Visual Aids

INTRODUCTION

At the end of this module you will:

• recognise a variety of aids
• understand the importance of 'need first' teaching
• be able to prepare your own aids
• have thought about the pros and cons of various kinds of teaching aids

Audio-visual aids should be seen as just that, AIDS. They are props, pieces of equipment which help us to put across our teaching point. We do not advocate building a lesson around the 'aid', we promote the use of audio-visual aids as our 'helpers'. The aid and the topic content are ‘vehicles’ for language, not the focus of the lesson.

If you enter every class with a 'bag of tricks', including a DVD player, a cassette recorder, a laptop, an overhead projector (OHP) etc, not only will you spend more than half your lesson dealing with the technology, you will also become a slave to these aids and deprive your students of the ultimate aim of communication. They will have no time to communicate if they are:- watching a video, listening to a cassette and looking at an OHP all in one lesson.

Write your lesson plan, then see where you can facilitate more understanding by the use of aids. THE NEED COMES FIRST, and the need decides the type of aid and the way of using it. They must allow us to explain structures and concepts simply or they are not necessary in that particular lesson.

Nor should audio-visual aids be used as a 'treat' for the students, they should be integrated into the lesson to promote practice in spoken and written English.

Also avoid over-use and the regrettable temptation to allow them to become poor substitutes for preparing a lesson! Remember always, that your students learn through the quality of your teaching and the use of your materials, not by the use of gimmicks or your technological know-how.

Now that you are aware of the pitfalls, make use of realia and audio-visual aids to practise language points and to provide extra stimulus.