Dear FLE 304 members,
I have found the following video from the teachertube related to an alternative approach to reading. I wonder what you think about the range of applicability and the effectiveness of it to the EFL teaching/learning contexts in Turkey. Could you comment on this issue by referring to the language proficiency level of the potential target audience and to the purpose of the reading activities intended to be covered (e.g., intensive versus extensive reading)?
The link to the video is as follows:
http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=44145&title=Literature_Circles
(You can also watch the related video in another post in our blog with the same title as this post)
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I think literature circles as an alternative approach to reading is a really applicable tecnique in teaching reading because it is beneficial due to a lot of aspects. To start with, the roles that each students have during the literature circles improve their different kinds of skills and make the reading activity more and more enjoyable. These roles include:
ReplyDelete- bridge builder who makes connections between the history and personal events. This role helps students to make what they have read more concrete.
- word watcher who identifies critical and unfamiliar vocabulary from the readings of the day. This helps students understand the context easily.
- imaginative illustrator: visualizes the scenes from daily readings then share with the group members. This helps students to get the meaning of the text easily, as well.
- circle supervisor who guides the group during the literature circle discussions. This helps students to discuss the topics related to the daily readings in an order.
- story summarizer who summarizes the day’s reading. This role helps the students to have a general idea about the readings without focusing on the details.
- ouestion creator who creates and answers questions related to the day’s reading. This helps students to evaluate the level of their comprehension skills.
With the help of these roles each student has an opportunity to participate in the activities done during the literature circle and reads their texts with a purpose and this makes the reading activity more beneficial.. This tecnique is applicable for both intensive and extensive kinds of reading, as well.
I think using literature circles is beneficial and effective in reading. It is an alternative approach to solve students’ reading problems because when we say “reading”, unfortunately no enjoyable things come to students’ minds. They see it as a dull activity because most of the time they used the traditional methods in reading. They read a text silently, and then one of the students read it aloud and finally a few questions were asked and answered. They think that is it. However, this “literature circles” technique shows us that this is not the case; reading can also be varied in terms of its activities and ways of application. First of all, this technique is student-centered, not the teacher-centered one. This means that students are always active in the classroom, they are the doers and teacher is a facilitator. One of the purposes of literature circles is to deepen the understanding of the reading text and to give students practice in expressing and defending their opinions about the text. It is a kind of discussion. To do this, they construct small groups and each person has a role in the group. This is motivating for them because they know what to do. They are aware of their functions in the discussion group and prepare themselves to do their best to fulfill their task. This technique eliminates unwillingness to speak and participate in class activities because every one of the students has different responsibilities. At the end of this activity when they completed their duties successfully, they become more self-confident because they see their capabilities. As wee se, this technique is very useful in many aspects. It is an efficient tool to make reading both fun and worthy. But I have to mention limitation of its applicability in Turkey. This is a bit hard to be applied in our country because our classes are very crowded and every student may not have the chance to take a role and be equally active in the lesson. As a cure for this problem, teachers can increase the number of students in the groups and s/he can give a role to more students; for example; two students become word wizard.
ReplyDeleteI think literature circle technique is applicable in reading classrooms. However, it should be applied to beginners or elementary level students, in my opinion. Moreover, intermediate or advanced level student may get bored during this activity.
ReplyDeleteSince each student has a role like bridge builder and word watcher in this activity, the reading activity will be completely purposeful for the students. Since each student has a role, no one will get bored during the reading courses. As a result of this, the lessons will be more enjoyable. Since the roles of the students will change in every lesson, students will have a lot of chance to improve their different kinds of skills. The students can do the activities from word meaning to comprehension question with great enthusiasm. Each student will participate in the activities during literature circle and all of these activities will be purposeful.
Literature circle technique is an entertaining and also a useful technique for learners. Forming groups and giving different responsibilities to each member of the group is a good way to motivate students. Students will study not only for themselves but also for their friends, so they will be more eager and feel more responsible. This technique will help teachers to make reading sessions enjoyable and also appealing. Lessons will be freed from the monotony. With the help of this technique, reading activities may turn out to be entertaining and productive at the same time. However, I am of the same opinion with Dilara in that literature circle should be applied to elementary level of students. Advanced level of students may get bored because they have already improved their own reading skills and habits, so they may find this technique a little bit easy.
ReplyDeleteliterature circle is both efficient and enjoyable technique I think. It is very beneficial because it enables students to develop their different skills.The technique gives students roles and each student has different role.For example while one student tries to find words that are unfamiliar to heim, other student can prepare questions about the reading passage and other one can summarize the thing he has read. Since there will be variety in excercises and during lessons , reading may be more enjoyable for students. However its application may be a bit difficult. Teacher should be careful about the roles and she should not give same roles to same students. As Dilara said the technique may not be appropriate for adults because they may get bored .I think it is more appropriate for beginners and elementary students.
ReplyDeleteın order to reading sessions more enjoyable and more effective, the literature circle is a good way to apply. by using this technique, students will enjoy while comprehending the text better. since every student has a different role in this literature circle activity, they have a chance to work colloboratively.ı think , this technique provides some important advantages.for instance, some students may not want to speak or attend the reading activities but thanks to this technique , each student have a chance to talk and thus it can courage them to attend the activites.I also agree my friends. I think literature circle may not be applied in advanced sutdents since the students may get bored easily bur as for the beginners and elementery students I think ıt will help them a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think using literature circles is a very useful style in teaching reading. It has very advantages. First of all; literature circles help improve different skills. As I mentioned before, reading lessons are always regarded boring. Using literature circles may solve this problem. With the help of literature circles lesson can become more enjoyable and variable. Student-teacher interaction is active during the literature circles. Students are active. Moreover each student tries to express and defend his/her opinion and takes role in a group. This activity helps students also improve their speaking skill. However I think in our country it can be difficult to apply it to lessons as Turkish education system is more curriculum-based and classrooms are crowded.
ReplyDeleteI think this method is good for beginners of English. that may be helpful for them to improve their reading skills. however, at higher levels such king of an activity may not generate interest among students. therefore, we have to be careful about students' level of profiency. I really liked the activity but such a class which is very quite, everybody is reading and focusing on the activity seem not very possible to me, because children at that age love making noise and they can get easily bored. we may use a method which include TPR with such little students. however, having such nice students would be great:)
ReplyDeleteLiterature circles is a different approach and an enjoyable altarnetive thing to apply in the classrooms since as teachers, we can make the reading lessons more entertaining. With assigning different roles to students, students also can improve different skills. In a classic reading lesson, student easily get bored and do not feel motivated to do the activities. However, it would be more appropirate for the beginner or intermediate students.
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