Argumentative Essay

                           Instruction of Foreign Language in Kindergarten  
        Without any doubt, knowing at least one foreign language is really needed in almost all of the parts of the world nowadays.  Both in peoples’ education, working and social lives, a foreign language has a leading role and nobody can deny this.  No matter how old people are, it is taught all age groups to make them not only qualified but also sophisticated human beings.  However, there is a much-debated issue on foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten or it should not begin.  While many people are against the view of foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten, there are also numerous people who are in favor of this idea.            
            In the first place, there are some people who do not support that foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten in terms of children’s not having enough ability to learn another language except their mother-tongue.  These people assume that at this young age, the learners should first comprehend their own language properties.  Otherwise, they can be confused and even the process of learning their native language can be difficult for them.  However, the proponents of the idea that foreign language education should begin at a very young age claim that because of those children’s having a better capacity to acquire and absorb the knowledge, they are good at learning a new language easily when it is compared with older people.  Also, one of the other benefits related to this aspect is the learners’ being able to have an accent by imitating their teachers while they are doing the lesson or activities.  To exemplify, there are interdental words in English and many of the Turkish people have some difficulties in saying those words.  But, if the little children start learning English language in kindergarten, when they talk to native speakers in the next years, they think that there is no difference between themselves and those native speakers in terms of being able to produce interdental words.
         In the second place, the people who are against learning a foreign language in kindergarten consider that there can be some problems in the future because instead of children, it is the parents who decide on what language their children should learn.  In the oncoming years, those children may realize that the language they have started to learn in kindergarten does not draw their attention anymore. Additionally, the learners can think this foreign language they know does not have any proceeds when they settle on their occupation.  As a result, the language that has been learnt may be just a waste of time for them.  On the other hand, the ones who stand up for the idea that the education of foreign language should be given at a young age defend that this kind of instruction should not be thought as a waste of time even if the new language is not used in the future.  These supporters believe that if a child who begins learning a foreign language in kindergarten does not even use that language in his oncoming years, it does not mean that he will not use it until the end of his life.  For example, there is a girl who starts learning Spanish at a very young age is expected to know English when she decides on her occupation.  Even though this child will not use Spanish while she is working, one day the girl may make up her mind to advance in her career path and she may go to Spain.  Thus, in spite of the fact that the parents choose a different language for their children without asking their opinions, there are not any negative sides of this choice. Also, there is a famous saying about this aspect which is “One language means one person, two languages mean two people.”  
         In the final place, while speaking with a native speaker or with their teachers, the possibility of the children’s making grammatical mistakes or not being able to understand what is asked can cause the learners be ashamed of themselves.  This point is last but not least for the opponents of instruction of a different language in kindergarten.  These people believe that if one of the students does a mistake when he is speaking, the friends of him may make fun of him.  As a consequence, the child can lose his self-confidence because of his friends’ not tolerating his mistake and this situation can affect the rest of that child’s life.  On the contrary, instead of losing her self-reliance, the proponents of the opinion that foreign language instruction should start in kindergarten assert that this type of foreign language learning constructs it.  For instance, if the young student answers a question and both his teachers and friends congratulate him by applauding, that student starts thinking he is good at this lesson and he believes in himself, too.   Furthermore, foreign language education at a very young age can offer a chance to make cultural connections.  According to Melissa Sherrard, it is thought that children who are educated a foreign language at an early age expose to other cultures in a positive way. These children are able to know some information about the other peoples’ values, traditions and also language characteristics by studying a new language. Through getting better in terms of making contact with different people from different parts of the universe, the learners become more and more concerned with and they also become aware of there are many other ways of lives different form their own ones.       
          Taking everything into consideration, despite the fact that there are lots of humans who say that foreign language instruction should not begin in kindergarten in the sense of children’s not having enough skills to learn a new language at an early age, parents’ deciding upon which language their children learn and the probability of the young students’ making some mistakes which affect them negatively; there are also several other people who advocate the view of education of foreign language should start in kindergarten regarding absorbing and acquiring the information better at this age, having benefits in working life and building self-reliance. From my point of view, I support that the instruction of a new language of course should be given to children at an early age. Related to my opinion, there is a very famous Turkish proverb which says “You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.”      



                                                REFERENCES         

Sherrard, M. The Advantages of Learning a Foreign Language at a Young Age.
Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/list_6801193_advantages-foreign-language-young-age.html      

Cause and Effect Essay

 

