Innovative+ELT+techniques+by+Neşe

Innovative ELT Techniques

Collaborative Writing
The first innovative ELT technique I found is “collaborative writing”. It refers to writing in collaboration rather than individually, and improves social aspects of a learner by encouraging and motivating writing activities. It is a motivating task as the technology in educational settings is available. This technique aims to use word processors effectively in writing classes, create a course blog and use this tool in writing activities, and to create wiki pages and organize wikis according to the objectives of their courses. Briefly, this aims to illustrate possible ways of fostering cooperation and collaboration in writing classes at various EFL settings. As for me, this is applicable in most classroom environments as technology is available for almost every student in Turkey today. They have tablet-PCs or computer labs in the schools, except that they most probably have their own laptops. Thus, I think this technique is applicable in real classroom settings. Even us, as FLE 324 section, we do collaborative writing as we write reflections or comments for our friends’ writings and sometimes edit them. So, I would say that this is an effective technique. However, I think no technique is perfect and each technique has strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, the fact that students can access to those websites or blogs wherever and whenever they want, and it increases the relations between students make this technique powerful. On the other hand, some students may use those blogs or websites for undesired purposes. Source:[]

Virtual worlds

The second innovative ELT technique I want to mention is the use of virtual worlds. The best example for that is to look at organizations and individuals who are involved in language education in Second Life. With this game, teachers and students can look at different educational tools that can be used to help the teacher and learners, and they are encouraged to try themselves at teaching language in one of those environments. I think this technique is also applicable in Turkish classrooms as some of the sections used this game as the main material for their Advance Reading and Writing course that they took in the first year of their undergraduate education at METU. I think this is an effective technique because students can communicate in the virtual world of Second Life, they have an initial level of comfort with working in virtual worlds as learning evironments, they become aware of the challenges that virtual worlds bring to language learning, and they have the knowledge of a range of tools that can support their language learning and teachers’language teaching in Second Life. For example, it is possible for the users of this game to visit METU campus and get information about all the departments of our university. However, I guess there are some weaknesses of that technique. For example students may be so involved in the game that they may want to spend more time on the game, and they may play it for other purposes than language learning. So this could be time consuming for them.

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Neşe Demir

Comment by Büşra Çalışıcı: I would like to say that I agree with you partially. Both of those techniques are related to computer assissted method. For the first one, it is useful and practical for students to use such a method. For example, if we did not use this program for posting our writings or comments, we probably would have to use mail system which already requires computer also,or we would have to come together in a class environment which is hard to read all writings and write reflections and comments in one class our. Thus, it provides us saving of time and also makes us collaborate each other. And looking at the second one, I can say that I was one of the students used Second Life as a part of the Advance Reading and Writing course in first grade. I would like to say that it was very enjoyable and informative for us. It taught us not only using that programme but also communicate with each other throughout the lesson. However, as Neşe said, we sometimes misused it and for other purposes or we sometimes had difficulty in understanding instructions and it caused time consuming. Consequently, both techniques are effective and applicable in real classes. However, we have to take the students' age and economic level of students into consideration because each school has not enough technological sources in Turkey and young learners can have difficulty in using technological items.

I absolutely agree with Neşe. It is certain that we are in technology era. So we should keep up with this technological developments and we should adapt teaching styles by using technological advantages and devices. Mostly it is clear that children use computers and other technological devices. However, one of the disadvantages of technological devices is to send away people or students from social life. If we provide this advantageous technic educationally to the students like "collaborative writing", we can get successful students. It is very useful group work or pair work in education and if teachers use wiki pages or blogs in their lessons, the students share their knowledge and comments about the topic and their peers' writings. It is an effective way to provide cooperation between students. Also, I agree with that almost all students have their laptops or personal computers. I mean it is easy to carry out this teaching style in this era. However, firstly If the teachers want to use blogs or wikis for collaborative writing, they should state clear instructions or examples and opportunities for students. Also, for the second teaching way language, I can say that the lesson should be attractive for students and games are effective way to provide enjoyable lessons. Second life is an enjoyable and useful way for teaching. Instead of classic way of teaching like lecture or memorizing, virtual works are more appropriate and helpful. The information that are provided from teachers will be long term with the help of virtual works. To sum up, both techniques are useful and effective for real class teachings.
 * Comment by HASAN **

**Comment by Seda Akbaş **

First of all, I should say that I like both of the techniques Neşe described. Since students are more and more involved in technology in today’s world, such methods and digital tools gain more importance in EFL classrooms. Both of these techniques are applicable for all levels I think if we make the adjustments carefully. Collaborative writing may not be suitable for young learner’s classroom since they are not proficient in writing but it may be implemented using simple words and sentences which are edited by peers. When we consider most classrooms have computers and students have tablet-PCs, as Neşe states this technique can be very easy to implement in Turkey and be very effective since it aims to illustrate possible ways of fostering cooperation and collaboration in writing classes at various EFL settings. Virtual worlds can also be used effectively since all people have always had a tendency for games. Thanks to this method, learners can both enjoy playing a game and learn the target language in a relaxed enjoyable environment. I share the same concerns with Neşe since students may forget the real purpose of the task and lose in the game and the technique may lose its effectiveness. I also want to add that the first technique is important in terms of social scaffolding since it provides student to learn from each other. For example, we give feedback each other on wiki pages, and we have a chance to learn more from each other about our strengths and weaknesses. Two of these techniques also give learners some autonomy and responsibility for their own learning as well as for their peers’ learning. Therefore, they are also gaining more importance in terms of communicative approaches. **Comment by Ebru Bertan ** I agree with Neşe. Collaborative writing and the use of virtual worlds are useful techniques. Nowadays, technology is valid for teaching and learning. As teachers, we should use them effectively in our classroom settings. Actually, in the first year, in one of our classes, we used both blogs and Second Life. Using technology made the lesson more interesting and more enjoyable. Instead of using the same techniques, using innovative techniques such as using multimedia games is more reasonable. Virtual worlds like second life gives students a chance to meet real people and natives of English. Communicating with them helps them to improve their writing skills. In blogs, other people can comment on your posts. So, you can communicate with the other people. It may help you to see what the other people think. However, as Neşe mentioned above, we should be careful about the right use of them. Students can misuse these techniques. We should inform them to use them carefully.


 * Comment by Gökhan Bozkurt**

First of all, I would like to say that I definitely agree about the benefits of these two techniques. Using some techniques including internet is always attractive for the students. Also, this allows students to focus on the lesson easily. By these techniques, students have a chance to develop their knowledge and ability to use computers. However, I don’t agree with you about one aspect. Although I think that these two techniques are very effective for the adult learners, I don’t think that they will be as beneficial as for the young learners. If we think their development, even they may not understand how to use these techniques in the class. So you should have found at least one of the techniques for the younger learners, too. I would like to mention about one more aspect. It is definitely a need that if you want to use these techniques, you should have internet and computer labs in your schools. Even if we have some schools that start to use Tablet CS, we should aware of the fact that too many schools in Turkey don’t have even the computer labs. In conclusion, even if these two techniques are very effective for the students, when the conditions in Turkey are suitable for to use these ones, they will gain their real meaning in the classrooms.