Dear all,

We have come to the end of this 14 week semester.
This is to thank you for your all willing participation and hard efforts in my classes.
I hope we will share another course in the following years.

P.S. Please send me your blog addresses latest on the 18th of May.

Take care you all,

Have a great summer holiday, you all deserved it. ((;

Görsev İnceçay.

Büşra DID an excellent job...

                                                    Two Noteworthy Films  

            In 1902, the first motion picture film which had a scenario was produced by Georges Melies and the name of it is “Le Voyage dans la Lune.” This film is the first but not the last one. After it, numerous films were produced, they are still being produced nowadays and they will be made in the future, too. Furthermore, among these several films, some of them could take almost all of the peoples’ attention in the world and some of them could not. The ones which caught interest and which were appreciated were able to win many awards or Oscars. For example, Slumdog Millionaire and A Separation are two of them which are successful in cinema sector. So, let us compare and contrast these two noteworthy films as a purpose of this essay.     
            The first remarkable similarity between Slumdog Millionaire and A Separation is the type of them. In both of the films, there are scenes related to drama. For instance, in a part of the film, Jamal who plays the leading role in Slumdog Millionaire remembers the days when he was kidnapped by some villains. Also, there is a couple who is about to divorce and has a child in “A Separation”. It can be seen in this film that how the members of a family can separate from each other. Another similarity between them is the situations which have the possibility of being met with in real life. Let me give an example for it, too. In Slumdog Millionaire, Jamal joins in a quiz show and in the other film, the couple wants to break up as I said before. So, these circumstances can happen. What is more, being accused of the leading actors is the last similarity. In the former film, Jamal is accused since he is thought that he is getting information while competing in quiz show. But the real situation is different, he answers the questions by remembering his childhood and he is not doing anything wrong. When it is looked at the latter film, Nader who plays one of the leading roles is blamed because of killing a baby who has not born yet. But the reality is different in here, too.        
            Now, I am going to state the differences between Slumdog Millionaire and A Separation. To begin with, filming location is the major difference between these two films. Slumdog Millionaire was filmed in India but A Separation was filmed in Iran. The second difference is the language. As it can be understood from the countries, the language in Slumdog Millionaire is English. However, Persian is used as a language in the film, A Separation. Moreover, while the films are starting, it can be seen that the blurbs of them are written in English and Persian. Having different endings is the final difference that I am going to mention. To illustrate, the former one has an ending which has both happiness and clarity. I mean, Jamal gains the money from the quiz show and he is with his lover, too. However, the latter has not only sorrowful but also uncertain ending. In other words, it is an open-ended film. There is an indefinite situation of the child’s decision about choosing his mother or his father to stay with.            
            To sum up,      besides lots of similarities in terms of having dramatic scenes, having the possibility of facing with the same occasions in real life and being blamed of the leading actors, there are also differences between the films “Slumdog Millionaire” and “A Separation” in relation to the filming location, the language that is not only spoken but also written and having different endings with different impressions. In my opinion, Slumdog Millionaire is quite better than A Separation. Since, I did not get bored even a second from the beginning to the end of the film when I watched it.    

                                                                                 

9th Assignment: Comparing and Contrasting two oscar winning films

Hello everyone,

You are going to write a comparision& contrast essay on reviews of two oscar winning films; 'Slumdog millionaire' & 'Separation'.

You can find the reviews through the following links:

http://hinduism.about.com/od/moviestillsreviews/a/slumdog_review.htm
http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2012/03/a_separation_review_oscar-winn.html

Have a good day...

7th Assignment: Cause & Effect Essay

Please search on the internet and online sources and discuss the causes of European Union and its possible effects on the participant countries.

Hello everyone! Our schedule has not changed. We will continue our class on TUESDAY at 9.15 in HUKUK. Have a nice weekend...

6th Assignment: Process Essay

You are required to write a well-organized process essay on ONE of the following topics:

* How to improve your speaking in English
* How to get over a disappointment
* How a student gets motivated at university.

Your essay should be at least 300 words and 5 paragraphs...

Ayşe wrote a good description..

          

THE IRONIC CONFLICT

            There was the conflict between a noisy crowd in the street and the violinist derisively on a typical gloomy day in London. Furthermore, the main feature of the picture is that the street musicians performed their music as if they protested to the violinist. The violinist, who was the member of the British Royal orchestra, rehearsed before the concert; nonetheless, he was disturbed because of the noise coming from outside. He stopped to  play violin and he looked outside the window by frowning. Moreover he held both hands on his ears since he did not want to be hear the noise. Actually, he did not get angry due to noise of inhabitants of London. He was only plague street musicians on account of creating noise pollution. On the other hand street musicians made music by ignoring the people around them and they seemed to combat with the violinist to prove their superiority.

