Beyza's MA Reflections

tips & techniques to promote an awareness of different cultures

2009-12-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

After reading some articles in the book Culture Bound edited by Joyce Merill Valdes, I can definitely say that my understanding of culture, cultural and cross cultural awareness is broader. Although I still find some of the articles too theoretical, I think it includes useful articles providing us, efl/esl instructors with some tips on how to deal with cultural barriers in other words, culture bumps.

One of these articles is called "Culture bump and beyond" by Carol M. Archer. A definition of culture bump is provided after focussing on some common situations which can be encountered in an ESL and also in some EFL environments such as coming to class late and submitting a paper late, etc. Archer then defines culture bump as a situation which occurs when an individual from one culture finds herself/himself in a different,uncomfortable and strange situation when interacting with persons of other culture. She further adds that when an individual has excpectations of one behavior and gets an unexpected behavior.

The definition of culture reminded me of the definition of culture shock. I couldn't differentiate them. After progressing through another paragraph I came accross a part where she states how culture bump and culture shock are different:

"Unlike culture shock, which extends over an extended period of time,culture bumps are instantaneous,usually over within minutes or even seconds though the effect may be long lasting"

From this definition, I could figure out the difference between culture shock and culture bump.

I found this part of the article interesting as well:

"...culture bumps provide a gold mine for the international educator. They lead teacher and student alike to an awareness of self as a cultural being and provide an oppotunity for skill development in extrapolating one cultural influence oneveryday life,expressing feelings effectively in a cross cultural situation, and observing behavior.The entire process is language in action,leading to general improvement in communication in the target language."

Later in the article some steps to analyze culture bump from teacher's point of view are presented. These steps are:

1-Pinpointing some time when you have felt "different" or noticed something different when you were with someone from another culture
2-Defining the situation
3-Listing the behavior of other person
4-Listing your own behavior
5-Listing your feelings in the situation
6-Listing the behaviors you expect from people in your own culture in that same situation
7-Reflect on the underlying values in your culture that prompts that behavior expectation.

In the end of the articles, some factors to be taken into account are listed. I will share them with you in my next post.

Have you ever had any students experiencing culture bumps? If so, how did the student behave?

Best.

Culture in EFL/ESL

2009-11-16T02:03:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I've read many articles on culture, teaching culture and promoting cultural awareness, joined the class discussions on culture for more than a month. When I first started reading about this broad topic, I was really puzzled as there are many factors involved whenever culture is considered. It is still not clear in my mind but I can definitely say that at least I could frame the concept in my mind. That's not a great start but it's a start anyway.

We have read some articles on this broad topic and I think these articles at least provided us with different perspectives on culture and teaching culture. Some of the most significant aspects I realized in this process are:

1-It is very difficult to make a clear definition of culture.

2-There are different ideas about whether or not to teach culture. While some state that language can be seperated from culture, others claim that language can not be isolated from culture and therefore it is necessary to teach culture.

3-Teaching culture requires a great deal of teacher awareness.With this awareness EFL teachers can be selective about the class materials and create and adapt their own materials.

4-It is extremely necessary to create an intercultural awareness in the twenty first century as the world is getting more and more global thanks to the technological developments.

These are my highlights of the previous weeks. However, I still need innovative, extraordinary ideas to integrate culture to EFL/ESL settings.

What about you, my dear readers? How do you present and integrate culture to your own classroom settings?

Best,

a new semester in a different university

2009-10-10T14:55:00.001-07:00

Time flies!

Classes have already started. I can't believe how time passed so fast. 3 months ago I was wondering whether it would be possible for me to have the chance to be a graduate student of Middle East Technical University(METU)and now I am a student of this lovely institution for almost three weeks.

This semester, I am only able to take one class called "Cultural Aspects of Language Teaching" because of my workload and the distance between Istanbul and Ankara. Having to travel really doesn't bother me as I am really happy with the quality of the lectures.

