Chuyen de dac biet

Yen lac education office
Phạm công bình secondary school




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Seminar
Using teaching aids
in a language class





The writer : Trương Quang Khánh
The teacher: Trần Thị Liên










School year: 2007 – 2008
Using teaching aids in a language class – By Truong Quang Khanh

A. The acknowledgement.

I. Reason for choosing the topic:
Firstly, “Teaching aid” is one of the subjects in the “Frequency Improving Book” and using teaching aids is also an obligatory thing in class. So I think this is a good chance for us to discuss how to use teaching aids effectively in a language class.
Secondly, Teaching aids can be used to teach in most of the contents of an English lesson such as teaching new vocabulary, structures, grammar, listening and speaking, etc. Necessary teaching aids not only make our periods more lively and exciting, but also help our students more enthusiastically in learning English.
Further more, In the reality of teaching different aspects and skills, teaching aids produce countless unpredictable results which an ordinary class without any aids can not do. A class with a good exploitation of suitable teaching aids is always exciting and sucessful. The teacher can save a lot of time from trying to present and explain new item for students’ practice. The students find it easy to perceive, understand, practise and use the item with confidence and creativity.
Finally, using teaching aids is very important and necessary in new method of teaching English.
II. Understanding the subject:
What are teaching aids ?
1. Definition:
According to Peter Wingard in Teaching English as an international Language – A Practical Guide – teaching aids are any thing from a detailed syllabus, a text book to audio, visual and audiovisual equipment that is used to facilitate and better the result of teachers’ teaching and learners’ learning. They are regarded as the useful servants not masters of the language teaching and learning process. They appear beacause the need of this process.
2. Kinds of teaching aids:
From the obove definition, teaching aids can be grouped into three main kinds:
- Audio aids.
- Visual aids.
- Audio-visual aids.
( Audio aids:
Audio aids such as language laboratory, radio, cassette, tape, teacher’s and student’s voice, etc, are often used for listening comprehension practice.
( Visual aids:
Visual aids are anything visible to students, which the teacher uses for different purposes in the class. They may be objects, pieces of classroom furniture, pictures, cut-out magazine pictures, drawings, cards, maps, teacher and learners themselves and so on. They can be used in different stages of a lesson, and they are rich in forms , cheap to make, easy to find, convinient and effective use in a language class.

Tổ KHXH – English Group
Using teaching aids in a language class – By Truong Quang Khanh

( Audio-visual aids:
Audio visual aids are the combination of the audio and visual aids for convinient, multi-purposed use in a language class, e.g. telivision, recorded film, video, plays, etc. They may be good for listening, speaking and other language skill activities.

Among these three main kinds of teaching aids, the visual ones are the most common and effective in a language class, which Vietnamese teachers at all school levels can find, make and use easily.
III. Some principles of using teaching aids:

The first principle is “good preparation of suitable aids”. When we are assigned with a new language item to teach, for instant, a dialogue, a grammartical structure or a new word, we must ask ourselves the following questions:
- Does it need any teaching aids ?
- What teaching aids will be needed for the presentation, practice and production ?
- Are they easy for us to prepare and simple for students to understand ?
- What language content or exercises will be used with these aids ?
- When is this or that aid used ?
- How is this aid used to achieve the best result ?
- How long is this aid used ?
These questions may help us to decide on the use of teaching aids, type os suitable aid and to prepare the language content, time and way to use it effectively.
The second principle is that it must be exploited to the maximum in the class or else it may waste a lot.
Another principle is that the chosen teaching aid must be suitable to the teaching item and simple enough for students to understand.
The final principle is that the teaching aid must be big enough to be seen or heard by all the students from different parts of the classroom and it must be economic, durable to make and use.
B. Content:
Techniques of using some common audio and visual aids
The most common, effective teaching aids at the disposal and potentiality of Vietnamese teachers of English are surely visual aids, therefore, in this part, some common kinds of visual aids such as board, drawings, pictures, realia, teacher’s action will be discussed in details in the hope that they may be the reference to every teacher of English.
1. Board.
Teacher use the board to make thing clearer to the class and help to focus their attention. So in order to use it effectively, we need to develop good basic techniques of writing on the board and organizing the layout of what we write.
When writing on the board, the teacher should follow the following basic principles:
- Write clearly. The writing should be large enough to read from the back of the class.
Tổ KHXH – English Group
Using teaching aids in a language class – By Truong Quang Khanh

