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2 The techniques adapted in teaching different skills .

In all levels of Open Doors Student’s Books four skills listening, speaking, writing and reading are both separate and integrated. Besides this all the units start with a story or an article for students to listen and read. As the text is first listened by the tape recorder, the learners have the chance to check and correct their pronunciation. Then they read it. If the text consists of any dialogues the learners make role-plays and read them. After they listen, read and understand the story or the article writing takes place. Sometimes the students are required to answer the questions or correct the false statements, etc. In those activities the students’ reading and comprehension skills are tested.

There are many activities that make the learners listen and repeat. They listen the words, sentences or dialogues from the tape and repeate individually or as a whole. To make them speak at the beginning of the units the exercises are mostly in ‘listen and repeat’ type. There is no productivity as they do not master the new language items at the beginning of the unit because ‘inductive’ learning approach is used.

There is a seperate Pronunciation activity in each unit. In those activities, listening, writing, speaking skills are required. It is obvious that this activity is related with the correct pronunciation of the words, the correct stress of the words and sentences. First the students hear the sample words or sentences and then they repeat them.

After the learners get familiar with the new language items in the context, the books focus on the item and structure clearly. In these grammar activities writing skill is used. First the learners see the new language item in a table then do the related exercises according to that table. Sometimes the students are wanted to fill-in the blanks, write the words in their correct form or re write the sentences and answer the questions.

When the learners master the items explicitly, the speaking activities turn from repetition to production. In most of the activities, ask and answer questions about the pictures given in a book or they make dialogues by taking the model one as an example. In this way the activity becomes personalized and the learners not only repeat the dialogue but also rewrite it.

In Skills Work section, skills are held separately. It starts with reading. There is a letter or an article and the learners are asked to read it. Then they answer the questions by using their writing skills. After that listening comes. Sometimes they listen sentences from the tape aand match them with the pictures from the book or listen and choose the correct sentence or fill in the blanks. The last exercise of Skills Work section is ‘Speaking ‘ or ‘Writing ‘ or both of them. This changes according to the topic of that section. For instance, if the ‘Reading ‘ text is a ‘menu’ of a restaurant, speaking activity is used or if it is a letter writing is preferred. Then the students are required to personalize the letter and write the similar one .

In some, the activities in the Students Books of Open Doors are skill based. Different skills are thought seperately or integrated. The learners are given enough chance for learning and practicing the skills. In all levels of Open Doors Students Books the same techniques which is stated above is used to teach different skills.

2. 3 The techniques used for developing communicative abilities.

In language teaching appropriate use of language is important as well as occuracy. If the student makes up a sentence such as ‘Could you give me the salt,please ? ‘ But does not know that it is a request, this means that he can not use the language in a communicative way. Course books have a great role in developing the learners’ communicative abilities. The learners should have the ability of expressing themselves, greeting ,requesting,ordering ,etc. with the help of course books.In all levels of Open Doors Students Books ,the topics and the activities make the development of communicative competence possible. As Open Doors Course Books are mostly used with young learners, the topics are suitable for them. Most of the reading passages include dialogues. This gives the impression of real life. In each unit there is a part called Communication.‘Introducing People‘,‘Talking About Abilities’,’Talking About Future Arrengements’ , ‘Conversational English’ are some of the topics in these communicative parts .It is understoog that the topices are related with real language use. The learners get familiar with the language used outside the classroom.

These Communication sections develop the learners’ awareness on the importance of using the language communicatively not just accurately. In these sections listening and speaking skills are used dominantly. First the learners listen to dialogue that occurs between two people then they are asked to make a similar one .

4 Does the material include any advice or help to students on studying skills and learning strategies ?

There are Grammar Summary parts at the end of the students books including the construction of tenses, but there are no instructions given to the learners on using those parts. In Open Doors Student Book 2 there are some advices to the students on learning strategies ‘Good Listening Strategeies’, ‘Good Speakin Strategies ‘, ‘Good Reading Strategies ‘, ‘ Good Writing Strategies ‘ are included in Skills Work section. These strategies are given in tables with the short instructions such as: ‘ Make notes and write a list of words about the topic’, ‘ Think about the title and the topic ‘ etc.