My adivisor Assistant Prof. Dr. Betil Eröz has been helpful. As I was a graduate student last year in a different institution, I took some courses which are also included in the Master's program of METU. Therefore, I asked her whether I could be exempted from some of these courses or not. She provided me with the names of the professors to consult immediately. When I contacted and sent my assignments to them they, sent me notifications to inform me that I was exempted from two courses. :)This means I have to take only five courses and write a thesis in order to graduate.

I will try to write weekly reflections about the course I am taking if I have the chance to multitask.

Changes

2009-08-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I am so glad to announce that there have been some changes in my MA studies. From now on I am going to do my MA in Middle East Technical University in TEFL. I will share my reflections as soon as the classes start.

B.

New Term- New Responsibilities and Insights

2009-03-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Time has passed so quickly ! I remember when I first started the MA program and now I am nearly in the middle of the second term!

I am taking two classes this term because of my overloaded programme at work. I feel better as I have time to focus on other things rather than the programme. The classes I am taking this week are:
TEFL Theory Into Practice ( in which I will be observed, observe the others and reflect upon my practices , do some classroom research and keep them in a portfolio, probably online.)
Language Testing ( based on CFR principles)

I will be observed by the course tutor next week. I have already made my plan but I need to go over it a little bit.

I hope to be more productive in this semester

Wish me luck

My feelings after finishing my article on my wiki use and motivation

2009-02-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

My dear readers,

I have just finished my article on my particular wiki use and learner motivation. As you can guess, I am extremely relieved after going over all processes of research starting from finding a topic and ending with discussing the result and writing implications for further research.

I am extremely grateful to these people below as they really helped me in the process of my research in many different ways.

1-My family (for their endless support)
2-Assistant Professor Kamile Hamiloglu (for her assistance throughout the research and giving me the opportunity to write my first article to be published)
3-Vance Stevens ( for helping me to narrow my research problem down)
4-Cristina Costa (for helping me to reconsider my research questions)
5--Sedat Akayoğlu (for providing me with feedback and ideas on my research)
6--Vanessa Vaile (for giving me alternative ideas on how to use wiki and taking part in the wiki activities of the class I conducted my study on)
7- My classmates in my MA classes (for their support and assistance)
8- My students (for accepting to take part in this research)

Thanks to this study I am now more aware of the fact that conducting a research is a really tough process and I now respect people who conducted such studies more .

I hope to replicate it and conduct another one soon again on CMC and language learning.

B.

my article-difficulties

2009-01-20T10:34:00.001-08:00

Hi again,
I have been struggling to make a blog post for so long and finally I could find time to write one! It is almost the end of the first semester and I only had a final. The other two classes I take require me to prepare assignments taking a lot of time but helpful in terms of learning how to conduct a research and they are also urging me to read more.
Having a lot of responsibilities like teaching 2o hours, co-moderating an online workshop and teaching voluntarily, I usually find myself rushing from one task to another quite fast.I think I am improving my multitasking ability in that way! :))

I got my first feedback on the introduction, literature review of my article. Most of it was about my use of APA style in the paper. As my topic is motivation and my pbwiki use I really stuggled to summarize all the resources and studies I found and relate them to instructional design. I finished the second draft yesterday and submitted it. I hope I did it right this time. As it is my first article, I think Ilearn from my own mistakes .

I also received feedback on themethod part of my study. I need to make the tables more detailed .I also need to analyze them more in detail. (question by question). As thereare 13 questions in the survey I conducted, I think it will take longer than expected for me to report and analyse the data.

There are still some questions in my mind about how to use content analysis in order to discuss the results of the study. The lecturer advised me to use pattern coding and I guess it requires me to look at some particular phrases and words the interviewees used using pattern coding. I will learn by doing for sure! Sleepless night are waiting for me again.I am really in need of ideas in order to anlayze and interpret the interviews.

Hoping to learn more through interaction.

