REFLECTION+TO+THE+ARTICLE+NAMED+“TBL+AND+YOUNG+LEARNERS”+by+Abdullah+ARAS

At the beginning of the article it is said that, according to Krashen’s theory, for acquisition to take place learners must be focused on meaning rather than on grammatical form but I think grammar is a necessity for beginner students. Students should have the syntax knowledge in order to communicate in target language meaningfully and appropriately. Beside, Krashen himself also thinks in this way. In one of his conferences named 3rd ELT Conference “A World To Come For Teaching and Learning: Remodelling Perspectives And Trends” that held in Bahçeşehir University. Krashen said that we don’t need language classes. Language classes are for beginners. All we need is comrehensible input. Bringing the world in to classroom does the job. It is also argued in the article that it cannot be denied that learning a second language is nearly automatic when learners are exposed to comprehensible input and participate in real communication. However, according to what Dr Hasanoglu said in one of ELT conferences learning becomes acquisition with practice because there is no link between acquired and learned languages. I agree with the idea mentioned in the article that we have to admit that comprehensible input together with real communication may be sufficient for learning a language different from the mother tongue when there is high exposure to the target language outside the language classroom. Task Based Learning is handled in the article. There is a sequence in this principle. The first is Pre task. Second one is Task cycle and the last one is Language focus. First, the teacher discusses the topic and makes an introduction in pre-task part. Then, students performs the task in the task cycle part. Lastly students practise in the final part. And I wonder; What if teacher changed the sequence? It is possible to make a change in this sequence as in the example of PPP approach. PPP stands for Presentation, Practice, Production, a common approach to communicative language teaching that works through the progression of three sequential stages. If I were the writer of this article, I would mention it. **Presentation ** represents the introduction to a lesson, and necessarily requires the creation of a realistic or the right feeling “situation” requiring the target language to be learned. **Practice ** usually begins with what is named “mechanical practice” – open and closed pairwork. **Production ** is seen as the summit point of the language learning process, whereby the learners have started to become independent users of the language rather than students of the language. It is a good place to start in terms of applying good communicative language teaching in the classroom. It has also been criticized considerably for the very characteristic that makes it the easiest method for ‘beginner’ teachers, that is, that it is far too teacher-orientated and over controlled. A nice alternative to PPP approach is Harmer’s ESA tecnique (engage,study,activate). Again if I were in writer’s shoes, I would also mention Harmer’s study as opposed to PPP approach. The three stages of Harmer’s ESA tecnique (engage, study, activate) is ; **//Engage //**; During the engage part, the teacher tries to attract the students’ interest and engage their emotions. **//Study //**<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 16px;">; The Study part activities are those which focus on language and how the sentences in it are constructed. **//<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Activate //**<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 16px;">; This final element describes the exercises and activities which are designed to get students to use the language as communicatively as they can. <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The writer also touches the importance of using tasks in the classroom in the article and I agree with the idea that “tasks can be defined as language activities but that not all activities can be named as task” because students also needs task-free activities. Then in the conclusion part, the writer says that ‘As many teachers of English have pointed out, translation is a kind of compulsory step when using TBL, especially in the reporting part’. I think translation in mother tongue is not a must while performing the tasks. If the teacher examplifies the task clearly, students will not have difficulty in understanding the instructions and carrying them out. Furthermore when teacher changes the classroom into a game or real life physiology, s/he becomes successful that time.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 16px;">REFLECTION TO THE ARTICLE NAMED “TBL AND YOUNG LEARNERS” **