Reflection_on_Conference+1+Mehmet+Ali+Başak

Mehmet Ali Başak, 1734581 ** Conference Reflection ** For my conference reflection paper, I have watched ‘’Speak and Spell: Online phonics for YLs’’ presented by Jo Hayes. In the conference, the presented first talked about the importance of teaching phonics to young learners and then she moved for talking and exploring fun and interactive ways of exploiting phonics in the YL EFL classroom for pronunciation and spelling. The talk mainly focused on a new set of materials developed for the British Council website, LearnEnglish Kids, based on the UK phonics programme Letters and Sounds. In my opinion, it was a very good and entertaining conference. First of all, the presenter talked about the importance of teaching phonics to young learners. She said that phonics can be regarded as tools for the students to improve their skills. I agree that teaching phonics to students when they are young is a good idea because I think that knowing the words on paper alone is simply not enough. They also need to learn how these words are pronounced, how they sound, and how important it is to have a proper pronunciation. I think that this presentation is a good eye-opener for anyone who thinks that grammar and words alone is enough for young learners, which is sadly the case for most schools in Turkey. In an exam-driven system, many people put all the focus on teaching grammar and words on the paper but they do not give much importance to how they actually sound in real life, or how to pronounce them. Later, the presenter moved towards the presentation of a site named LearnEnglish Kids. She demonstrated many activities that are available on this site, ranging from the pronunciations of many words to stories and even narrations. I was really impressed by both the look and the potential of the site. In my opinion, it was the main key event of the conference, as I have had a chance to see an ingenious way to implement phonics into the education system. By making use of a colorful, enjoyable site like this, I think we can also familiarize our students in our schools with phonics and how things they learn on paper is pronounced in real life. The fact that young learners love having an interaction with something they haven’t experienced before also adds to the success of this site in my opinion. The only problem I can think of when implementing a system like this into our own education system would be the availability of the site. Some schools may not have the necessary technology and properties to fully support the system in all classrooms, but I think that it is still feasible to achieve in our country. In conclusion, I think that it was a very informative and enjoyable conference. To be honest I was thinking how boring phonics may sound to the students, especially considering the fact that they are young learners. However, after seeing the presentation and the website, I can say that it is possible to implement teaching phonics into the education system as long as one manages to bring a new, innovative way to make it into reality. And the way they have done it is very effective, in my opinion. ** References ** Link to the Conference: http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-21/speak-and-spell-online-phonics-yls

I have watched the conference as well and I must say I agree with you completely. At first, I wasn’t sure how a person can successfully implement teaching phonics to young learners but as I watched the conference, I learned that it is possible to do it if we can come up with an interesting idea for the students. I also agree that making sure our students learn phonics at early ages will most likely give them a better chance to have more native-like English pronunciation skills. I think that you have kept an eye for important aspects of the conference and managed to write them down into a well-designed reflection paper. It was really easy to read and comprehend. Lastly, I believe that this topic is really important for all of us who want to be a teacher in future. In the end, our aim should always be teaching our students the best way we can, and for that, we must continue to find and improve new, better ways to teach them.
 * comment by Özgür Can Kaya**