The Evaluation of the Performed Activities According to ELVES Method

Listening habit has an important share in the individual perceiving his/her environment and the world properly and complying with the social environment he/she lives. Because listening is an important skill which enables the individual to use the communication skills he/she learned both at school and out of school properly and to understand correctly what he/she listened. Listening which is one of the comprehension skills is the key to success besides expanding new horizons to humans. Listening which is the basic way of communication and learning is the first comprehension activity in the individual’s life. Thus the skills and habits related to listening activity which is seen in every field of life are acquired naturally. Nevertheless these skills and habits which are acquired naturally are not adequate for the individual to get prepared for life. Even though the listening is an inborn skill, the gaining and improving of listening skill requires an education process. One of the methods which is aimed at improving of listening skill which is the most used language skill in daily life is ELVES (Excite-Listen-Visualize-Extend-Savor) method. In this research, a lesson plan according to ELVES method was prepared and applied aimed at improving of listening skill in primary school 4. grade Turkish lesson. Applied lesson plan was evaluated based on the opinions of the students. In this direction, the purpose of this study is the evaluation of the activities in primary school 4. grade Turkish lesson according to ELVES method based on the opinions of the students. In this research, semi-structured interview which is among the qualitative research method was used. A total of 19 primary school 4. grade students consisting of 10 male and 9 female in a public school affiliated to Ministry of Education in Çankaya sub-province of Ankara province participated in the research conducted in the spring term of 2016-2017 school year. In the research, convenience sampling which is among purposive sampling methods was used. The data acquired in the study was analysed according to content analysis method and the data was analysed as tables. In the consequence of the study; it was determined that primary school 4. grade students liked the activities which were conducted according to ELVES method in Turkish lesson, comprehended what they listened, participated in lessons actively and enjoyed the lesson.


Introduction
Language is a multifaceted, very developed system which ensures the transfer of thoughts, emotions and wants to others by means of common elements and rules with regards to sound and meaning in a society (Aksan, 2007, p.55).Language skills are divided into two categories as understanding and telling; while understanding contains listening and reading skills, telling contains speaking and writing skills.Listening and speaking skills are skills which starts developing automatically from the birth of the individual.In the researches in the literature, it is stated that listening is the first gained and mostly used language skill in human life (Özbay, 2012;Yalçın, 2002;Cemiloğlu, 2004;Güneş, 2007;Tompkins 1998;Doğan, 2012).From this aspect listening is the key skill in the gaining of other language skills (Doğan, 2012, p.4).
The most used language skill in daily life is listening.According to Hagevik people spent 40% of their times by listening (Quo.; Cihangir, 2004:11).Burley (1999) specifies the time spared for listening as 45%.Wacker and Hawkins (1996) show that people listen more than they read, speak or write by putting forward that listening is the most used language skill in daily life with a rate of 45% (Quo.; Doğan, 2010).SimilarlyTemizyürek (2011) also stated that 60% of the time which person spends in communication consists of listening, and Sever (2011) stated that individual spends 42% of the time being spared with other people by listening.It is come forward in researchs conducted by Dr. Lyman K. Steil related to listening that people write in 9%, read in 16%, speak in 30% and listen in 45% of the time they spare for communication (Ailes, 1996, p.69).According to a study of Wolvin and Coakley(1988), students spent more than half of their times in school by listening (Quo.;Türkel, 2012).As for Brent and Anderson (1993) people acquire 80% of what they know by means of listening; on the contrary most adult can not raise the efficiency of listening activity above 25%.These information point out that how much effective and important listening skill is when there is a communication.
Listening skill which is used frequently in social life has also a great importance in educational life.Student listens to his/her teacher, friends and so many sources in lessons and activities.According to Mackay (1997, p.29) listening skill is the key to success and there is no possibility of achieving without being a good listener.
The importance of the improvement of listening skill shows up by visual and audio tools becoming widespread in every field of life and these tools being used in education as well.In order to be a good listener most people must endeavour consciously and develop new skills (Cüceloğlu, 2005, p.167).Although listening is an inborn skill, the improvement of listening skill requires a purposive and planned education process.Özbay (2005, p.55) specifies that listening consists of the attention, perception and reaction stages and by drawing attention to "reaction step" he emphasizes the "active listening" concept in improving the listening skill.Because it is being considered significant to gain students active listening habit in the listening skill improvement studies.Hence, some methods were developed in order to improve listening skill and they were strived to be applied.One of the methods which was developed in order to improve listening skill is ELVES (Excite-Listen-Visualize-Extend-Savor) method.
It is a method which Jeri Levesque developed in order to improve comprehending of the listened skill and which takes its name from the union of the initials of the words; "Excite" (ensuring the remembrance of previous information-drawing attention-motivation), "Listen", "Visualize", "Extend" and "Savor" (Levesque, 1989;Quo.;Yangın, 1998).ELVES method which is a method aimed at comprehending what was listened/watched enables students to focus on the subject he/she treats and contributes to memorability by the stage of (Excite) motivation which exists before "Listen" and by the stages of "Visualise", "Extend" and "Savor" which exist after the listening (Yangın, 1998).
The success of individual in every field is based on language on a large scale.Because language includes comprehending and telling skills inside it.From this aspect, effective usage of language is of vital importance.As for Yangın (2002), the forming of habits belonging to linguistic skill requires activities based on practice.It is known that it is beneficial to form teaching-learning environments by means of opportunities such as painting, music, visual dream, theatre and drama in the activities of gaining of comprehension and telling skills.(Sever, 2001;Shandall, Schramm, Seibert, 2003;Kavcar, 1999).According to Kavcar (1999), in the education of mother language, the more student participates actively and the more of his/her sense organs activate, the more efficiency and achievement chance increase to that extent.For Sever ( 2001) language teaching must be diversified with various stimulating.The activities of gaining comprehension and telling skills must be turned into teaching-learning environments benefiting from expression opportunities of painting, music, theatre and drama as the occasion arises.From this aspect, it can be said that the improvement of comprehending what was listened/watched skill which is one of the most important skills for learning and communication depends on preparing suitable activities, trying them and seeing their results.In this direction the aim of this study is the evaluation of the activities in primary school 4. grade Turkish lesson according to ELVES method based on the opinions of the students.