In Open Doors Student Book 3 the writing section give directions for the students on the writing subject. Each writing section starts with a direction and then exercises take part which the students can practice them.

PART VI TEACHER’S BOOK AND TEACHER’S ROLE

1. Teacher’s Book

The Open Doors Teacher’s Book contains :

Contents of the Student’s Book

· Introduction

· Teaching Notes for twelve units, including optional extra activities

· 12 photocopiable pairwork activities

· 6 photocopiable tests

· word list

The introduction gives a description of the aims and structure of the course, together with a Classroom Management section which gives advice on areas such as project work, vocabulary teaching and lesson planning.

The teaching notes provide detailed guidance on how to present the material in the Student’s Book, together with background cultural information. They also include a list of all the new vocabulary introduced in each unit part (divided into active and passive ), transcripts of the listening activities and answers to all the exercises (including the Work Book exercises).

Throughout the teaching notes there are ideas for optional extra activities, including games and competitions which can be played with the whole class at the end of a lesson. There is also an optional dictation in every unit.

The photocopiable pairwork activities provide extra speaking activities and can be used either with the whole class or students who finished their work before the rest of the class. There is one activity for each unit of the Student’s Book.

The six photocopiable tests can be used after every two units of the Student’s Book and each one is designed to take one fifty minute lesson. Each test also has an optional supplement which tests students’ speaking and listening skills.

The word list gives all the new vocabulary that is introduced in the book and is arrenged in alphabetical order with cross-references to the unit where each word first eppears .

There are twelve units in the Course Book .Each of the twelve units is divided into four parts; both in the Course Book and in the Tecaher’s Book. These four parts are :

A Presentation Story

Comprehension

Communication

Pronunciation

B Grammar

Study Skills

C Vocabulary

English Across The Curriculum

D Skills Work

Progress Diary

Song

The teachers Book handles the same four parts with a great, detailed guidance for the teacher. The overall aim of part A is to introduce the main language of the unit and give the students the language functions. The peresentation story is followed by a comprehension questions part. Communication and Pronunciation parts are the last two items where the students practice the language functions.

The Teacher’s Book’s part A is the same with the Course Book’s part A . But Aim,Vocabulary, Cultural Information and Beginning The Lesson sections are added in the Course Book.

The Aim section is for giving detailed information to the teacher. Guidng the teacher about the aim of the unit or the aim of the language items used in the unit. After the Aim section the Vocabulary section takes place in which the teacher gain attention to the language items that are used in the unit and overall vocabulary which include the active/passive words.In addition to the Vocabulary section there is a Cultural Information section in the Teacher’s Book which gives information about some of the amin characteristics of other cultures that are handled with the units of the Student’s Book. Lastly beginning the Lesson section is givig advices to the teachers about how to begin the lesson, what to say first,etc.

With the whole sections of part A the Teacher’s Book Give Optional Activities to the teacher. Everything included in OptionaL Activities section is to give the chance to teacher to make more practice on the subjects that are being taught; if necessary.

All part B, C and D are given in the Teacher’s Book exactly in the same way as in part A. Including the Aim, Vocabulary, Cultural Information and Beginning to Lesson sections also the Optional Activities part is added .

The teacher provides a great guidance for teachers on the aim of the course, the classroom management, pair work, vocabulary teaching, skills work, project work and mixed ability and motivation. In order to let the teachers get more details about the course, the Teacher’s Book helps the teacher to recognize and produce important language functions; such as making suggestions, giving directions,expressing wishes and preferences. In addition to that the teachers provides a detailed information about the use of rules of English grammar, formation of tenses, etc. Also, the recognises and produces vocabulary related to the appropriate topics for the age group such as hobbies and interests.

On the Classroom Management section the teacher is being given detailed information about how to mamage the classroom; how to plan the lesson; how to solve the problems;how to use various materials; how to stage the lesson. In what situations and how the teacher should use pair work and other activities, what are the effective ways of teaching vocabulary? The answers of all these questions are given in the Teacher’s Book. So, we should see the Teacher’s Book a great guide for teachers, on any subjects.

To say that this Teacher’s Book is comprehensive and supporting we should know what is being aimed in what section and are they suitable?

