REFLECTION+ON+SESSION+ON+THE+IATEFL+2012+GLASGOW+WEBSITE

**1734417 **
 * Bahar ACER **

**REFLECTION ON SESSION ON THE IATEFL 2012 GLASGOW WEBSITE ** **(by Osman Bedel)** I found a session on the IATEFL 2012 GLASGOW website and it drew my attention. It is about improving reading and speaking skills of the students. In order to improve these skills, there is an activity, “Literature Circles”, which is mentioned in the presentation by Osman Bedel. According to what he says “Literature circles are classroom discussion groups made of students who read a specific section of a book or a piece of literature and perform the tasks that correspond to their roles that change for every meeting.” In the presentation, there is an idea about reading that is accepted by most of language learners. They usually think that reading is so demanding and difficult. In the session, the reason of that is resulted from the incorrect way of implementing reading activities. In literature reading activity, there are lots of things that can carry the students to reading more. These are cooperative studies, collaborative learning, social interaction and enjoyable reading. Also, there is a communicative atmosphere in the discussion and by combining it with different skills and activities; teachers can make it more enjoyable for the students. As I said earlier, there is a classroom interaction and social and cooperative learning in literature discussions. While the students are in the social interaction in groups, they can have the chance of using real language in a more authentic environment. Besides, they have the chance of recycling vocabulary and grammar skills. The students can experience the collaborative learning to achieve a task. Discussions provide peer observation for the students. They can achieve the ability to set a group and improve their range of vocabulary, grammar accuracy and pronunciation skills by observing the peer. There are also some drawbacks of literature discussions. Firstly, it is difficult to organize, control and choose the appropriate materials for the teachers. Secondly, it may be difficult for the students to make themselves adapt to such type of activity. Thirdly, it may be problematic to implement such literature discussions because of crowded classes and shy students. The other thing to take into consideration is that the discussions are changeable according to the age, proficiency level, course materials and classroom size. I think that literature skills are very useful in order to improve reading and speaking skills. I agree with the idea that students may feel more comfortable while speaking in small groups. There is such a good atmosphere in literature discussions that the students can share their thoughts and feelings about the work they have read. I think that by sharing their ideas, they improve both their vocabulary skills and their knowledge about literary works. Also they develop their language competence during interaction parts. In the presentation, it is mentioned that literature discussions may be the starting point for the life-long reading and I also think that there are lots of reasons for this.