                            The New System of Education in Turkey       
          Without a shadow of a doubt, education plays an essential role in today’s world.  Each country competes with one another to give the best education with new approaches to their citizens and so, these countries want their citizens to be not only more qualified but also well-educated people.  Also, it will be easy for the countries to develop themselves.  For example, European countries implement an approach which is called life-long education to its citizens in order to enable them to keep up with the times. When Turkey is considered, it can be said that the government also provides some opportunities to its citizens to make them sophisticated mankind.  However, the education system that is applied in Turkey has been changed in recent times and its name is 4+4+4 education system now.  This change leads to some debates about whether it is good for the students or not.  Let us now mention both the causes and effects of 4+4+4 education system.
          The first cause of 4+4+4 education system is about students’ choosing their branches.  When the fourth grade students promote the next stage and become the fifth grade ones, they have an obligation to decide on what they want to be in the future.  Furthermore, while they are making these vocational decisions first, they think about their skills and wishes.  Then, the students continue their education life with the choices they make.  However, how these students who are from the fourth or fifth grade can be expected to make rational decisions?  According to the author, Andrew Finkel, the issue of students’ choosing their branches is not wanted to be done at an appropriate age (Finkel, 2012).           
        The second cause is having an individual achievement and providing equal opportunities to the students.  In other words, the students’ own success determines the way of their education.  To illustrate, if there are students whose grades are high, at the end of the year, their grade point averages are calculated by considering the performances of the learners both in spring and fall terms.  Besides, this system offers equal opportunities to the students when it is thought that they are creating their own future by getting higher or lower marks from their assignments or exams which affect the grade point averages.            

          Notwithstanding having some causes, 4+4+4 education system has also many effects.  The initial effect of this new education system is having lots of students from different age groups in one classroom.  To be more obvious, it can be said that when the students start the first grade, there will be several children who are both ready for the school normally and who are 66 month old.  Thus, the intelligence levels of them are not the same and maybe the 66 month old ones feel themselves insufficient in the view of having difficulties in comprehending the lesson.  Also, this situation can affect the young students’ psychologies negatively.         
          In addition, raise of child labor is the last impact.  First of all, what is child labor?  It is the process of a child’s working outside instead of taking education at school.  In this process, a child who is at a very young age is worked in unsuitable conditions and this harms the growing of that child.  In spite of compulsory education’s extending to twelve years, children are not compelled to go on their education life, unfortunately.  To illustrate, a seven year old boy is working on streets or roads to sell handkerchief or something else.  Also, this situation is really dangerous for the child because he is under the risk of hitting of a car.     
         Taking everything into account, even though the implementation of new education system in Turkey called 4+4+4 has several causes in terms of students’ choosing their branches and being able to have an individual achievement and providing the same opportunities to the students, it also has lots of impacts namely having numerous students from different age levels in one classroom and raise of child labor.  In my opinion, 4+4+4 education system needs some time to be on the right track.  When this happens, the new system will be more beneficial for children.    




                                           REFERENCES   
Finkel, A. (March 23, 2012). Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know. What’s 4+4+4?.Retrieved from http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/turkeys-education-reform-bill-is-about-playing-politics-with-pedagogy/             

Comparison and Contrast Essay

                                           Two Language Teachers
                       
           For a long time, language has a crucial place in every aspect of peoples’ lives and it will continue to save its importance in the future. People need it both in education and working life because it is essential to make contacts with foreigners. However, there is also an important point about how these people learn a language which is different from their mother tongue. Thanks to language teachers, learning a language is possible for all humans. When the techniques that teachers use while they are teaching a language and doing the lesson are compared, they may not use similar methods or strategies. Therefore, despite two language teachers’ having some similarities, they have many differences, too.  
         To begin with, graduating from the department of English Language Teaching is the first aspect. Both of these teachers take the same courses and learn the same instructions. Next similarity is working in a school instead of working in a language course. The teachers enter KPDS exam and pass it to start teaching at a state school. Moreover, having lots of responsibilities is the final aspect of similarities. In the environment of school or classroom, teachers have some duties such as teaching and preparing students for the future, taking care of them and dealing with their problems and questions.   
            Now, let us move on to the differences of two language teachers have. Teaching method is the first one. For instance, one of the teachers wants students to memorize all the topics that they discuss in the lesson while the other one does the lesson in more creative way by doing some activities. For example, the teacher gives a topic and wants his students to contemplate it by working in pairs or in groups. Thus, a good language teacher is the one who uses student-based teaching method whereas a bad language teacher prefers teacher-based strategy.            
       Second difference is related to making organizations. One of the language instructors plans everything in an effective way. He does not miss any parts that he is going to mention. What is more, according to Hezi Brosh, it is accepted that well-planning of content topics may be beneficial for the learners to separate and organize the main points of learning in the view of not only importance but also precedence (Eble, cited in Brosh, 1996). In contrast, the other one has no worries about how the lesson will go on or in which part he should start. Also, if the students do not understand the subject, the teacher just advices them read it again and ask their friends.            
     Finally, having different attitudes towards students is the last dissimilarity. To illustrate, one of these teacher is very strict, but he is good at teaching a language and he tries to clarify ambiguous points. On the contrary, the other instructor is really cute, but he does not help his students when they have difficulties in understanding. For example, one of the students cannot comprehend a text and the questions related to that text so he asks them to his teacher. Although the instructor knows the answers, he is not able to explain them to the child in a clear way.
        To sum up, in spite of the fact that two language teachers have similarities regarding graduating from the same department called  ELT, working at a state school and being responsible for the students, they differ from each other in terms of the way they teach, organization and having different attitudes towards students. It seems to me that, every single person can be a teacher but everyone cannot be aware of his responsibilities and cannot be effective enough.                  


                                                       
                                  REFERENCES 
Brosh, H.(1996). Perceived Characteristics of the Effective Language Teacher. Foreing Language Annals, No.2, 29.