2.Teacher’s Role in Course Book

According to the informations and duties given to the teacher in Open Doors Teacher’s; the teacher is seem to be both the clear one and the organizer. First of all I should mention the teacher’s behaviours that comprise clear teaching. There are numerous characteristics of clear teachers but main characteristics of them that we see while teaching the Open Doors are as follows:

A clear teacher (and the teacher must be clear according to the Open Doors):

Ø teaches at a pace appropriate to the topic and the students

Ø teaches step by step

Ø explains things simply, that is, gives explanations the students understand

Ø tries to find out if the students do not understand

Ø stays with the topic until the students understand

Ø describes the work to be done and how to do it

Ø asks if the students know what to do and how to do it

explains things, then shows an example.

The Open Doors Teacher’s Book directs the teacher in terms of encouraging the students to practice everything in English. As the main language to be used in classroom is English,the book directs the teacher to give all necessarry information in English.

The tacher’s role in the Open Doors is to be an organizer. Perhaps the most important and difficult role the teacher has to play is that of organise. The success of many activities depends on a good organisation and on the students knowing exactly what they are to do. A lot of time can be wasted if the teacher ommits to give students vital information or issues conflicting and confusing instructions.

According to the Teacher’s Book of the Open Doors ,the main aim of the teacher when organising an activity is to tell the students what they are going to talk about (or write or read about ...), give clear instructions about what exactly their task is ,get the activity going and then organise feedback when it is over. This sounds remarkably easy but can be a disaster if teachers have not thought out exactly what they are going to say beforehand .

PART VII SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The total cost of the whole course book package, as Open Doors 1,2,3 Student’s Books, Workbooks, Teacher’s Book and Audio Cassettes is 93.500.000 TL . When compared with the other books, this book is not extraordinarily expensive.

All the books are really attractive. They are embellished with colourful pictures ,songs and drawings. Also they are available for long-term usage. In other words they are strong. Moreover, they are easily obtainable.

As mentioned before, each level of the course book includes the Student’s Book, Workbook, Teacher’s Book and Cassettes. These do not require supplementary equipment. The only thing that is needed is a cassette-recorder for the listening activities .

PART VIII QUESTIONNAIRE

1. The Evaluation of Questionnaire I

The questionnaire is done according our observatins in the schools that we went to be trained.

1.1 Specifying the aims and analysing the learning and teaching situations.

To understand the aims of the teaching programme, the syllabus is analysed and it is found out to be a situational and topic-based one.Authentic situations are considered when selesting and grading the taught things. In the Course Books, there are situations which require the students to take part actively. Some of these are dialogues and role-plays.

Dialogues usually take place at the beginning of the lesson as they include the new language items. By repeating these dialogues the learners get familiar to the newly aquired things in a context. In other words these dialogues provide models for the students. Since the students participate actively in the role-plays, this gives motivation to the students. In short, the syllabus is a situational one, as it includes many dialogues and role-plays in which real life images are used.

The achievement of aims and objectives are measured by periodic tests that are applied twice a month. In these tests students’ understanding and their ability i.e. language proficiency are mesured.

1.2. To specify the learning and teaching situations.

In Turkey, English is highly appreciated reciently. It is the second language and students start to take it regularly since the 4 th class of the primary schools, both in private and state ones.

Since the status of English is important in the students’ home countries, this encourages them to adopt certain personal purposes. For example, they learn English to have better jobs, can follow the improving technology, to be better in communicating with foreigners, to be able to follow the foreign press and all other developments in the world.

The students have English lessons 8 hours a week. This course programme is intense enough for them as it has to realize its aims. In this case, of course some of the students find it difficult to work it out together with the other classes, but this does not prevent them of learning the given things.

In the school, there is a language laboratory in which the students have some of their listening lessons. In these laboratories each student has his/her own headphones to study on his/her own as the number of the class is suitable for this.

There are approximately 20 students in a class and they are homogeneous in their level, ability and age. The students are 12 years old and their levels and abilities are mostly the same as they come from the same teaching programme, since the primary school.

2. Evaluation of Questionnaire II

The avare age of the students is 12. They pretended that their level is sufficent enough to understand their teacher and the books they are studying. What is more some of them said that they can easily communicate with foreigners wheh they go on holidays abroad. But here we should take in consideration the fact that they have been studying English since the first year of the primary school.

