Using Blogs for Language Teaching

What is a blog?

         A   blog (short for weblog) is a frequently updated website that often resembles an online journal. It's so easy to create and update a blog - it requires only basic access to the Internet, and a minimum of technical know-how.

               

                 Why should I  use blogs in my teaching ?

The regular practice of reading and writing is very useful in learning a language, particularly in distance learning, independent study and blended teaching contexts. Blogs are a useful tool to use in your teaching, both a source of reading material and as a way to structure writing activities and peer reviewing.

For language teachers, blogs “can fulfill many of the needs identified for the effective teaching of writing.” Indeed, a blog provides “a genuine audience, is authentically communicative, process driven, peer reviewed, provides a disinhibiting context and offers a completely new form with unchartered creative potential” (Ward, 2004: 3).

                                          Where to start

           There are lots of sites where you can set up a blog for free, but perhaps the best known and one of the most reliable and simple blogging tools to use with students is Blogger (http://blogger.com). It takes only fifteen minutes from setting up an account to publishing the first post using this valuable tool.

          The teacher sets up the tutor blog or a class blog. With a Class blog, students will need to be invited to participate by e-mail. Learner blog accounts can either be set up beforehand by the teacher, or done at the same time with a whole class in a computer room. The former gives the teacher more control of student accounts, but some advantages of the latter is that learners are given more choice (of username, design of the blog, etc) and a greater sense of 'ownership' of their new virtual writing space.

There are many ways to learning English. Generally, learners study grammar or memorize vocabularies. Except these, there are some secrets. 

*** Let's watch the video and see some clues about learning English. ***

               The Nine Secrets of Learning

Secret #1: Use the 3R technique: Read. Recite. Review.

Let’s say you’re supposed to read a chapter by your next class. Use these three basic steps: 

• Read a section of the chapter. Then close the book and hide your notes.
• Recite (speak aloud) everything you can remember about what you've just read. You don’t need fancy equipment. You can recite to yourself, to a friend, to your cat or even to your coffee mug or a plant in your room. 

Review the section by reading it again to correct anything you got wrong, or to revisit important information that you overlooked when you recited.

Secret #2: Dig deep.

• You can’t read your textbook the same way you check your Facebook page, at a quick, superficial level. Many students assume that the mind is a bin or a sponge; you just pour information into it, and it stays there. Sorry. For the information to stay there, you have to process it until you get it. When you put in effort to understand something, you are signaling your brain that the “something” is worth remembering. An excellent way to do this, as you read, is to try to connect the new information to information you already know. Suppose you read about the four basic perspectives of psychological science (biological, learning, cognitive and sociocultural). Taking each one, you could think of examples you have read about or that apply to your own life: "Many of my friends take medication to manage their depression or anxiety; that would follow from the biological perspective’s approach." 

  Secret #3: Use your imagination.

  Students who visualize ideas remember them better than students who don’t. The key part of this technique is to make your images interact. Despite what you might read on all those “Train your brain!” websites, you don’t need to conjure up bizarre images; you just need to make the images interact (Wollen, Weber & Lowry, 1972). So when you read in chapter 4 that “glia cells” (from the Greek word for “glue”) are the most common cell in the brain and that they hold neurons in place, you could visualize squirting a big bottle of glue labeled “glia” under neurons. 

  Secret #4: Test yourself. 

  Suppose you've just read the material in the first section of a chapter, and it’s time for you to begin the recite phase. Start by trying to remember everything you can. Then look at the outline on the first page of the chapter and use it to jog your memory and remember even more. Check the terms in the margins, cover up their definitions and try to define them in your own words. Jot down your answers, or speak them into your computer, tablet or phone so you can play them back later. As you go along, make a note about anything you can’t remember, but don’t look up the answers yet. When you’re done, go back and see how well you knew the terms in the margins or answered the questions in the self-tests.

What to do during class

Secret #5: Keep your head up and your pen down.

