Turklish TEFL

Keepin’ it Real

This post will be a little bit ironic as it’s on staying contemporary and anything I write will no longer be such in a couple of days . There has been a lot of talk about the usefulness of coursebooks lately (Kalinago 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 . Specific English here, One Year here, TEFLTastic here, and Six Things here) and one of the things mentioned is that they aren’t relevant to the students’ lives. A way to combat this is to bring in additional supplementary material related to events happening right now in Turkey. Opportunities for this can come about from changes in laws, current hot topics, news events, celebrity scandals, interesting things that happened to you, etc. Find out what your students are into and try to keep yourself in the know about a few of the topics. Should something interesting arise you can bring it into the classroom. Not every lesson has to be directly connected to your current grammar topic on the syllabus. If you want to pull the grammar out of something you bring in to class, great, but it’s equally, if not more important, to bring in material that gets your students talking and thinking.

Here’s my most recent example of bringing a contemporary discussion into the classroom. The other night I was watching TV with the wife and an incredibly interesting commercial for Today’s Zaman (a rather conservative newspaper here) appeared. The commercial was both thought-provoking and controversial. I thought it was just excellent and immediately wanted to use it in my class the following morning. A quick look on YouTube and, sure enough, someone had already loaded it on there. God, I love that site. Here’s the video:

The next morning I walked into class and told the students I saw something incredibly interesting on TV. Naturally, they started asking me questions about what I saw. After giving them some information about it, I showed the first 5 seconds of the video. The students then had to get in groups and discuss what the video was and what is was about. Surprisingly, only one student had actually seen the commercial and I just told her not to give it away. After the discussion, I showed the video up to the part right before it showed Zaman’s name. The students had already figured out it was a commercial and they then guessed what the commercial was for. Finally, I showed them the ending.

From here, we did a short translation of the text in the video from the class and discussed all the different ways to translate it and which translations were better and why (my translation would be, “Isn’t it about time to break down the prejudices and invisible walls between us?”). Zaman is a pretty controversial newspaper here both for its conservative outlook and it’s funding by the Gulen Group. A discussion of the merits of the commercial, its appropriateness, the issues it was trying to raise, and Zaman’s part in it were all discussed. Before I knew it, 45 minutes had gone by because of a simple 2 minute commercial.

Now, honestly, I think I could have prepared a more directed lesson, but I liked the spontaneous nature of the lesson and I got to see what arose out of the discussion naturally rather than directing the lesson around pre-planned objectives. There was a lot of language and a lot of interesting ideas that came out of the discussion. All of these were useful for developing future lessons on the media, newspaper outlets in Turkey, Gulen, prejudices, journalistic bias, the power of advertising, etc. This was a great example of how a contemporary piece of media can generate an intense discussion in the class and create material or topics to be used in the future rather than always following the route proscribed by the book or the syllabus; a route that probably doesn’t mean much of anything to the students.

One of the reasons this lesson worked so well was it’s spontaneous nature. Had I waited until I had developed a more thorough lesson plan around the commercial, it would have lost its immediacy. The lesson worked because it was the first time the students had seen it. It was still new to them. It’s not good to wait too long on this like this. For example, Turkey recently banned smoking in all public places. I incorporated a discussion on it into one of my lessons, but none of the students wanted to talk about it. The smoking ban had been on the news and up for discussion for weeks at this point. They’d already discussed it to death and were bored. Had I discussed it when the policy was first announced I guarantee the lesson would have had a much more positive reception.

The point is, if something interesting happens, don’t be afraid to use it immediately. Not every lesson needs a grammar or vocabulary focus as its goal. Oftentimes, the ability to foster debate, a focus on fluency practice, or the creation of future lesson topics are reason enough. In true dogme fashion, lessons like this create a wealth of student-generated language and topics of interest that can be expanded on and used in subsequent lessons. What’s more relevant to the students’ lives than events happening right now in their country?

What about you? Do you ever bring in contemporary issues into the class? If so, what do you generally focus on? Controversial issues? Celebrity news? Your or your students’ lives? How do you feel the students respond to these lessons vs. lessons from the book?

Other Good Turkish Commercials:

Knorr Çorbasi – Perhaps a convo about mothers

Anadolu Sigorta – Iste O Kadar – Absolutely hilarious. Good for a discussion about fate or preparing for the future.

Turka Cola 1 – An old Chevy Chase commerical. Good fun.

Turka Cola 2 – Ditto, pt 2.

