Foreign language

Participant # 7 stated in her answer that she had already used samples from

mnemonics; however, upon seeing P # 1‟s statement about mnemonics, she read articles about their implementation and she gave the signals of a change in her future teaching. She reported that:

I think vocabulary is one of the cores of language learning, and this was one of the things that I struggled actually at the very beginning because students, still my students, tend to memorise the Turkish translations. No matter what I do in classroom, I tell them to write the word forms‟ English definitions, examples etc. But it is not very realistic for them. They don‟t do it. You cannot control this. So I try to do as much vocabulary activities as possible in

classroom like preparing vocab cards or preparing games. However, my repertoire in this sense is a bit limited. That‟s why I asked P # 1 about this to have more activities. It was a genuine question to be honest and he explained it but I need further reading. Because I mean he just gave one or two examples, and I, actually during my presentation in methods class I guess, in the first semester, I told my about vocabulary teaching and I actually read about mnemonics and it is a white area, it is not just like a word in Turkish similar to English. There are songs, poems, and so there are many things. I may not be able to use all of them because as a learner myself, I do not like impractical or childish activities. So, yeah I use some stuff like if I can

remember, attach for example. Attach English, we know it‟s meaning and I tell my students “ataçbakın, look at attach”, so you are combining two things, attach is similar. Actually this is mnemonics as far as I can understand so I kind of use it, but I wasn‟t aware of the terminology, so this is the first time that I hear the terminology, and when I read more about it I learned that it is a broad area. I need to read more. So, I can have a look at some of the stuff, and why not? I mean, I can use some techniques.
P # 1, P # 5, and P # 8 stated in their answers that they found P # 9‟s creating a to-do list strategy very effective and a new way for them to enhance both their students‟ learning and even their own language learning processes. As P # 5 stated:
I wasn‟t aware of it before, and reading P # 9‟s paper helped me to realize that strategy and I really find it useful. I remember when I read it, and it actually helped me to, you know, reshape my teaching style, and I thought that it would be helpful to encourage the students to have that kinds of lists in their lives. That‟s why it helped me to change my, teaching style or strategy, I don‟t know. Also, it helped me to, you know, use that as a learner, as well.

Because I am learning German and I am planning to start Spanish. That‟s why; I could also use that kind of strategies as a learner and as a teacher. I found it really useful.

Another aspect that one of the participants, P # 9, wanted to change in her future teaching practices was providing strategy training for her students to help them develop their language skills, especially the listening skill. P # 7 stated in her reflection paper that she enhanced her students‟ listening skills by teaching them note-taking strategies in her classes. That way, she not only improved her students‟ listening skills but also helped them get higher grades from their exams. Upon reading that, P # 9 left a comment for P # 7 in which she stated she had not provided strategy training in her previous teaching years. Therefore, in the interview session, the researcher asked her whether she would implement that listening strategy to her students or not. She declared her willingness to use strategy training by stating that:
I used reading strategy basically. I did that for reading tasks with skimming and scanning and then I just, you know wanted students answer the questions that were, you know, served by the book‟s itself. So, I was just limited in that way. So, when I just read hers I said oh I could do this for listening tasks as well. So strategy training is really useful in that sense. I will use it for the listening by teaching note-taking strategies to my students.
All in all, participants showed their willingness to enhance their teaching practices by allocating more time to teaching strategies to their students in order to foster the their learning processes.