- Write in straight line, neither uphill or downhill.
- Stand in a way that does not hide the board. We can stand sideways, half facing the board and half facing the class with our arm fully extended; in this way we can control the students and the students can see what we are writing.
- Talk as you write. We can say aloud what we are writing so that the students can hear or see the writing at the same time.
- Write only the necessities neatly on the board after they orally presented and understood by the students.
About the organization of the board, there are various ways of dividing it up. I think we should divide the blackboard into three or four patrs.










2. Drawing:
Simple drawings or sketches on sheets of paper or the board can be useful in a language class. They can be used to show or prctise the meanings of grammartical structures, new words about people, attitude, actions, etc in a quick and attractive way. They can create various contexts for students to imagine and use the language meaningfully.
( Drawing stick figures:








( Drawing furniture, studying objects ...




Computer telivision telephone chair table stereo
((( ( ( ( pencil pen notebook envelop ruler ink-pot happy sad


Tổ KHXH – English Group
Using teaching aids in a language class – By Truong Quang Khanh
Example for illustration:
(English 7: Unit 3: Language focus 1(P.39-prepositions) on

Revise and practise using prepositions of position



(English 9: Unit 4: Listen (used to warm up)
T draws on the board and asks some
pre-questions:
+Who are they ?
+Where is Nga now ?
+Can Nga speak English ?
+How can she speak English ?
+What for ?
Sts. look at the drawing, think and give their answers
T. “Today we are going to listen to .....”
Sts.listen to the intrduction.


3. Pictures:
Pictures of various kinds: paitnings, ready-made pictures, wall pictures, magazine-cut-out pictures, postcards, etc, can serve as illustrations to show the meanings of new words, structures, as cues for drills, practice or as stimuli for oral and written work in the class.
Each picture may suggest a lot of language contents for learners to practise. It may be for the practice of prepositions, verb tenses, pattern drills, direct/indirect speech, a dialogue..., they can be used separately as illustrations, cues, explanations for short language context or in a sequence of two or three pictures for longer contexts: a story, a composition... . In these ways they are useful as other aids.



(

cattle baseball volleyball,ball net swim rain
Tổ KHXH – English Group
Using teaching aids in a language class – By Truong Quang Khanh
For example:
(English 8: Unit 12: Listen.(P115)
Or
(English 9: Unit 9: Getting started +Listen and Read
T can use these pictures to ask students to practise talking about the weather
(( It will be sunny and ......
((
((
((
( Pictures for practising the present progressive tense,...





A B C D
( ((
E F G
Sts look at the pictures practise talking what he or she is doing now
e.g: A. She is walking and so on.
4. Realia:
Realia are all real objects, furniture, people available inside or outside the classroom or brought in by the teacher and students for the sake of language teaching, learning. For example: the window, desk, board, students, teacher, toys, studying objects, ect, can be used to present and practise the meaning, use of new words, structures or to create contexts for dialogues between students in pairs, groups. Realia have the same value as pictures, drawings in a language class.
5. Action and performance:
Another common but very useful visual aid in a language class is the teacher’s and his students’ actions, performance.
( Example:
The teacher can walk slowly in front of the class, trying to attract their attention, at the same time intrduce the meaning of the verb “walk” and the present progressive tense:
T: Look, I am walking now. I am not sitting at my table. Now say “walking”
Tổ KHXH – English Group
Using teaching aids in a language class – By Truong Quang Khanh
Sts: Walking, walking
T: Are you w