Chery Safak Sezer – Hamam style car wash. Good fun.

Ok - Preservatifce

Ok – Air Conditioner

Ok – Damacana

McDonald’s – McTurk. Good for a meeting of cultures comparison.

Regal – Dishwasher. Good for intro to violence against women, patriarchy, offensive adverts, etc.

Tags: Spontaneity, Video, YouTube

Lesson Ideas, Teaching Strategies | turklis1 | October 23, 2009 6:26 am

11 Comments

By Alex Case, October 23, 2009 @ 10:28 am

Sounds like a great lesson. The dangers/ things to think about with topical lessons are:
- Is the vocabulary etc they are learning useful for them, e.g. for conversations they will actually have outside the classroom?
- Can you make sure well informed or eager to speak out students don’t dominate?
- Can you recycle that language in homework and/ or future lessons?
By admin, October 23, 2009 @ 10:57 am

Excellent points for consideration Alex. I actually plan on addressing point #3 in a separate post.

With a spontaneous discussion like this one I tend to have the most difficulty with point number 2. Do you have any suggestions or perhaps a related TEFLtastic link? Seems like you’ve covered the gamut of the ELT world at some time or other over on your blog
By Alex Case, October 23, 2009 @ 12:41 pm

Amazingly, in 100 odd articles I have never touched on that point. Nothing very inspired coming to mind now either, but for point number three there’s:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/articles/games/word-bag/#

and/ or write all the vocabulary that comes up down and photocopy that sheet for all the students at the end of the lesson or before the next one so that they know what they should revise and try to use in future classes.

Will think about point number 2 a little longer
By Jeremy, October 23, 2009 @ 3:06 pm

Thanks for the link, and also the great video. I love this sort of lesson too – when something simple generates a whole lesson full of authentic and productive speaking. And for most students in most groups, this sort of highly motivational speaking can be worth a semester of grammar gapfills.
I think Alex is absolutely right with his three dangers, which is why I think a whole course full of this sort of lesson might not be right for everybody. But as a one-off lesson from time to time (or even more frequently), this is absolutely what it’s all about.
By Karenne Sylvester, October 23, 2009 @ 6:34 pm

I love this lesson and the spontaneity of it – I’m not on the same page as Alex tho:

if the vocabulary was important, it’ll come up again naturally (vocba in videos is mostly high frequency) and the students have a context to refer back to i.e. when they’re looking for a word they may remember that video and do some association (or bridging as they call it here in Germany).

Re the second point, generally when I’ve one student trying to dominate, I simply ask one of the quieter ones if she/he has anything they would like to add.

Usually pointing a gentle spotlight helps shush the louder ones and gives the shyer ones an opportunity to contribute.

Re A’s third, absolutely recycle the vocabulary… by getting them to follow up with a blog post or essay retelling the story – using the new words and applying them to similar events in context.

Hmmm… I spent most of my time answering Alex’s Qs – whoops!

Great lesson, now off to find the link of what I really came here for, LOL, i.e. your teacher as narrative series.

Karenne
By Darren Elliott, October 23, 2009 @ 9:57 pm

I really like this lesson – sounds perilously close to Dogme. Alex is right (as usual), but I also think that one should be wary of over-planning things like this. You can kill a fun and interesting idea stone-dead with too many worksheets, I think. Of course, it depends on your context, aims and approach. I am working in a Japanese university so most of my students have had several years of brain numbing grammar which I need to activate. I also need to consider broader educational ideals (turning out critical thinkers and rounded members of society, personal responsibility, learner autonomy) partly because the institution demands it but, I admit, mainly because they are important to me. I have to say, I actually TEACH very little language… so I would approach a video like this in the way that you have. Bottom line is, you can have all the grammar and vocabulary in the world but if you’ve got nothing to say…..
By turklis1, October 24, 2009 @ 5:59 pm

Thanks for all the wonderful comments. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for the link Alex. As for me, I often take Karenne’s approach and gently prompt the quieter students from time to time, so they can get a word in. Asking the major talkers to take a short break can often do the trick as well.

There’s the danger of the conversation dying as well, though. We’ve all had those moments where we try to get the quieter students to speak up and then the class waits silently as the student produces a small sentence after a minute or two. Suddenly the steam is gone from your hot topic.