• A lecture is not like a DVD. For one thing, you can’t hit the pause button. For another thing, if you’re not giving the lecture your full attention, you will miss something important and not even realize it. So when you’re in class, don’t talk to your friends, send text messages or search the Web for pictures of adorable kittens doing adorable things. 
  It’s crucial that you take good notes in class. There’s a balance to note taking: On the one hand, you want your notes to be accurate and complete; on the other hand, you don’t want them to be a transcript, because then the really important things are hard to find. Elliot Aronson (2010), who became one of the greatest social psychologists in the field, wrote this about his first term in college: “I discovered that I had never learned how to be a student. I didn’t even know the first thing about taking notes. I would sit in class, listening to the lecture, scribbling furiously. By the time midsemester exams came around, I pulled out my lecture notes and found they were virtually unintelligible.” 
  While you’re listening to your instructor, think about how what you’re hearing is connected to what you already know. Write down key words and phrases, not full sentences and paragraphs the way a court reporter would. The act of sifting through what you’re hearing and distilling it into its important components will help make that information more meaningful. 
  You may be thinking that if instructors let you record their lectures or post their slides online, you don’t have to do any note taking. But recordings and slides won’t do your thinking for you, and they don’t have to take the exams, either.

  What to do after class

  Secret #6: Process your notes.

  As soon as you can after class, do what Elliot Aronson (2010) did. Having done poorly on his midterms, thanks to his lousy note taking, he came up with a new strategy: “At the end of every class, I would find a little nook — sometimes even the nearest stairwell — read over my scribbled notes, and neatly summarize them in a page or two. At the end of the semester, when it was time to prepare for the final, my notes described the heart of the course. More than that: They revealed the scope and pattern of the professor’s thinking and the way the lectures dovetailed with the readings. I had taken the first step toward mastering the art of getting to the essence of a topic... I found I was also learning to love to learn, and, perhaps most important, I was learning to think critically and challenge unsubstantiated assertions. For the first time in my life I understood what it was to be a student.”
  That “aha!” experience can strike you, too. When you review your notes, zero in on the information from class. If your notes are dotted with doodles, arrows and asterisks, missing definitions and phrases that just don’t make sense, organize and rewrite them. Fill in the missing definitions or other information by consulting your textbook or your friends’ notes, or asking a teaching assistant or instructor. These activities are another way of testing yourself and filling the gaps in what you don’t know.

  Studying for exams 

  Secret #7: Once you learn it, don’t drop it.

  You might be tempted to skip the parts of a chapter that you feel sure you know. Don’t do it. Instead, take advantage of a powerful research finding: Students who retest themselves by recalling information they could remember earlier do twice as well on an exam as students who skipped retesting themselves on familiar material (Karpicke & Roediger, 2007). 

  Secret #8: Forget about cramming! 

  Somewhere along the line, many students come to the conclusion that studying for exams means staying up all night, drinking coffee by the gallon and rereading their textbook and notes so many times that their eyeballs bleed. Indeed, most students decide what to study next based on whatever is due next (or overdue). Few students make a study schedule ahead of time and then stick to it (Kornell & Bjork, 2007). 
  The problem with cramming is that it gives you a misplaced sense of confidence that you know the material. In fact, although you will probably remember some of it for a while, you won’t remember it for long. That’s because you have not taken the time to repeatedly organize the information in your memory, connect it to what you already know, and pave the new mental roads that will help you retrieve information later, as on the exam. That’s one of the reasons many students “blank out” when they actually take the test. 
  There is an alternative to those painful all-nighters. Rather than cramming all your attempts to test yourself into one giant awful block of time, test yourself regularly throughout the semester, say once a week (Bjork & Bjork, 2011), and be sure to include material you already know in your regular testing sessions. The secrets to doing well on a test tomorrow aren’t different from the secrets to doing well all semester.

  Secret #9: Forget about your “learning style.”

  If you’ve ever taken a test that tells you you’re a “visual” learner, does that mean you’ll have trouble taking in information in your lecture, especially compared to your classmates who have been told they are “auditory” learners? Happily, the answer is no. There is no evidence that people learn better when the method matches their preferences, and no evidence that using methods that don’t match their preferences are ineffective (Pashler et al., 2008). Visualizing material helps everybody, and so does plain old active listening. In fact, learning-style tests do not seem to do much of anything except make the companies that own them a lot of money. The nine secrets to learning work equally well for all kinds of students. This means you.
  In the psychology major, you’ll satisfy your curiosity about human nature, gain insights into political and social issues and learn techniques you can use to gain control over your emotions, improve your memory, and reduce unwanted habits. We hope you will enjoy and remember what you read. But ultimately, a 10th secret of learning is this: No matter how good they are, no course and no textbook can do your work for you. 