Video for classroom observation report

Gizem Ergün's narration. Definitely worth sharing..

                                                  CLOUDS

It was 27^th September. I cannot remember the year. She was trying to wake up like every day she does. She snoozed her alarm clock and slept for ten minutes. After the second snooze she finally woke up.  Then she went to toilet and washed her face. When she looked through the mirror she noticed that her face was blooding! It was horrible because she could not see her face because of the blood. She touched her face and cleaned the blood. She finally could see her eyes. When she saw them, she noticed that she forgot the real color of her eyes. Then she left the bathroom and run to the sitting room because there was voice from there. As soon as she arrived there, she saw that the TV was opened and she looked at it. She was shocked! She closed her eyes and reopened again to see clearly, no there were no differences. She did not make a mistake, it was she! She was on the TV and police were searching her. She tried to raise the volume of the TV but she could not. She could just watch herself on TV but with doing anything. She touched her face before looked her hand if bleeding stopped or not. It was decreasing but her heart attack was increasing. She could not understand anything and decided to go to the doctor to show her face but what if police were going to arrest her? Although she did not know anything about her hunting, she was scared. There was nothing to do and she finally decided to leave home and see a doctor.  While she driving, she saw many cabs but she could escape from them. She achieved to arrive. She ascended the stairs and opened the doctor’s door without knocking. Doctor was surprised because it was not allowed to enter without knocking. As soon as he started to shout at her, she cut his speech and told that she had bleeding. The doctor saw what she said and told his patient that he should leave for few minutes. He examined her and wanted some examinations. She waited for hours and everything culminated. The doctor called her and said to her to sit. He started his speech;

-Have you ever talked with yourself?

-Are you kidding? She replied, I was thinking that I am here for examination!

-You should calm down, I am a doctor and also your doctor you should just answer my question, have you ever tried to touch yourself? Do you really care yourself? You are here because there was something wrong with your body and you thought that if you had not gone to doctor, you would have died. So you scared to die.

-A…Uuuh..Well…I cannot reply you doctor, I cannot.

-If you are really afraid of death, I think you are, it means that you love living and do not want to leave. But if you really do, you should have already answered my questions. You hushed yourself… Let’s get back to the examinations. There is no problem. You just ignore yourself and it is mad at you. That is all. Bleeding is just your body’s reaction. It tries to say something. I will give you a prescription. Try to do it.

He elongated the prescription and there is just a word that written on it;

“LISTEN.”

She drove home. She thought all along the road. When she arrived home she immediately opened the TV and looked for her news but there was not anything about her.

She went to her bed and slept. The day after, she wanted to go to the doctor again, she had many questions. They had really long conversation and she realized that because of her hunger of seeing herself, she just imagined that she was on the TV. The bleeding is just about her eyes, she looked her eyes after a long period and her body wanted to tell her something. That was all. She was relaxed now and after these experiences she started to be more sensitive to herself. There was long and perfect way which is waiting for her. When she realized that, she could start to walk. Clouds the rest...

  By the way, I guess you have been wondering about the information of ‘her’. Maybe you thought that I forgot to give her a name or I forgot to start. No, I did not. Of course she has a name but I do not know her name because I do not know your name. What is your name?

Gizem Ergün

Let me share Burak's paragraph...Thank you Burak good job.

Cartoons‘ Effects on Education

        

Nowadays, cartoon sector is improving and the television channels spend lots of money for the cartoons. Maybe lots of people watches cartoons for spend time or having fun but researchers don’t agree them. Researchers says that, almost every cartoon teach us something. We can’t realize maybe but when we think about it they are right. For example, there is no crime or bad words in the cartoons. Cartoon characters are always helpful and giving a good messages about the world. If there are bad things on the cartoon, it effects directly to children’s daily life. For example, when I was a child there was a cartoon it’s called Pokemon lots of children things that they can fly or they have special ability and it caused their life and in Europe Pokemon banned from the TV channels because in Europe almost everybody things cartoon characters are really good role-model for the children. We need to be careful before let our children watch TV because they can learn everything from the TV. No one can deny TV’s effects on children education.

Writing Center Workshops..