Model of the Research
This study consists of two different levels.In the first level a Turkish lesson plan of 80 minutes was developed at the level of primary school 4. grade in accordance with the stages of ELVES method.Prepared lesson plan was applied by five class teacher candidates.And the second level of the study was conducted in compliance with interview technique which is among qualitative research methods.Interview is the data collection (interrogation) technique by means of verbal communication (Karasar, 2004).Interview is a controlled and verbal communication type which is between the researcher and the person which is in the position of the subject of study (Cohen and Manion, 1994, p.271).The basic way of learning how people structure and form social reality in their minds is asking the same people (Jones, 1985).

Study Group
A total of 19 primary school 4. grade students consisting of 10 male and 9 female in a public school affiliated to MoE (Ministry of Education) in Çankaya sub-province of Ankara province in the spring term of 2016-2017 school year constitute the study group of the research.In the research, convenience sampling which is among purposive sampling methods was used.The distribution of students according to gender is given in Table 1.As seen in Table 1, the distribution of students participating in the research is in close rates to each other.

Data Collection Tool, Collection and Analysis of Data
A Turkish lesson plan on the basis of ELVES method was prepared at the level of primary school 4. grade within the scope of the study.Prepared lesson plan was applied in a determined class.In consequence of the application a semi-structured interview form which was developed by the researcher and which was finalised by submitting to expert opinion was used as data collection tool.During the interviews conducted individually the answers of the students was noted.Data acquired in the research were analysed according to content analysis method and data were presented as tables.

Findings
Turkish lesson plan prepared in accordance with ELVES method primarily for primary school 4. grade within the scope of the research is briefly presented below: Teacher prepares the text and the materials which will be used in the text examination process before the lesson.

Excite
Teacher asks the students the questions below related with the text:  The title of the text which you will examine is "Mırmır".According to you, why can be the title of this text Mırmır?
 According to you, who may be included in this text?
 When you examine the pictures of the text, according to you what may be included in this text?
Teacher takes the answers of students in response to the questions and delivers the glasses which he/she prepared as material to students.
 Where do you think you are now?How do you feel?
 Which creatures do you dream around you?

Listen
What were our listening rules?Answers of the students are taken and listening rules are remembered.
Teacher delivers to students the statement cards which students will use while specifying their opinions.
I will ask you some questions while listening the text which we will examine now.In order to get right to speak you can use the cards I have delivered to you.After saying your guesses related to questions when you listen to the continuation of the text if your guess is true you will raise the smiling face of the fishes I have delivered to you, if your guess is wrong you will raise its sad face.
Teacher reads the text by paying attention to accent and intonation.When he/she comes to pre-determined places in the text he/stops and ask some questions to students.The guesses of students are taken and he/she goes on to read the text.
Once upon a time, many creatures were living in the underwater world which was called sea.In a beautiful and waveless day there was a sweet rush under the sea.It was the day of seed fishes to start school.And also little Mırmır fish was so excited that day.His mother awakened him early in the morning.

Mırmır was talking continuously while making his breakfast. While Mırmır was leaving beside his mother for going to school her mother …
Question1: What would the mother of Mırmır tell Mırmır while sending him to school?She warned him saying "My dear child, don't talk so much at school as you do at home.Don't make your teacher Mrs Octopus sad.Listen to your teacher carefully.",Mırmır set off after saying "OK".
It is asked who guessed like this.And students guessing right raise the smiling side of the delivered fishes and the ones guessing wrong raise the sad side.
Text is read like this by interacting with students.

