  We study the effects of channel coupling in the excitation of $^{11}Be$
projectiles incident on heavy targets. The contribution to the excitation from
the Coulomb and the nuclear fields in peripheral collisions are considered. Our
results are compared with recent data on the excitation of the $\halfm$ state
in $^{11}Be$ projectiles. We show that the experimental results cannot be
explained, unless very unusual parameters are used.