  References

  Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In M. A. Gernsbacher, R. W. Pew, L. M. Hough, & J. R. Pomerantz (Eds.), Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society. New York: Worth.
  Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L., III (2007). Repeated retrieval during learning is the key to long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 151–162.
  Kornell, N. & Bjork, R. A. (2007). The promise and perils of self-regulated study. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 219–224.
  McDaniel, M. A., Roediger, H. L., III; & McDermott, K. B. (2007). Generalizing test-enhanced learning from the laboratory to the classroom. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 200–206.
  McDaniel, Mark A., Howard, D. C., & Einstein, G. O. (2009). The Read-Recite-Review study strategy: Effective and portable.Psychological Science, 20, 516–522.
  McDaniel, M.A., Argarwal, P. K., Huelser, B. J., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger, H. L., III (2011). Test-enhanced learning in a middle school science classroom: The effects of quiz frequency and placement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103, 199–414.
  Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105–119.
  Roediger, H.L., III, Putnam, A. L., & Smith, M. A. (2011). Ten benefits of testing and their applications to educational practice. In J. Mestre & B. Ross (Eds.), Psychology of learning and motivation: Cognition in education. Oxford: Elsevier.
  Wollen, K. A., Weber, A., & Lowry, D. H. (1972). Bizarreness versus interaction of mental images as determinants of learning.Cognitive Psychology, 3, 518–523
  .

Argumentative Essay 2-First Draft

                   Why Are Americans Rapidly Becoming More Obese?

                 Obesity is the accumulation of excess fat in the body. People think that obesity is due to excessive consumption. It is believed that obesity is a disease. Nowadays, obesity is so common in America. One of every three people in America is obese. Everyone think that reason is eating much food. I think there is no only reason. There are many reasons for obesity in America.

                  First, life is much more sedentary in America. Physical inactivity is one of the risk factors causing death in the world. In America, the technology is advanced level so people can do a lot of work from their seats. Also, spending more time with television and computer causes disease such as obesity or shorten lifespan. People, who spend free time with computer and television, do not take the time to exercise are obese.

               Second, obesity is related poverty. In America, fresh and quality foods are very expensive. So, people buy stale and poor quality foods. People put on weight quickly by eating these carbohydrate foods. Most of the people think that rich people have a lot of money so they eat too and they get fat but the exact opposite is true. Rich people are not overweight because they have quality foods and they eat orderly.

              Final, people do not know negative effects of fast-food. Fast-food do not balanced in terms of certain nutrients so it may cause some health problems. At the beginning of health problems, obesity comes first. In America, some people wanted to warn people about fast-food’s negative effects.  After there were several cases, Cheeseburger Bill which is a draft law was created. According to this draft law, people did not complain from food manufacturers. This draft law was not accepted but people’s right against fast-food companies was blocked in front of justice.

              To sum up, obesity is common disease in America and there are a lot of reasons for obesity. First, Physical inactivity causes obesity. Second, unhealthy eating causes obesity. Final, fast food diet causes obesity. If the rate of obese people increases, the rate of death will increase. We should inform people about obesity disease.

                    

 

Argumentative Essay 1

                                       MORAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS       

        Children begin to moral education by applying the rules. Basic moral education is given by the parents.  First, a family teaches the rules of society. Mothers and fathers contribute to the moral education of children with attitudes. A family gives moral education to their children until school age. Even after children start to go school, more family wants their children’s to continue moral education at schools. While there are lot families who support this idea, there are also lot families who do not support moral education at schools when their children become a youth. I think schools should provide moral education for youth. There are many reasons for it.

         A criticism of moral education in school is that moral education in schools teaches young people to fulfill responsibilities. When a student does not do homework, her/his teacher punishes her/him. The teacher says that he/she should do homework. The teacher mentions about this small responsibility teach them to take great responsibility, moreover, it teaches using time equally. Thanks to moral education in schools, youth spends time not only activity but also responsibility.

         Some people say that moral education teaches to act respectful to all people. In family, youth learns that they should behave respectfully to elder people. In school, they learn that they should behave respectfully to all people. Teachers teach that young people should also behave respectfully to little people. Young people can understand that respect does not connect to age. School teaches this moral value to youth.

         A criticism of moral education in school is that moral education affects forming character. Schools show that how a person should be. Schools direct youth to become beneficial and upright. A teacher mentions about which character type is the best for humaneness. Generally, moral education is not enough to being upright. I think character is affected by family.

