Reflection+on+conference-1-

REFLECTION ON CONFERENCE Session title: Affective effective learning: promoting self-esteem and motivation through films **by** **Vera Cabrera Duarte (Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo)** This presentation proposes the use of films as triggers for investigating self-esteem and motivation among despondent EFL learners at a secondary school. The presenter use scenes from three films to illustrate the ideas that she mentioned. The films are Freedom Writers, Dangerous Mind, Take The Lead. I’ve chosen this session because I believe that self-esteem and motivation has an important impact on learning and I am interested in how the teacher can promote the willingness to learn by identify and direct the motivation of the students. During the session Mrs. Vera asks some students to the audiences related to students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning such as “Are our students really willing to learn? Are the students interested in what we’ve been teaching them? Are we able to promote their willingness to learn? etc.” then she introduces some educational psychology frameworks such as Humanistic Approach, Person-centered approach, Student- centered approach, affective component which is placed in students learning environment and significant learning which is pointed out by Carl Rogers. She emphasizes on the significant learning and it is something new for me. According to the significant learning every student is potentially ready to learn but at the same time every student expresses resistance to learn because learning something means changing and students afraid of changing as a human being. While explaining the significant learning the presenter used a state “We may have the stimulus to start learning but the stimulus is not enough if we don’t have this willingness.” I agree with this state because in my opinion if we want to do something we can do. We have this capacity inborn. At this point the teacher has an important role if teacher has //empathy// which means listening actively as ig you were the person for a moment, //acceptance// which means teacher accept the students as they are and also //genuineness// which means know students potentiality. These three issues are applicable for each student. If teacher know how to use these three points to make involved the students into the subject, for example for us English, I think the degree of willingness to learn will increase. Also the most attractive and useful point is the significant learning involves person as a whole. One of the scenes the students dance in everywhere this scene illustrates that learning takes place in everywhere. This is one of the most frequent things that we have heard during our ELT courses. How much being exposed to the English has a huge effect on learning process and taking effective result in terms of language development. I found useful this presentation as general but using movie scenes to illustrate the ideas is not so much realistic. Instead of it real class recordings might be more realistic and helpful. Before watching the presentation I thought that I will learn new clues about how to promote my future students willingness to learn English and now I have useful hints to use in the future. SALİHA ARSLAN **comment by Salim AKKIN** I did not attend this conference, but the topics presented at the conference seem very attracting. I clearly understood what the session presented and what you have mentioned about. As far as I understand from the content, the presentation is about how to promote students and make them motivated for learning. Additionally, involving students into learning was mentioned. I wish I could attend this conference. As you stated, I also believe that self-esteem and motivation has an important effect on learning, especially while learning a foreign language. Besides, y ou have mentioned about some similarities between the topic of conference and the things we have learned in our ELT courses. There is not much thing that I disagree with you. The only thing I could not find in your reflection is how to implement these techniques in Turkey. You should have mentioned about the applicability and validity of them. However, you really give detailed information about what the presenter did at the conference. I also agree with you about the idea you referred. If we want to do something, nothing can resist us. As teachers, we should do our best and insist on implementing these techniques in our classrooms, so we can manage everything for our students. Thank you for your sharing this necessary information with us.