Visualize
Students are asked to take off the glasses which were given as material, to shut their eyes and to envisage the asked questions and situations.
 How was the sea in the text you have listened?Imagine that you are by the sea.
 Which creatures were there in the sea?Imagine that you are next to that creatures.
 Imagine the school under the sea.Imagine that you are there.
Students are asked to open their eyes and share what they have envisaged.

Extend
Following questions are asked to students and their answers are taken:  What did this text we have examined remind to you?
 Were the heroes in this text like the ones you have expected?
 Why were they no dinosaurs in this text?
 What would you add to this text if you were its writer?

Savor
 What do you think of the class rules now?
 Would you like to be replaced with Mırmır in the text?Why?
 With which animal would you like to be replaced in the text?Why?
 Is this text similar to a text which you listened beforehand?What are the similarities and differences?
After the answers of the students are taken, what is told in the text that was listened is being dramatised by the students.
After the prepared lesson plan is applied, within the scope of the research the acquired data in consequence of the interviews made in order to determine the opinions of students in the study group related to treated lesson are presented in the form of tables.
The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "Did you have fun in the activities performed during this lesson?What was the things that most entertained you?" which was asked students within the scope of the study is presented in Table 2: --According to Table 2, most of the students specified that they had fun in the activities performed during this lesson.And it was determined that the most entertaining elements were performing of drama show, the story being funny, their participation while they listen to the story.
The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "What was the aspects in this lesson that you liked most?" which was asked students within the scope of the study is presented in Table 3: Table 3.The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "What was the aspects in this lesson that you liked most?"  3, students like most the drama activity, the funny story of Mırmır, questions being asked when listening to the text, feeling like being in the sea by wearing glasses and raising the smiling face card.

No
The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "Did the activities performed in this lesson make your understanding of the text easier?How?" which was asked students within the scope of the study is presented in Table 4: Table 4.The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "Did the activities performed in this lesson make your understanding of the text easier?How?"  4, all of the students participating in the study specified that the activities performed in this lesson made their understanding of the text easier.According to the opinions of the students; usage of pictures related to the story, funny activities, making many guesses about the story, envisaging by wearing glasses and feeling like inside the story in activities are the elements which make students' understanding of the text easier.

No
The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "Did the activities performed in this lesson increase your attention to Turkish lesson?" which was asked students within the scope of the study is presented in Table 5:  5, most of the students specified that the activities performed in this lesson increased their attention to Turkish lesson.

Conclusion, Discussion and Suggestions
In this research which the evaluation of the activities in primary school 4. grade Turkish lesson according to ELVES method based on the opinions of the students is aimed, primarily a lesson plan was prepared in accordance with ELVES method and the prepared lesson plan was practised in the class.And after the practise, interview was made with students in the study group.
According to the data acquired from interviews made with students individually, most of the students stated that they had great fun in activities performed in this lesson.And it is determined that the most entertaining elements were; drama show, story being funny, their participation in the story while listening.When the entertaining elements for students are considered as a whole, it is understood that beside having fun in text examination process, they also place importance on participating in the process actively.On the other hand, visuals used related to text are liked by students.
Students liked drama activity, Mırmır's funny story, asking of questions when listening to text, feeling like in the sea by wearing glasses, raising smiling face card most at the lesson.In the text examining process, according to the features students liked, the importance of the texts which is met with students being such as to draw the attention of students and to entertain them is emphasized.On the other hand, it is also seen that beside students being active at every stage of the listening process, their endogenising completely the text they listen in applications like wearing glasses, feeling like they are in the sea and envisaging this are considered important by students.
All of the students participated in this study expressed that the activities performed in this lesson made their understanding of the text easier.This quite remarkable finding also points out what should be taken into consideration in order to make students understand the text easier.In this direction, according to students' opinion; giving place to applications such as usage of pictures related to the story, funny activities, making guesses related to the story, envisaging the events and feeling like inside the story makes students understand the text easier.
Most of the students specified that the activities performed in this lesson increase their attention to Turkish lesson.Accordingly, it can be said that students can learn more effectively and their interest in Turkish lesson may be increased when the listening skills of the students are improved by using a text such as to draw students' attention, activities based upon interactivity such as their participation in learning process actively, their entertaining, usage of visuals about the text and envisaging the text are applied at the same time.

Table 1 .
Distribution of Students According to Gender

Table 2 .
The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "Did you have fun in the activities performed during this lesson?What was the things that most entertained you?"

Table 5 .
The distribution of the answers given by students to the question of "Did the activities performed in this lesson increase your attention to Turkish lesson?"