          In conclusion, schools should provide moral education for youth. There are many reasons for it. First reason is that moral education in school is that moral education teaches young people to fulfill responsibilities. Second is that moral education teaches to act respectful to all people. Third is that moral education in school is that moral education affects forming character.

Cause-Effect 2- first draft

                                               MUSIC IS FOOD FOR THE SOUL

            Music is a part of people’s culture and traditions. Every society has different kinds of music. Actually, every person listen different kinds of music. Your mood affects your music selection. For every mood, people listen to music. Generally, people think that music is food for the soul because there are the therapeutic effects of listening to music. Listening to music helps reducing stress, strengthening memory, working of heart, preventing of ageing human brain.

         One effect of music is that music can reduce stress. As a result of many researching, everyday listening music reduce stress. People who listen to music have more positive feelings. Music does not make the same effect on all people. The same music may show different effects depending on mood at that time. When you listen to your favorite music, you feel relax and positive. You should listen to music every time such as going to work or going to school.

         Another effect of music is that music can strengthen memory. Studying music lesson develop children’s brain more positive. Music lesson helps remember words in a list. People who took music lessons from an early age, has been observed to be more successful in remembering words. Listening to music should begin from infancy to benefit the positive effects of music. In California, after listening to a Mozart sonata, mice showed very high performance in tests of learning and memory.

        Another effect of music is that music affects working of heart. People meet with the music in the womb because even a man's heart depends on a regular rhythm. There is a relationship between music and heart health. Researchers have found that listening to upbeat music provides more blood flow to blood vessels. When you listen to anxiety and fear music, this rate is low. Also, music reduces anxiety. So, people feel less pain. On the other hand, music can reduce stress so heart is being affected positively.

         Another effect of music is that music prevents ageing of brain. Despite of the advancing age, music education may make a keen intelligence. Listening to classical music and activating different parts of the brain is very important. With those caveats, contacting with each other of brain cells are getting better quality and intelligence is increasing.

           In conclusion, effects of listening to music are that music helps reducing stress, strengthening memory, working of heart, preventing of ageing human brain. We can’t say that listening to music has always negative effects. There are a lot of people who damage themselves after listening to some music. For example, while people were listening to Müslüm Gürses, they were injured their body.

 

Cause Effect Essay 1- Second Draft

                                               The List of Factors Affecting Your Mode

                  People’s mood may change every moment. People may become a different personality in five minutes. Last summer, we all family went to picnic. Everyone was so happy because of weather. After one or two days, it was rain and again we all family came together. There was no problem but everyone seemed uncomfortable. Actually, there are many factors that influence your mood. Sometimes, this factor is people’s behaviors, your cloths’ color, weather conditions or your health’s condition.

              Firstly, people’s behaviors affect your mood positively or negatively. If you have a pessimistic friend, you have not got chance for being happy. Your friend’s ideas affect you negatively. You may think that there is no good thing in the world. Pessimistic people take away you from your hopes. While you are choosing a friend, you should think her or his attitude about life. When you have got an optimistic friend around you, you may successful for a lot of things.

            Secondly, colors of your cloths affect your mood positively or negatively. There is also the sense of colors and almost all the meanings of the colors are close to each other in the world. There are effects of color on human psychology. For example; warm colors such as red can bring you joy. One of the cool colors is blue which can give you calmness. Black color concentration and self-confidence increases. Purple color may adversely affect the subconscious.

               Thirdly, weather conditions affect your mood positively or negatively. Cloudy weather has a negative impact on human psychology. In this situation, people become restless and nervous. Because of the level of serotonin hormone, people behave as depressive. Therefore, especially in northern countries called winter depression disease is seen. You should sport and stay away from alcohol and cigarettes. Sunny weather affects positive people. On the basis of this event, sunlight affects the level of certain chemicals of human emotion.

           Finally, your health’s condition affects your mood positively or negatively. When you are ill, you can’t feel happy or energetic. The level of your mood is on the ground. You do not want to speak with people or you do not want to somewhere. Generally, you are in the bed. In contrast this mood, when you have got any problems, you feel energetic. Generally, you are sociable because you have love of life. The level of your mood may be over the clouds.

