Theme: Teaching aids and teaching materials

 

Problems:

 

1. Introduction

2. Teaching aids

a) non-mechanical aids

b) mechanical aids

3. Teaching materials:

a) A teaching book

b) Pupil’s

c) Programmed materials

d) Visual materials

e) Audio materials

f) Audio-visual materials

4. The qualities of teaching materials

5. Implementing Teaching Aids and materials into school life

 

Teaching Aids and teaching Materials

 

To achieve effective classroom learning under the conditions of compulsory secondary education, the teacher must use all the accessories he has at his disposal in order to arouse the interest of his pupils and retain it throughout the lesson which is possible only if the pupils are actively involved in the very process of classroom learning.

To teach a foreign language effectively the teacher needs teaching aids and teaching materials. During the last few years important developments have taken place in this field. As a result there is a great variety of teaching aids and teaching materials at the teacher’s disposal.

Teaching aids.

By teaching aids we mean various devices which can help the foreign language teacher in presenting linguistic material to his/her pupils and fixing it in their memory, in testing pupils’ knowledge of words, phrases and grammar items, their habits and skills in using them. Teaching aids which are at teachers’ disposal contemporary schools may be grouped into:

a) Non-mechanical aids

b) Mechanical aids

Non-mechanical aids are: a blackboard is perhaps the most useful of visual aids andthe majority of teachers would feel hammered in a classroom which did not have one. It is the oldest aid in classroom; the teacher turns to the blackboard whenever he needs to write something while explaining some new linguistic material to his pupils,

correcting pupils’ mistakes, or arranging the class to work at some words and sentence patterns, etc.; the blackboard can also be used for quick drawing to supply pupils with “objects” to speak about; Unfortunately many teachers do not make full use of the blackboard or they use it badly. Some hints:

 

1) Turn to the students as you are writing and turn round frequently to face them.

 

2) ask them what they think this word picture is going to be

3) Get them to read things as you write them

4) Ask them to spell the difficult words for you

When writing try standing on the right of the board as the students see it.

 

rd drawing, saying that they can’t draw, often without ever having tried. However, simple stick figures are not beyond even the most hopeless artist, and with a little practice every teacher can learn enough to draw simple pictures for drills or picture compositions. The blackboard is probably the most useful visual aid available to use, but our lessons can be enlivened enormously if we have other aids at our disposal.

 

A flannel board (a board covered with flannel or other soft fabric for stickingpictures on its surface). It is used for creating vivid situations which would stimulate pupils' oral language; the teacher can have a flannel board made in a workshop or by one in a specialized shop; the use of a flannel board with cut-outs prepared by the teacher or by the pupils leads t active participation in the use of the target language as each pupil makes his/her own contribution to working out "a scene" on the flannel board;

 

A magnet board (a board which has the properties of a magnet, i.e., canattract special cards with letters, words, phrases, or pictures on it) used with the same purpose as a flannel board.

 

Mechanical aids are: the tape-recorder has come to be an invaluable aid tothe language learner and teacher, and after the

blackboard, is probably one of the most commonly used pieces of equipment in the classroom The tape-recorder allows the pupil to play back the tape listening to the speaker's voice and recording his own on the second tack (twin-track). The tape-recorder is considered to be the most important aid in learning a foreign language. The tape-recorder can obviously be used for all the listening

activities. Listening is a skill which requires a great deal of concentration so it is a good idea to limit the time spent on continuous listening. A very motivating activity for students is to let them write and record dialogues. You could also record students' telling a story.

 

Positioning the tape-recorder is also an important matter. Try to use a speaker which directs the sound at the students; after all, you're not teaching the ceiling. Some criteria for choosing tuned material should be taken into consideration (see "A Training Course for TEFL" by Peter Hubbard).

 

A gramophone or record-player is also an audio equinment available in every school; the record-player is an indispensable supplement to contemporary textbooks and other teaching materials.