Beyza

baby article of a baby researcher

2008-12-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hi again,
As I already written in my previous post, I need to conduct a study for one of my classes (TEFL and the learner) in the MA program. As I am a webhead, a technology enthusiast, I decided to choose a topic about CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) and relate it with a factor affecting foreign language learning, which is motivation and when I narrowed it down to a reseachable topic, I came up with an idea suitable to my own teaching context. I am using a wiki with my elementary learners for a month and I want to investigate its effects on their motivation. I intend to investigate this problem using an adapted questionnaire from Austin and Skinner and interviewing with some of my students. As the questionnaire is an adapted one, I guess will not have any problems. However, I am not sure what kind of questions to ask in the interview.Can you give this baby researcher a hand? What other instruments can I use to conduct this study?

Assignments

2008-12-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hi again after a long time!
I was busy again for the last three weeks so I had to ignore my blogs :( Actually I am still very busy reading, planning,designing and trying to be creative. Luckily,I have a long break which will last for 10 days so I think if I make an action plan beforehand, I will be able to manage the time effectively.Here are the assignments I need to complete in this long holiday:
1- writing the literature review of my article for TEFL and the learner class.(and read a lot in order to do that!)
2- Deciding on a topic for my Research Methods class and doing the take home quiz.
3- Preparing a powerpoint presentation about my research topic .
4- Writing an essay for the Approaches and Methods class.
5- Doing the take home homework of the same class.

I also need to find a good thesis to evaulate, write an essay on audiolingual method and add more activities to my class wiki but the first five are the most urgent ones to be carried out.
I hope I will be able to complete all of them on time. Wish me luck!
B.

presentations

2008-10-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hi again after a looong time!

I wanted to blog a lot about my MA reflections about last week but I couldn't as the acces to blogger was restricted . II did my first presentation about Audio Lingual Method with my friend Rahşan. It was fantastic! She taught Italian to the participants using ALM and this made ALM clearer in their mind and I led a discussion after her using our powerpoint presentation.

I was assigned another presentation by our Assistant Prof. instructor Kamile Hamiloğlu on Thursday .I need to describe what systematic forgetting theory is and how it is related to English Language Teaching.Moreover I am expected to present an article related to the theme.Preparing the first part was easy (I have just finished doing it) but I don't know the article I found is directly relevant to the topic.Maybe I will change it tomorrow.
I will update this post soon!

I love blogging with blogger. God bless blogger:))

Research Methods-research questions?

2008-10-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hi again,
It's getting harder and harder to follow the classes ,read the required books and articles ,write reflections and working at the same time.I think I should also get a multitasking ceritificate when I complete this MA program:)

Today I noticed I have only blogged about research methods so far. Maybe it is because the class is on Friday evenings and I can find time to blog only on Friday evenings.I will also blog about the other classes as well (when I find enough time:)

As I noted in my previous post, I was really well after the lesson I attended last week. However, after attending "Research Methods " class today I feel confused actually. As we had specified the research problems yesterday down we focussed on research questions.I was able to develop some questions but I don't think they will be enough for the research.It may be a good idea to change the problem or brainstorm all possible questions for each problem I indicated in the previous post.

I will post the topics and possible questions here in this blog to share them with my followers to get some feedback.I think it will be very dynamic process to write a research paper in this lesson.
I hope I can come up with good questions :)

Research Methods -I love this class!

2008-10-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

I really think this class will be helpful to me in many ways.There aren't too many students in the class so it is very reflective and practical.I think I learned a great deal from the last lesson.We focussed on what our theses titles will be and got feedback both from Professor Ozcan Demirel and classmates . Everyone knowing me can anticipate the area I want to focus on in my thesis.I really want CALL or WEB 2.0 to be the focus in my thesis.However,I just couldn't make the title clear in my mind and came up with these topics:
1)Developing Productive Skills in EFL Through e-tools
2)Changing Roles of English Learners in the twentyfirst Century
3)Teacher Development Through e-tools

I really need your feedback about the topics. Which one do you think is more logical to do some research. I will make the topic clear in my mind thanks to your feedback.

Beyza

Welcome to my baby blog:)

2008-10-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my reflective MA blog,

I'm very happy to have added another blog to blogosphere! The reason why I will keep this blog is to reflect upon the things I learn in the classes I am taking and brainstorm some ideas for further studies.I hope you find it useful,reflective and inspirational.
Beyza