article+reflection+by+Zafer+Gedikli

**MOON and ** **IAKOVOS TSIPLAKIDES AND ARETI KERAMIDA TSIPLAKIDES **  Article name which I have chosen is Promoting Positive Attitudes in ESL/EFL Classes. It is written by Iakovos Tsiplakides and Areti Keramida Tsiplakides in January,2010. In this essay I will compare with this article Promoting Positive Attitudes in ESL/EFL Classes  and Moon, 2000, Chapter 2, Children’s First and Second Language Development. In the article writers generally explain the factors that students influenced during learning process.  According to Moon chapter, the most important factor that affects students development in learning English is teaching method. Moon states that teaching method and teachers’ attitude is determiner in learning English. So, in the article, Promoting Positive Attitudes in ESL/EFL Classes, writers’ aim is to provide English teachers with a set of strategies and practical suggestions in order to help their students develop a positive attitude toward learning English as a foreign language.  Firstly, writersIakovos Tsiplakides and Areti Keramida Tsiplakides emphasize that teacher-student relationship is very important in establishing positive attitudes toward English. According to them, students see their teacher as a model in their lives. So, teacher’s behavior and attitudes in the class have great effect on students. Another important point is that teacher should remove student’s lack of interest in learning English. Since main reason of failure in English is lack of self esteem and lack of motivation, teacher should provide courage and motivation in order to help students be success in learning English. In addition, Moon also shares the same opinions with Iakovos Tsiplakides and Areti KeramidaTsiplakides. Moon says that positive attitudes of teachers are closely linked to succesful learning. So, according to Moon, teachers need to keep in touch with how students feel so that teacher can help to counteract negative attitudes and build on positive ones.  Secondly, according to Promoting Positive Attitudes in ESL/EFL Classes article, establishing a positive psychological clasroom atmosphere has great impact on student’s attitude toward English. According to this article, It is important to establish a kind of "classroom community", in which students feel free to communicate using the foreign language. Also another important thing is that you should create a classroom atmosphere in which language errors are considered a natural part of the process of learning a foreign language. For example, in speaking activities teacher should avoid excessive correction when students make mistakes. This can discourage students from speaking and experimenting with new language. When we look at the Moon’s ideas about this topic, it is understood that some students are more enthusiastic in learning English and some are less interested. The reason behind this is that some students are afraid of making mistakes and embarrassed from their friends. They do not want to seem foolish in their friends’ eyes. So, according to Moon, teacher should create a positive psycholgical classroom environment and approach students positively when they make mistakes. If teacher achieves this, he removes obstacles that students confront in learning English.  The third factor that is emphasized in the article Promoting Positive Attitudes in ESL/EFL Classes is creating an attractive physical classroom environment. According to this, teacher should not overlook significance of physical clasroom environment in motivation and attitudes of students in learning English. For example, teachers even contribute students motivation by only paying attention to seating arrangement. Arranging students’ seats group of four or three contributes and increase students’ cooperation. Another example is that using posters, maps and newspapers in the class can increase students’ motivation and helps them make the subject concrete in their minds. Moon also mentions about importance of physical environment of class. It is stated in his article that establishing positive learning atmosphere of the physical environment effects student’s enthusiasm and motivation positively. For example, Moon says that some children learn thanks to game and music. So, in order to reach these children, physical environment of classroom should be arranged in a suitable way to open some games. Lastly, supplementing the teaching material with authentic texts and tasks is another important factor that affects student’s success in English. Because <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">authentic material is meaningful to students, challenges their cognitive abilities, engages them personally, it increases student’s interest and intrinsic motivation. So, this effects students’ learning in English positively. In order to be helpfull for student, authentic material should <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">be related to the students' interests, knowledge and everyday experiences. In addition, Moon also has the same idea with them because he believes that using authentic material will provide student to make the subject concrete in their mind. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> As a result, both article and Moon have the same or similar opinion about how students will be successful in learning English. They both say that teacher is the crucial factor in the class for learning because teacher organizes everything. So, when we compare these two, it is understood that there are not contrary ideas betweeen them. Both this article and Moon state that <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">teacher-student relationship, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">establishing a positive psychological clasroom atmosphere, creating an attractive physical classroom environment and supplementing the teaching material with authentic texts and tasks are the another crucial factors in order to achieve student’s learning English. These factors should be provided during the learning period to have better learning.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Article reflection by Zafer Gedikli **