Parents Unrealistic Expectation from their Children
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Most of the parents whose children learn English language expect miracles It is commonly asked by parents to English language teachers that when their children begin to speak English fluently. As English teachers, we should do something!!! We should explain parents the reasons, the reality and the logical process of learning/acquaring a foreing language.


I would like to call parents who wonder about this question. Children at early age enter to school from families in which English is not the language of home. They do not have or have limited skills in the English language. Parents need to know something about how their children learn a second language. Intuitive assumptions are often mistaken, and children can be harmed if parents have unrealistic expectations and an inaccurate understanding of the process of second language learning and its relationship to acquiring other academic skills and knowledge. I would like to explain this issue in term of three main subjects: language, the learner, the learning process.
Language:


It is asserted that children can learn second languages faster and easily than adults because they are more open, relaxed, motivated, able to use their motor patterns (mouth muscles). However, they forget easily unless they do not repaet it.

English can be more or less difficult to learn for some children, depending on how different from or similar to the first language since there is a linguistic distance between first and second languages.

The more academically sophisticated the student's native language knowledge and abilities, the easier it will be for that student to learn a second language.

Students' prior knowledge of the second language is of course a significant factor in their current learning. For example, a student with perfect English grammatical systems may have little understanding of informal conversational English skills.


Consideration of dialects and registers of a language and of the relationships between two languages includes the relative prestige of different languages and dialects and of the cultures and ethnic groups associated with them. Students whose first language has a low status vs the second may lose their first language, perhaps feeling they have to give up their own linguistic and cultural background to join the more prestigious society associated with the target language.
The Learner
Students need to have positive and realistic role models who demonstrate the value of being proficient in more than one language. It is also helpful for students to read literature about the personal experiences of people from diverse language and dialect backgrounds. Through discussions of the challenges experienced by others, students can develop a better understanding of their own challenges.


Support from home is very important for successful second language learning. Some educators believe that parents of English language learners should speak only English in the home (Rodriguez, 1982). However, far more important than speaking English is that parents value both the native language and English, communicate with their children in whichever language is most comfortable, and show support for and interest in their children's progress.
Learning Process
Learners who are metacognitively aware know what to do when they don't know what to do; that is, they have strategies for finding out or figuring out what they need to do. The use of metacognitive strategies ignites one's thinking and can lead to more profound learning and improved performance, especially among learners who are struggling. Understanding and controlling cognitive processes may be one of the most essential skills in learning a second language.


Research has shown that individuals vary greatly in the ways they learn a second language (Skehan, 1989). Some learners are more analytically oriented and thrive on picking apart words and sentences. Others are more globally oriented, needing to experience overall patterns of language in meaningful contexts before making sense of the linguistic parts and forms. Some learners are more visually oriented, others more geared to sounds.


According to Deci and Ryan (1985), intrinsic motivation is related to basic human needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Intrinsically motivated activities are those that the learner engages in for their own sake because of their value, interest, and challenge. Such activities present the best possible opportunities for learning.


Language learning does not occur as a result of the transmission of facts about language or from a succession of rote memorization drills. It is the result of opportunities for meaningful interaction with others in the target language. However, imagining real life situations in the class is artificial and not enogh!! (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988)






Second language learning by school-aged children takes longer, is harder, and involves a great deal more than most paretns have been led to believe. They need consciously to rethink what our expectations should be.

Using Background Music in English Classes
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In Turkey, teachers have been beginning to teach English language according to multiple-intelligence theories in the classes. The point is that learners have different kind of cognitive abilities to learn a lesson. It is the teacher's role to discover the learning style of each learner and plan his/her lessons accordingly. The theory of multiple intelligences suggests eight different potential pathways: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and naturalist intelligence. Teachers should incorporate these theories into activities so that learners can learn English language effectively. Therefore, it will be inevitable for learners to learn the language.

I would like to focus on an English class in which most of the students have musical intelligence. Where and how can the teacher use the music effectively in teaching English? There are several activities that s/he can use it in many ways. I would like to introduce four of them. First of all, teachers can compose a rhythm in teaching vocabulary by clapping their hands. Secondly, they can play a soft music that does not make learners asleep but awake such as birds voice or instrumental music in doing cut-stick-color activities. Using soft music quite works to make trouble-makers or hyper-active learners calm. It is not ideal to use popular music. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to handle them in the class. Thirdly, teachers can use popular English songs to teach a certain grammar point or vocabulary. For instance, Imperatives can be practiced by singing a famous song Don Worry, Be Happy In addition, Animals can be taught by singing Old MacDonald's a farm song with young learners. Lastly, the teacher can also let learners to compose a rhythm by themselves and record hand-made instruments. They listen and share their records; therefore, it will attract their attention and remember them easily.


There are several methods that can be used in the class for those have musical intelligence. I had an excellent outcome in my classes by using them; therefore, I recommend those four methods to English teachers.

If you wonder about your learning style please visit http://www.ldpride.net/learning_style.html.

Students Perspections on three Specific Teacher Methods in a Writing Course
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The study aimed at investigating freshmen writing students attitudes toward three specific teacher methods (underlining the errors only, using code correction and using total correction) in the Department of English Language Teaching at the Eastern Mediterranean University. The research questions were:

1) What are the students perceptions of three specific teacher feedback methods (underlining the errors only, using code correction, and total correction)?

2) Which feedback methods enable students to correct their drafts more effectively?

3) What are students perceptions of improvement in certain language areas (grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary choice and content and
organization)?

4) What are students strategies in handling these teacher feedback methods?
This study was employed a naturalistic enquiry approach.The data obtained from the results of three class observations, five questionnaires, student interviews and a teacher interview, and students corrected drafts provided both quantitative and qualitative interpretative data for the study. The study involved twenty-nine freshmen students and one subject matter teacher in the Department of English Language Teaching.


In analyzing the data obtained from one part of the questionnaries, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used. Classroom observations were analyzed holistically, concentrating on students first reactions to their corrected drafts. The same method was used for the student and teacher interviews, and open-ended questions in the questionnaires by grouping the common answers.
The main finding of this study is that students prefer to receive feedback with the Code Correction method over other methods. Total Correction is their second choice and Underlining the Errors Only is the least preferred one.


Furthermore, students corrected drafts have been analyzed one by one. Their underlined and coded errors on their first drafts were compared with their errors on their second drafts in order to find out what percent of the errors students could correct with the help of each method. The results were further compared with students responses on the questionnaires. The comparison revealed that a significant number of students were unaware of the fact that they failed to correct most of the marked errors.


In addition, another finding revealed that students believed that they improved in all language areas (grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary choice and content and organization) especially when they received coded corrections. Finally, in handling both underlined and coded errors, most students rewrote their essays with corrections and tried to correct their errors by guessing the correct forms. Some of them asked their teacher for help, and looked up the correct forms of their errors in a dictionary. A few of them asked their friends for help and studied grammar books.


Thus, the study reveals useful findings and makes suggestions for the institution and for further research to consider in the future.
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*English Teacher
İzmir Bornova Koleji-www.bornovakoleji.com