A good paragraph from Onur..

Tv and Children

                        Since TV is included  in people’s lives, more and more individuals started to watch it by time. There is at least a TV in every single home lately. That is obvious, it is not being watched by adults only but also by children. Effect of TV on people, especially on children is a case to be taken into consideration. As it can be a helpful source to learn fabulous things, it can lead them in wrong way however. They should not watch everything,  only specific TV shows in childhood could be fine. They may improve themselves at same time having fun so long as visuality is significant in early ages because learning by watching is way effective and long lasting. So that, aiming to use TV in a beneficial way is possible by being taken care of by their parents to make them watch these ones and put it in good use. 

Cartoons in Teaching by Sinem Kaplan (Good job Sinem)

CARTOONS IN TEACHING

Undoubtedly, every person has a special cartoon character that reminds his

childhood. It means, even if years pass cartoon's impression on somebody

does not disappear. Well, why cartoons have a special place in people's

lives? As an example from real life, my brother learned his first song from

a cartoon and I learned dancing thanks to another cartoon. So, if something

is first, it is almost impossible to forget about. To give another example,

children's shows enable learning new words, numbers and colors before

children's school lives begin. By repeating their new knowledge, children

add these basic information on their minds. To continue, these shows

illustrate the events which can happen in real life. It provides children a

chance to deal with feellings and some obstacles. To summarize, all of

these possitive impacts help children to learn and think about the world.

A good paragraph by Büşra Albayrak (Looking forward to your comments)

   Instructive Cartoons for Children                    So far, technology has a very crucial place for people and it is being improved day by day for many different purposes. As it is known, television is one of the most known devices of this technology. Lots of people, especially children, spend at least an hour everyday to watch something on TV. Children are watching many cartoons without being aware of its effects. Although some of these cartoons can affect children negatively, there are also really beneficial ones to teach them being a good child. Caillou who both teaches children how to improve their skills and makes the children laugh from time to time is one of these beneficial cartoons. This cartoon’s purpose is to mention children that how they should react when they face with different situations or how to do their duties on their own without asking for help as much as possible. Besides, this cartoon is beneficial for children in relation to being helpful. For instance, my little sister, Beyza, is a fan of Caillou and she always wants to help my mother at house works. And of course this situation makes both Beyza and my mother happy. Consequently, if there will be more cartoons like Caillou and children are eager to watch them, it can be advantageous for the children in relation to developing their abilities. And I can easily say that it really works.                       

Assignment 2 (Preparing outlines)

Preparing three outlines for the following topics:

(Be sure that you have done necessary search on the internet and read in order to explore ideas)

 

1. Choose a particular person. State the reasons why you admire her/him.

2. Why is art education necessary for children?

3. Why do we need to learn a foreign language before puberty?

How to attach a word file onto your e-mails ): Please watch the video and for the rest of your assignments do attach a word file.

A wonderful essay by Yağmur Dinçeröz (received a reward in the 'Writing Center contest)

The Beauties of Turkey

    Turkey, which is famous for its intimate people, scrumptious food, spectacular historical structures and fascinating location that is at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, is one of the most glamorous countries in the world. Besides its own nation, Turkey is becoming the favourite of tourists day by day. While some people believe that Turkey is not an ideal place to live, others share the view that Turkey is the only country to spend the rest of your life. What do you think about this idea? Do you believe that Turkey, which has countless scenic beauties, is the only place that should be lived in? I am definately in favour of this viewpoint.

   To begin with, people who live in Turkey, have a chance to experience the beauties of all four seasons which is not very common in other countries. For instance, people who dwell in England or Germany cannot usually see the sun since it is generally cloudy or rainy. This situation influences people’s attitudes and moods. Specifically, we are all aware of the fact that damnable weather makes people more depressed. Nevertheless, people, who dwell in Turkey, rarely experience these feelings because they can feel the sunshine almost everyday. Due to this, Turkey is known for its enjoyable and sociable people.

    Furthermore, Turkey has a palmy history that goes back thousands of years. You feel concessive when you see the stunning historical buildings. They particularly attract the attention of many tourists who come to see these places from various countries. Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace, Maiden’s Tower are among the most fascinating structures in İstanbul that is one of the most beautiful cities of Turkey.

     On the other side of the coin, some people share the view that living in Turkey is not easy in terms of finding a job or increasing population. The population of Turkey is rising day by day which makes it harder to get a job you like. Therefore, some people say that finding a job is getting harder in Turkey. What is more, some people think that people suffer from traffic jams which prevents them from being punctual. In other words, they are always late no matter where they go.

