Reflection+on+the+article+(Tuğçe+Nur+Bozkurt)

** “WHEN COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES DON'T WORK” by Ning Liu ** **A) My own evaluation of the author’s perspective ** In this article, Ning Liu tries to look at the ways which cause CA not to work in some contexts and she also proposes some solutions for this situation. I think her approach to the problem is really effective; she states the problems by one by clearly with the reasons behind these problems usually providing information about some research about the subject. After all the problems she mentions about the solutions which she made a collection from many scholars and teachers and on her own. I really liked her perspective; it was a clear, logical and coherent one. It is an informative article which has a certain goal and succeeds it.
 * REFLECTION ON THE ARTICLE: **

The first problem she stated as a reason for the unsuccessful implementation of CA in EFL contexts is about the textbooks. She mentions about the English textbooks’ being imported directly into EFL countries makes EFL teachers and students suffer in order to meet the standards set by the publishers for the target culture background. I think the idea which says ‘when the textbooks don’t bridge the gap between the students’ own culture and the target culture successfully, CA approach cannot be implemented successfully too’, is valid for the Turkish EFL context.
 * B)The validity and range of the ideas in this article in relation to the Turkish EFL context together with the points I agree and disagree **

As a second reason she puts forward that EFL teachers’ and students’ familiarity with CA have also important roles in the implementation of CA. She states that in EFL context students learn English as a compulsory subject for several years before they enter university and these cause students to develop inappropriate English learning strategies, I think this situation is valid for the EFL context in Turkey also. We know that students in Turkey are tend to complain that the teacher is not teaching them anything it is due to the insufficient meeting sociocultural expectations and not being used to this new style before. As for teachers’ familiarity with CA, if they do not understand the rationale, the basis and the right methodology for the CA teachers continue to follow their traditional ways. I think this statement is also valid for Turkey EFL context, we know from or high school experiences that there are still lots of teachers who are stuck to traditional ways.

The third problem Ning Liu states is about EFL students’ acceptance of CA. She says that there are various reasons behind this situation these can be cultural differences between eastern and western classrooms. She mentions about students’ being less motivated to ask questions or solve problems by themselves in eastern classrooms. I thought that we have the same problem in our country because of the accepted roles of teacher and students years ago. But I think this situation is changing a bit in nowadays with the help of some changes in the curriculum. Many of the schools started to give importance to student-centered education and it can be the solution of this problem.

Another problem mentioned in this article is related to the EFL students’ English-speaking environment. These students have very little chance to use what they have learned in the classroom in the outside world. I think this problem is one of the major problems of Turkish EFL context. She mentions about the difference between the social purposes of ESL and EFL by indicating that social purpose of EFL is to help students adapt the English for their needs which will occur for their jobs and ESL aims to help students learn other subjects in English. Due to this difference between the purposes there is confusion about whether to focus on form or meaning. I think this confusion can be seen in the EFL teachers and students in Turkey.

Ning Liu mentions about the some possible solutions to solve these problems. The first solution is regarded to the curriculum and textbook she suggests four key principles which can be used in designing the curriculum and textbook. Firstly, she mentions about contextualization which means giving students chance to use the target language and including the target culture. Secondly, Students are needed to be provided with structured exercises involving the transfer of real information which means communicativity. Thirdly, students should be provided with tasks related to real world. And as the last one focus on meaning should accompany with the focus on form. I think these four suggestions also can be the keys to solve the curriculum and textbook problem in Turkey EFL context.

Another solution suggested is that adding foundation courses into the curriculum. This states that students should be given foundation courses which focus on improving students’’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills rather than grammar in their freshman years. By this way the gap between pre-university and the university can be closed. I think what they tried to do in the DBE building in METU should be similar to this rather than trying to teach English the students who do not know any. Ning Liu mentions about creating student-centered learning environment when they do not accept CA because of cultural gap.

She states that in the learner-controlled environment, learners have a chance to decide their own learning pace, their own needs and they can be more motivated to learn. She also mentions about the online-forum discussions’ encouraging students to have higher-level of discussions, analysis, synthesis and evaluation and she says that they can improve their grades by this way. I agree with the students-centered environment idea but I am not sure that online-forum discussions will help students’ with their grades. However, as the research mentioned in the article showed that I think that this way is effective for eliminating the effects of time limitations and there are some factors which prompt students to communicate fluently when they are allowed to share their opinions with the people from another culture. Tuğçe Nur Bozkurt 1667526 FLE324/2