN

7-8. WEEK

TASK 1  In this week i paid attention to positive and negative factors of the classroom,the activities, the teacher and the students. Firstly there are many colorful posters and the pictures that students prepared in the classroom. Using of these are very useful for young learners as visual. It also affects the classroom atmosphere in a positive way. An another thing that exists in the classroom is projection but  they don’t use this technological  device in lessons. The other thing is air conditioner. They share a warm room however  there would be a problem if the classroom was cold but  they feel relax. As negative, the tables and desks are old and boring . It could be better for them. The classroom isn’t  clean enough. It doesn’t seem hygienically. Not only the classroom but also many places in school. Especially the walls are dirty. The classroom  is exposed  to the noises that comes from outside. It can distract the students’ attention. The activities improve their learning. The teacher is interested in if they learn or not so the activities are mainly consists of repetitions but when we take negative factors into account, the activities on the book is used in general. These are matching,tracing and drawing etc. Using  some of them like drawing picture  takes much time for learning english. The students doesn’t have any excitement because the teacher doesnt give anything new to them so following book everytime can be boring for them. They need another activities to participate. The teacher  gives the instructions by demonstrating by the support of body languge, jest and mimes. He gives importance to students’ pronunciation. He uses his voice effectively. His explanations are clear,easy and short. After giving an activity, he checks the students’ books and helps them in their works.  On the other hand, he doesnt use a different technique and bring anything new to the classroom. The only thing he benefits from is the book. He uses a traditional method. The students are a good listener. They don’t have any difficulty in undertanding the teacher. They all raise their hands to participate the activities  or answer  the questions. The students aren’t shy and they don’t have any hesitation because of the teacher’s attitude.

 TASK 2  The teacher makes them do listen and complete activity from the book. There are some words with missing capitals. He writes the words on the board  and asks the students to complete them by looking at the board. This activity is written and accuracy-oriented because they focus on how to write a word. The other activity is say a chant. Here, the students asks them open their book and repeat him. This is spoken. They repeat the teacher all together and also fluency is more important. They say it sentence by sentece since the song includes  some forms. for ex; open the door and sit down etc. The students  trace the words on the book. It is written and accuracy-oriented. They learn how to write the words here. After that,  the teacher gives them a game activity. It is called ‘’ who is this? ‘’. He calls one of his students on the board and asks him to turn back to his friends. The teacher  makes the one of his friends  say a sentence like ‘’how are you?’’. The student on the board tries to guess who owns this sound. This activity is spoken  and fluency-oriented. The students makes sentences and then, they do matching and tracing activity. The teacher writes the correct  one on the board so by looking at the board, the students match the words and after finishing it, they trace the words. It is written and accuracy-oriented. And the last one is make mask. Here the students draw  a mask on paper and write the word of mask. The teacher tells them they can color them whatever they wish. This activity is written because they write mask on the paper and accuracy-oriented. I think there is no balance among the activities. Some activities takes too much time like drawing picture. I would change make a mask activity because i don’t think it works for students to learn english. They just make drawing but learn nothing much. The accuracy practice activities takes place much more here and  for young learner it is really more important. The activities improves their pronunciation and the way they write. They didnt have thinking time available to pay attention to form. The fluency activities are about real life. They learn many things to use in real life  but the learners dont seem pay attention to meaning. They just repeat  given things .