Students’ selfconfidence made them give brave answers on our questions about what they are expecting from the things they learn. Some of them think that the things they gain at school will help them to develop their relationships when they go abroad. Others had plans to go and study abroad. Shortly, they are aware of the importance of a second language,especially if it is English.

When we come to ask them their preferences on the learning styles they had various answers once more. 8 of them said that they like the way their teachers give them the lesson, 10 of them said that thay are bored sometimes and it would be better to have more games, puzzles and video lessons.Only two of them said that they will be happier if they learn English at home from their computers as they prefer playing games and learn there.

As to the motivations and attitudes the learners show towards their English classes, their common oppinion is that they study because they have to. Certainly, the marks they get are also important for them but they also are conscious of the fact that they can face with English in every part of their lives.

3. Evaluation of Questionnaire III

In this part we shared the teachers’ experiences and got important clues on how we can give some of the lessons or topics more sufficiently. The first question was about the methodology they used during their teaching period.

They said that they prefer the inductive method but sometimes they apply the deductive one, too.

We asked the teachers if they are free to make changes on the contents they are given. Their answer was same, they claimed that this is not quite possible in private schools, they have to stick the Course Book and its content. But they claimed that there are not strict rules with the methods. Still, as they have to follow the books, they either do not have quite a chance to make great changes in their methods.

CONCLUSION

In thıs study, it is observed that the book is well-designed because it has a clear layout, the materials are suitable for self-study and the content is organised keeping in mind the students’ level and the teacher.

In Course Book the main grammar items are studied appropriately to each level and the vocabulary teaching is adequate in terms of quantity and the range of vocabulary. Open Doors also consists of material for pronunciation work that gives the students an opportunity to check their pronunciation.

The Course Book is mainly based on the writing skills. The other skills are also dealt with but not as adequately as writing. For example, when speaking is considered, it can be said that the students are not free to express themselves on their own. This is the same in listening because it also goes hand in hand with speaking and writing. In most of the listening activities, the students are expected to get the gist of listening and to fill in chart or answer the questions that check their comprehension. Lastly the reading activity is suitable for students’ level and interests. The reading texts introduce the language items that will be presentd in the units and the students are firstly required to read the text and then answer the comprehension questions accordingly or to write a composition by taking it as a modal.

Open Doors represenhts language as it is actually used in real life by using various kinds of topics that are informative, challenging and exciting. Since the Open Doors Course Books are prepared to be used with young learners, the topics arise interest and curiosity in the learners. Inductive learning is preferred as a methodology in the books. Firstly the new items are introduced in the contextand then the rules are isolated and given explicitly. All the units in the Course Book are organized in the same format, i.e., there are certain sentences in which different activities and skills are presented.

Open Doors views the teacher as the organizer of learning and guide.The teacheris required to provide a context for language items, motivate the students and correct or explain where necessary. As the teachers are an indispensible part of learning and teaching process, they are given various useful activities in the Teacher’s Book. The Teacher’s Book s do not force the teachers to stick to them. Rather they provide the teachers with optional activities and draw a clear outline of each and every lesson. Briefly the Teacher’s Books are very adventageous guides for the teachers.

After the content of Open Doors is studied, some practical considerations are dealt with and these results are obtained: the Course Book package is not too expensive when compared to other books. Also it is attractive, long-lasting and has a clear layout.

Then, at the end of the study the questionnaire is given to the teachers to specify the aims and to analyse the learning and teaching situations.

It is also applied to the learners to have some information for needs analysis. It is obtained from the evaluation of the questionnaire that Open Doors meets the expectations of the learners.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cunnigsworth, A. (1995) A Devision of Heineman Publishers Ltd.,

The Bath Press

Whitney,N. (1994) Open Doors, Student’s Books 1, 2, 3

Oxford University Press

Questionnaire 2

1. How old are you?

2. What is your English level?

3. What previous learning experience have you had in English?

4. What expectations do you have concerning the way you are taught?

5. Which learning style do you prefer?

6. What are attitudes and motivations while learning English?

Questionnaire 3

1.What methodological approach do you usually adopt?

2.How free are you in changing the content and your teaching methods?