    Taking everything into account, Turkey is one of the most wonderful countries all over the world. You can spend fabulous time thanks to various cafes or restaurants, and also find the chance to taste the delicious Turkish food. You can get the utmost enjoyment out of having four seasons in Turkey as well. You should also not forget that ancient structures are the best way to gain information for the people who are interested in Turkish history.

Writing is all about emotions & creativity...Not language itself. (Gizem Ergün's 'Turkish' composition)

  MÜREKKEBİN SUSKUNLUĞU

  Olmuyor, deniyorum olmuyor. Mürekkebim yeterli gelmiyor Türkiye’de yaşamanın hislerine aracılık etmeye. Bu kaçıncı kâğıttı fırlatıp attığım, anlatamadığımdan utandığım. İnsanın hissettiğini dile getirememesi çok zormuş. Sevgi kâğıda dökülebilir mi mesela? Peki ya bir insan toprağın üzerine kurulmuş olan soyut bir bütünlüğe âşık olabilir mi? Olabilirmiş ya, doğduğum günden beri nefesimizi birlikte paylaşıyoruz biz Türkiye’yle. Attığım her adımda bu topraklar uğruna dökülmüş olan kanlar geziyor damarlarımda. Türkiye’de yaşamak işte bu demek. Yaşadığın her an, her saniye için bu toprakları sana armağan edenlere minnettar olmak demek. Toprağının her karışına sahip çıkıp, O’nu senden almak için uzanan ellere bir tokat da senin atman demek.

  Her sabah doğan güneş Türkiye’yi bir başka aydınlatır. Bunu bilen her insan sabahlara farklı uyanır. Türkiye’de çiçeklerle selamlaşılır mesela. Onlar da severler bulundukları yerleri. Türkiye’nin taşı, toprağı farklıdır. Farklıdır dedim de, o farkı da O’nun üzerinde yaşayanlar yaratır. Aile başkadır Türkiye’de, yeri ayrıdır. Oturduğunda bir deniz kenarına, denizdeki tuzlar arkadaşlık eder mesela sana. Kimi zaman dostun, kimi zaman koştuğun olurlar. Martılar bir başka kapar simitleri,  vapurdan simit atan insanların elinden. Çayı bir başka kokar. Bacaları perilidir mesela. Deniz olmayan yerde dağ, dağ olmayan yerde topraktaki verim olur.

  Adildir Türkiye. Adil olmayı gerektirir burada yaşamak. Bakmayın öyle suskun durduğuna, sel olur yine taşar Türkiye gerektiğinde. Türkiye’de yaşamak öyle bir histir ki, genç bir kız bütün hayallerini O’nun üzerine kuracak kadar sevebilir O’nu. Kurucusunu babası bilip açtığı yolu izleyebilir. Nerelisin dediklerinde Türkiyeliyim diyebilmektir burada yaşamak. Annen gibi, baban gibi, ülkenin canı acıdığında da tahammül edememektir.

  Harekete geçmek var bir de bu tarafta. Hadi deyince kıpırdanıp yola koyulabilmek var. Yola koyulmaya hazır olanlara yol olur Türkiye. Sen O’nun için çabaladıkça, O sen uyurken öpücük kondurur yanaklarına. Anlatılmaz Türkiye, sözcükler yetersiz kalır. Uzaktan uzak görünür yakınlar. Yakından soğuk görünür sıcaklar. Evdir Türkiye, yuvadır, hasret kalınan sudur. İşte bu yüzden Türkiye’de yaşayan herkes uğruna canından olmaya hazırdır. Ata’mızın açtığı yolu korur, kollar Türkiye, biz de rahatça yürüyebilelim diye. Bundandır suskunluğu, bilinir ki bir konuşursa kimse döndüremez geriye.

Gizem Ergün

A video on the effect of Sesame street on children's concept development. Enjoy!

You can find the articles related to TV shows & children that I gave to generate ideas on this address.

TV shows & children's skill and concept development

A great blog to follow related to ELT

Looking forward Gizem Ergün's Turkish composition...

Gizem can you share it with us please?

Welcome you all and happy Valentine's Day ((;

Dear all,

It is great to meet you online once again.
Hope you will have fun and get the feeling of sharing your master pieces.
I am looking forward to reading them.

Btw, I wish you all a happy VALENTINE'S DAY...