SENSE OF MUSIC

I have written an essay on belonging and identity for teenagers and I decided to broadcast my work here in my blog. I am waiting for the comments about. Enjoy....

Human beings, due to their natures, are in need of nestle something in which they can feel familiar. This is not only because they express themselves efficiently but also they find ways of being understood by the society they live in. One’s identity is formed and influenced by the groups one belongs to.

Music is a tool for some people to improve their sense of belonging. This may be sometimes by the help of learning to play an instrument or singing and taking place in a group. They fulfill their identity issue by joining musical activities. In deed, groups look for different characteristics from their members. That is one must possess those criterias. You may think that you are a very talented guitarist but this doesn’t mean that the group you apply for is looking for your style. Sometimes group leaders consider the applicants social status. Even if you are talented enough, they may give priority to one’s socio-economic background. Actually this differs from group to group. Nevertheless people, as social animals, mostly fill the requirements posed by the groups and they enjoy music activities. It gives them a sense of belonging and identity in the society they live.

There is another way to use music as a source of belonging. One can play or sing alone and this probably help develop identity. Some people feel more confident and satisfied if they introduce their music by themselves. That is, some people are inter-personal and some are intra-personal.

By the help of above mentioned facts, I can conclude that we are all in need of being secure and understood. In spide of the conditions and things required which may at first pressure us, we mostly manage to anchor in a safe harbor like music in a way.

STUDENTS' BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

Recently educators have been complaining about the students' indifference on the school subjects and increasing number of bad habits among them. Even today we have talked about our students' bad behaviours in and out classroom and we have made some decision to overcome these issues. Students have been acting more disrespectively to their instructors and parents than the last decades. This situation results in lack of academic education environment. If we want to deal with the issue, the first thing we have to do is to form a road map which includes a variety of approaching methods. I will try to offer some that I think it works when applied efficiently at school and at home.

First I want to indicate the reasons for the behavioral problems then I will offer you some approaches in order to defeat or at least decrease the level.

If we number them, we can put continious technological improvements as the main guilty. I will tell you about other issues in my future posts. Actually, technology is for people's comfort but when used improperly, it becomes an evil ready to terminate our social life as much as inner world. Teenagers and adults have been using internet and social media in most of their times. They share, express themselves and even have fun online. Cellphones, Iphones and others are their new and close friends. As they are very young, they aren't experienced and equipped with sufficient knowledge about the real life surprises. They think that online life is different from real life. That is normally so but when you start living online, you lose your values about real social life since you spend most of your times with your virtual friends instead of real ones around. Teens act quite free and they gather false information; that's why they become overloaded with useless, meaningless, impolite and rubbish ingredients. When they are offline, they go on behaving the same as online. The problem arupts then.

APPROACH:

* Parents education on responsibility, leadership, selectivity and security online by holding meetings and some photocopies

* Students education on responsibility, selectivity and security during online by meetings and even online activities.

* Citizenship and education of values. 

Why is it difficult for Turks to learn English?

In Turkey, English has been taught as a foreign language since the beginning of Turkish Republic. In spide of this long teaching period, Turkish students have difficulty in learning English Language at school. They can not understand while listening to someone; they can not speak in target language fluently and; they can not write even a sentence even after a long learning period. What is the real problem they face while learning English?

In deed students learn the grammar in the lessons but they can’t get the knowledge in the long run. This may be because of the method we run at schools. Especially students in public schools can do better in grammar than the private ones. Hovever they can not produce anything in the target language. There are plenty of reasons we can number on why they have self expression difficulties. As I mentioned above, the methods applied in the carricula in public schools may not meet the students’ needs in real World. That is, we should design the carricula and the teaching methods globally with less grammar subjects and more productive activities. Moreover because English is a Western language, the grammar is opposite of Turkish grammar. This may also lead difficulty.

Another considerable reason in learning difficulties may be the students’ neglect on the culture of the target language. Since cultural contents are very important things in learning a foreign language efficiently and permanently, one should search, apply an even live exactly the culture of the target language. Students can do these in a variety of ways like listening to traditional songs, preparing Christmas cards, celebrating national or religious festivals, reading about culture and history, etc.

We can handle the lack of practising the sentence patterns with our partners as the last statement . Students don’t usually notice the importance of practising the language learnt so far. They think that the data they received will be stored in their brain for a long time. Whereas practicing the information obtained from the language lessons in a way is the only way to learn the target language literally and permanently.

All these mentioned facts prove the importance of a new point of view and an effective teaching method at public schools including the culture, life styles and more interactive practices.