         To sum up, there are a lot of factors that influence your mood. These are people’s behaviors, your cloths’ color, weather conditions or your health’s condition. Whenever you feel bad mood, you should think these causes and you may find your problem’s cause. Also, you may find other factors that influence your mood.

 

Cause and Effect Essay 1-First Draft

    

                                                The List of Factors Affecting Your Mode

                  People’s mood may change every moment. People may be a different person in five minutes. Last summer, we all family went to picnic. Everyone was so happy because of weather. After one or two days, it was rain and again we all family came together. There was no problem but everyone seemed uncomfortable. Actually, there are many factors that influence your mood. Sometimes, this factor is people’s behaviors, your cloths’ color, weather conditions or your health’s condition.

              Firstly, people’s behaviors affect your mood positively or negatively. If you have pessimistic a friend, you have not got chance for being happy. Your friend’s ideas affect you negatively. You may think that there is no good thing in the world. Pessimistic people take away you from your hopes. While you are choosing a friend, you should think her or his attitude about life. When you have got optimistic friend around you, you may success for a lot of things.

            Secondly, your cloths’ colors affect your mood positively or negatively. There is also the sense of colors and almost all the meanings of the colors are close to each other in the world. There are effects of color on human psychology. For example; warm colors such as red can bring you joy. One of the cool colors is blue which can give you calmness. Black color concentration and self-confidence increases. Purple color may adversely affect the subconscious.

               Thirdly, weather conditions affect your mood positively or negatively. Cloudy weather has a negative impact on human psychology. In this situation, people become restless and nervous. Because of the level of serotot hormone, people behave as depressive. Therefore, especially in northern countries called winter depression disease is seen. You should sport and stay away from alcohol and cigarettes. Sunny weather affects positive people. On the basis of this event, sunlight affects the level of certain chemicals of human emotion.

           Finally, your health’s condition affects your mood positively or negatively. When you are ill, you can’t feel happy or energetic. The level of your mood is on the ground. You do not want to speak with people or you do not want to somewhere. Generally, you are in the bed. In contrast this mood, when you have got any problems, you feel energetic. Generally, you are sociable because you have love of life. The level of your mood may be over the clouds.

         To sum up, there are a lot of factors that influence your mood. These are people’s behaviors, your cloths’ color, weather conditions or your health’s condition. Whenever you feel bad mood, you should think these causes and you may find your problem’s cause. Also, you may find other factors that influence your mood.

 

division essay-Second draft

                                         The Altered Properties of Istanbul

             Every empire has added something new to a city and a lot of things have been changed. In Istanbul, which was the capital of many governments, these changes can be clearly seen. The language, art, and education of İstanbul have been changed by many governments.

          Language is the altered property of Istanbul. Every empire uses their language because spoken language shows which empire is dominant. During the Byzantine Empire, Greek was the official language in Istanbul. After the conquest of Istanbul, the official language has changed. Ottoman Empire used their language which was Turkish. Within the borders of the Empire, there were communities belonging to different language groups. The Ottoman Turkish used in the palace, although the areas under the domination used other languages. Also, when the republic of Turkey was established, the government announced the official language Turkish.

       Another altered property of Istanbul is art. Generally, the Byzantine Empire was built churches. They showed their own art with the church. One of the most distinctive features of Byzantine architecture, the structure is in the form of giant domes. On the other hand, murals, mosaics, miniatures and decorative arts such as labor Byzantine ivory were very good. Byzantine mosaic art and the most beautiful examples of the wall ornamentation appear in Hagias Sophia, Kariye Camii, Tekfur Palace and the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna. After this empire, Ottoman Empire showed their art through the mosques. Great mosques were built many part of Istanbul. For example; Selimiye Mosque shows Ottoman Empire’s art.

        Another altered property of Istanbul is education. During the Byzantine Empire, education was given in the monasteries. Mostly boys were sent to school. Besides the religion courses, ancient Greek philosophy, language and literature, also mathematics courses were given. A lot of Byzantine donated big money or property to the monasteries. The monastery library was limited to mostly ritual books. Nevertheless, there was some great wide range of books in libraries. In Ottoman Empire, madrasas were established in order to educate people who are knowledgeable. The religious sciences were also offered positive sciences in madrasahs. Such as library buildings were located near madrasas.

        To sum up, each government adds something to the culture. The altered things aren’t only language, art and education. These changes can be observed in all areas of life. Every time, there are not positive effects. There can be negative effects.