The quieter students are usually quiet because a) they are naturally shy or b) their English is below the rest of the class and they are having difficulty following or participating in the convo. Either way, they may be uncomfortable speaking to the entire group, especially as all eyes turn towards them when the teacher asks for their input. If they aren’t trying to get a word in, I’ll just let the conversation run its course. At the end of the lesson during the feedback you can put students into groups and have the quieter students report back on the major points or give a short summary. This gives them the chance to prepare something before speaking, they can use information already discussed, and the entire class isn’t silently waiting for them to finish so the conversation can continue. Basically, the pressure is off and they get a more structured opportunity to speak.

Quieter students also do much better in groups on their own. Rather than a whole class involved in a giant discussion I’ll pair up students with others of a similar level and this makes them all more comfortable on top of the smaller group size.

I think Alex’s points to consider are important, but Karenne, Jeremy, and Darren are also right on the value of the lesson. This was a 1-hour lesson and produced a wealth of language as well as additional material that came from the students themselves. It went very well and it can be a change of pace. As long as the lesson isn’t always unguided, I think its alright. i think that different lessons can have different purposes.

Darren – I really liked your idea that we teach so much more than just a language. There are so many other skills and so much knowledge that is taught in our classes that has repercussions on our students lives outside of just English. Very cool.
By Alex Case, November 3, 2009 @ 5:57 am

“You can kill a fun and interesting idea stone-dead with too many worksheets”

Is that true of worksheets, or just bad worksheets?? For one thing, conversation questions on worksheets almost always work better for pairwork than conversation questions on the board (despite the wasted paper).

I’m also a bit worried that Karenne is giving the impression that teaching Dogmy style is easy, whereas I thought it was generally agreed that only experienced teachers can do it well. To put it another way, is there no such thing as a bad Dogme teacher?
By turklis1, November 3, 2009 @ 8:00 am

Welcome back Alex. I think worksheets can be very useful, especially to scaffold an activity or perhaps peak interest like guessing what’s going to happen in a video. I don’t think anyone would suggest doing away with them entirely, but your orginial point stands. You just can’t overload them.

Also agreed on dogme. It’s definitely something better suited for experienced teachers in my opinion.
By David, February 4, 2010 @ 3:14 am

I agree! Even if not an “experienced” teacher (and I have difficulties with how you define that/what it is), go with what you think hits the student world/interest. Culturally specific content should be the next mantra in TEFL. This lesson, as mentioned is rich in context and language.

I also think it has the most important quality of any instruction – anticipation. Great instructors build in or on the fly, create this. Like a good movie, we should know the process of what will happen but not the actual “facts”. Commercials are great for this and I like how you used it in that vein.

About “questions” on worksheets/board. I have changed through the years. Now, I consider it the students who MUST create the questions as well as ask the questions (time permitting of course – time as Shakespeare notes is our master). At a minimum DON”T give questions lock stock and barrel but just word prompts with a question mark. That’s my opinion and how I’ve developed over time.

About quiet students — I’m of a different mind on this too. I really think we should create the best atmosphere for student production but if they don’t want to speak, I don’t think we should even go there. I know this is contrary to so many who say we should rearrange groups or prompt them or put them into situations where they have to speak. I just don’t think that is right. Let ‘em be and focus on the relationships in the classroom and the richness of “meaning” that is swirling around.

But like Darren, Turklis and Karenne mention — I think this a wonderfully rich and “whole” lesson/hour of study.

David

PS. I have a nice looooong list of commercials with comments for suggested use in the classroom on this blog post. http://eflclassroom.ning.com/profiles/blogs/commercials-in-the-efl-1
By turklis1, February 5, 2010 @ 10:27 am

You make a lot of good points David. I’m a very big advocate of culturally specific content as well. And anticipation is so important. You have to keep that level of tension up in the class to keep things interesting. Pictures and video are great for this.

You’re right about the questions too. I see so many activities where students are given questions and asked to walk around the room or discuss in groups and most of the time the questions could be written by the students themselves. Although I do generally prepare some back-ups in case a student or two gets stuck, but I find the majority of the class can get by with nothing or small prompts like you suggested.

I tend to play the quiet student thing by ear these days. I do think we should encourage them to come out of their shell as much as possible. If we learn through using a language, as I and many others believe, by not using it the student isn’t making much progress. It’s like having a public speaking class where we let the students who are uncomfortable just watch. It doesn’t work. I do advocate pushing students out of their comfort zones. With that said, it’s also often a good idea to let students interact in ways they feel comfortable and provide opportunities for them to take risks on their own terms.

Thanks for the like