Those at the Denver and Chicago conferences this past summer may have met some members of the contingent of teachers in the Turkish military who were here to train in comprehensible input methods. Here is Yasar Kurum’s report:
Ben, we have started applying our program at last. We are a group of 7 teachers. I am the senior teacher. We have around 270 students. Mostly pre beginners. We gave them the Oxford Placement Test (institutionally required). The grades are mostly around A1 and A0, which proves they are perfect beginners. Every week we have 10 hrs of 40 minute English classes. After 36 weeks (which is 360 hours total) my goal is to make the students reach at least A2 level (Common European Framework). This would be a real proof before the eyes of those CLT proponents because usually they would achieve such a progress at least through twice more instructional time. So far, we have been doing stepping stones, I mean listening activities and TPR. I am planning to start stories in 2-3 weeks time. We are supposed to follow a textbook (Interchange, one of the integrated skill textbooks on the market). What I will do is use the textbook units as a starting point for the stories and then let the things come up during the class. I will limit the vocabulary and make as much comprehensible and interesting repetitions as possible. Hopefully, we’ll achieve. Take care and hope to see you here in Turkey next June.