ELT+techniques

** TWO INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES **
 *  Ural BOZOĞLU-1734615 **

The firt innovative ELT application which I have just found is digital storytelling. Digital story telling is a kind of combination of text, images and audio to tell the stories with the help of digital tools. The age group which digital storytelling mainly focuses on is the ages of teenager. The reason why it may have importance in ELT education is that today, we are going through technology age and if we want to be succesful in educating and achieve our educational goals, we should definitely integrate technology into educational area. We need to use the benefits of technology. So, digital storytelling is just a way of intgrating technology into ELT education. Thanks to this integration, the pace of teaching English will increase and we wil be able to teach more at a time. Of course, it will be difficult to apply it into all kinds of school environment in Turkey because all schools should have equal technological opportunities to use such kind of technological activities. That is, it is impossible to apply it into all learner profiles. Moreover, all learners have different kind of learning ways and strategies. It means that we can only apply it into some learning environment just by modifying the application. For example, in a school where there is no computer, we can use our personel recorder or tape player to make learners hear the stories digitally. If we can modify this application like I have mentioned above, the effectiveness and appicability of it will certainly increase. We shouln’t give up when we encounter with an obstacles while we are trying to use it. On the contrary, we should be insist on using by modifying it for both different school environments and different learner profiles. Some obstacles such as power cut and having no computer may occur during class time. So, we should take all precautions beforehand. To sum up, there is nothing impossible. All we have to do is adapting ourselves and our techniques according to our learners’ profile and our opportunities. The second innovative ELT technique which I have just found is sentence stretching. This technique can be used for all learners but mainly for younger learners. The rational behind this technique is that the process of writing fosters original and fluent thinking. Furthermore, during this process, learners can explore their own creative capacities because they are playing with words to create their own writing product. The point which I like most is that during the process of creation, learner can control their progress. So, it is fully learner-centred. There is no need to technology to apply this technique into all school environment. In this technique, the only thing students have to do is to stretch the sentences according to questions asked. That is, a black board and boardmarker for teachers and a paper and a pen for students are enough to apply this technique. For young learners, it will provide an environment in which students can have fun and increase their creative skills. Moreover, it is definitely effective when it is applied to young learners. The only negative aspect of this technique is that when it is used for adult learners, it cannot be as effective and efficient as in young learners. So, its effectiveness increases as the age of learner decreases. To sum up, this technique is so important that it enables students to create their own product and control their progress on the way to success. 
 * Comment by Mehriban Arnazarova **

First I need to thank you for your effort to share your ideas about the innovative technique that might be used in educational area. The name of the technique “digital story telling” sounds good and technological:). You told that it is a kind of combination of text, images and audio to tell the stories with the help of digital tools. However, I could not clearly understand how or with what tools it is used. On the other hand, I absolutely agree with you in that we may encounter with some problems as benefiting from the technology and this should not discourage us to apply to use the technological devices. In contrast, I do not agree with you in that we should apply this technique in our schools because we need to use the benefits of the technology. Yes, this is true we should but I believe we should implement this technique or any other techniques in order to prevent the waste of time using the usual ways in education or to motivate and encourage students to learn via these tools because students are curious about new things which make them eager to learn. Yet I totally agree with you that every school does not have equal opportunities; therefore, this kind of techniques can be adapted according to the environment or limitations.

**comment by Salim AKKIN ** I definitely agree with you, Ural. First of all, I want to start with using digital storytelling in EFL classrooms. Today, we live in a world where technology has a great importance. As you stated, we should absolutely integrate technology into educational area, especially in teaching and learning English. Language skills need to be combined with digital skills in order to be useful and effective, so we should benefit from the advantages of technological devices. As you mentioned, since all the schools do not have enough technological opportunities, it is hard to implement these techniques in Turkey. You have also touched on what if we do not have computers in our schools and I like the possible solutions you have offered for this problem. The second one is sentence stretching. This technique helps learners develop their cognitive and creativity skills. They can also look at their developmental stages. Applying this technique can be useful and enjoyable in ELT classrooms. In addition to these points I agree with you, there is something I partially disagree. In my opinion, digital storytelling can also be used for young learners, but not for very young learners. Because the visuals and audio of the story draw their attention and they enthusiastically want to take part in these activities. As for your reflection, the topics you have mentioned are very well designed and you give us good and detailed information about what you have learned. As far as I can do, I will apply these techniques in my classrooms. Thank you for your contribution Ural...

**comment by Özgür Can Kaya** I would like to start by saying that I agree with you wholeheartedly. We live in an age of technology, and whether we like it or not, it is possible to see its effects on almost any field. Instead of trying to avoid it, I believe that it is far more helpful for us to embrace it and make full use of it in our classes. Another point to consider is that technological devices will most likely grab the attention of our students. The fact that something relatively new and unseen is being used in the classroom will not only make our students be focused on the topic more, but give us teachers a chance to implement new, better ways to teach using technology as well. I also agree that technology is not limited to computers, making use of personal recorder or tape player for story listening is a great idea in my opinion. Instead of giving up on the slightest obstacle, we must try to overcome such hardships and continue to improve our skills.As for your second technique I think that it's a very creative one. I believe that it will enable the students to explore their own creative world of English in which they are not restricted to reading a pre-existing material all the time. Giving them freedom will also increase their attention a lot in my opinion, as younger learners tend to have a relatively shorter attention span. I think this is what we need in ELT in my opinion; the ability to let our students come up with their own materials and sentences rather than forcing them to always repeat what seems to be the only way, which I find incorrect. There is always a better way to do something, and it's thanks to this mindset that we are able to make progress in every part of our life, ELT included. **Comment by Mehmet Ali Başak**I agree with you and the techniques you have selected. Technology is a part of our life and by using it in our classes, we can improve our skills a lot in my opinion. First of all, using technology gives us the freedom to make use of many online materials on our lessons. Second, it makes lessons much more interesting. I think people would love to see electronic devices being used in class because it gives the feeling of something new. I think it's a great way to increase students' attention to the lesson.Moreover, making use of technology in our classes will enable our students to be familiar with the technology better as well. Perhaps, they will be able to understand the lesson better when they are doing it the way they want to do. Giving them an opportunity to do so is a great way to make lessons more effective and fun.I also agree that the second technique enables students, especially young learners to make full use of their own creativity. If we want our students to be creative, we should give them a chance to do so in the first place. This technique will let them improve the way they think as well. Many students have the problem of thinking in Turkish and thne speaking in English. In order to overcome this problem, we should let them have a chance to think in English as well. In my opinion, creativity element of the technique is the key stone here. I think both techniques are very useful if implemented correctly.

**Comment by Durak CESUR:** The first technique is very useful for learners. Using stories always draw students' attention and they are always willing to participate in this kind of activities. Using technology makes this method much stronger. The use use of thechnology is a way of making the technique practical for everybody. Students will have a chance to improve their skills out of classroom environment which makes this technique convenient for learners. However, using this technique in Turkey may be a bit problematic because every single school doesn't have the adequate technological support. This technique can be used in schools with necessary technological environment. If used by professional teachers it is certain that this technique will improve students' language learning as well as improving their social individual skill of usin technology socially for their own learning.

**Comment by Neşe Demir**

First of all, I agree that digital story telling could be a beneficial way of teaching language to students because it involves technology use and as the children of the knowledge age (or the technology age) most of the students like using the products of technology. In addition most of the students in Turkey has a good access to course materials as the government supports them with tablet-PCs and most of the schools has at least one computer lab. Thus, I think that this technique might be applicable in Turkish classes. However the learner differences should be considered when applying this technique, and it can be applied in an environment that provides students with a free use of technology. In addition, this technique is costly. Secondly, I think sentence stretching technique sounds really nice as it is not expensive to apply and it can be applied in all classroom settings. Besides that, I agree that is a weakness of this technique not to be applicable for adult learners. A good ELT techniques should work with all types of learners, all levels and all age groups.


 * Comment By Abdullah ARAS**

I strongly agree with you about the digital story telling technique. I think it is a very important technique to teach English inductively. The most important advantage of it is that it contains visuals, sounds and texts. So it is very suitable for every classroom when you think from the aspect of multiple intelligences theory. Thanks to this activity you can effectively teach the subject to the students that have different intelligences from each other and attending the same class. Moreover I cannot see any disadvantages of it. So I think it is definitely appropriate for language teaching. I also agree with you about your second technique. I also almost cannot see any disadvantages of it. I only anxious about the possibility of a mess that can be occur in the classroom. But this is not a big problem and easy to solve. In conclusion I liked your techniques.


 * Comment by Gökhan Bozkurt **

As everybody knows, we are living a technological age and a lot of innovation has been developed constantly. Also, we are aware of the fact that almost every system benefits from this technological development and use and adjust their area efficiently. I definitely say that you explain this situation very clearly Ural. Moreover, your chose of the digital storytelling, which is very effective way, is very good. I am aware the novelties in the technology and as in many areas, education also should use these different techniques. Although it is difficult t use these techniques in Turkey and that it is right for me also, it is not impossible. I believe that Turkey will be able to cope with this problem in a short time. Except for these things, I find the technique sentence stretching more usable, because we don’t need technological device in this type of technique. Also, when we think the situations of the schools in Turkey, we can easily understand that this technique is more usable. As a conclusion, you explained two techniques very clearly and what kind of things can cause problems in applying these in the classroom environment. I like your style Ural, thanks!