 

An opaque projector or epidiascope used for projection of illustrations and photographs.

 

A filmstrip projector which can be used in a partially darkened room.

 

An overhead projector used for projection of a table, a scheme, a chart, a plan, a map or a text for everyone to see on a screen. They can be used both in a daylight and artificial light.

 

Television and radio equipment: Television would make it possible todemonstrate the language in increasingly varied everyday situations; pupils are invited to look, listen and speak; television and radio programmes are broadcast, but it is not always easy for teachers using these programmes to synchronize their lesson time with the time of the television or radio transmission;

 

Teaching machines which can be utilized for present information to thepupils, for drilling, or testing; the teaching machine can provide an interaction between the pupil and the "programme"; the learner obtains a stimulus and a feed-back from his/her response; thus, favorable conditions are created for individual pupils to learn, for instance, vocabulary, grammar, reading, etc.

A language laboratory. This is a special classroom designed for languagelearning. It is equipped with individual seats or semi-private stalls. They are connected with a network of audio writing, the nerve centre of which is the monitoring console which has a

 

Switch board and tape decks, making it to all possible to play tapes

 

And send the programme to all or any combination of booths. The teacher at the monitoring console can listen in, or can have:i two-way conversation with any pupil. There are two main of language laboratories- library a

 

Broadcast system.

 

The language laboratory is used for listening and speaking. It is used for "structural drills" which usually involve rephrasing sentences according to a model, or effecting the substitutions.

 

The language laboratory keeps a full class of pupils working and learning for the entire period, and thus enables the teacher to teach the foreign language more effectively The teacher must know about each aid described above, be able to operate it, and train pupils to use it. When used in different combinations teaching aids can offer valuable help to the teacher of a foreign language in making the learning of this subject in schools more effective for pupils.

Teaching Materials

 

By teaching materials we mean the materials which the teacher can use to help pupils learn a foreign language through visual or audio perception. They must be capable of contributing to the achievement of the practical, cultural, and educational aims of learning a foreign language. The following teaching materials are in use nowadays: teacher's books, pupil's books, visual materials, audio materials, and audio-visual materials.

 

A teacher's book must be must be comprehensive enough to be a help to theteacher. This book should provide all the recorded material summaries of the aims and new teaching points of each lesson; a summary of all audio and visual materials required; suggestions for the conduct of the lesson and examples of how the teaching points can be developed.

 

Pupil's book must include textbooks, manuals, supplementary readers,dictionaries, programmed materials.

Textbooks. The textbook is one of the most important source:; of obtainingknowledge. It contains the material at which pupils work both during class periods under the teacher's supervision and at home independently. The textbook also determines the ways and the techniques pupils should use in learning, the material to be able to apply it when hearing, speaking, reading and writing.

 

The modern textbooks for teaching a foreign language should meet the following requirements:

 

1. The textbooks should provide pupils with the knowledge of the language sufficient for developing language skills, i.e., they must include the fundamentals of the target language.

 

2. They ensure pupils activity in speaking, reading and writing, i.e., they must correspond to the aims of foreign language teaching in schools

 

3. The textbooks must arouse pupils' interest and excite their curiosity

 

4. The textbooks must extend pupils' educational horizon, i.e., the material of textbooks should be of educational value.

 

5. They should have illustrations to help pupils in comprehension and in speaking.

 

6. The textbooks must reflect the life and culture of the people whose language the pupils study.

 

Every textbook for learning a foreign language should contain exercises and texts.

 

The textbooks should provide the revisions of words in texts, drills and speech exercises. Exercises for developing oral language should constitute 40-50 % of the exercises of the textbook. The other 50 % will be those designed for assimilating vocabulary,

grammar, the technique of reading etc.

Manuals. It is a handbook which may be used in addition to thetextbook.

 

Selected reading. There is a great variety of supplementary readers gradedin forms and types of schools.

 

Dictionaries. For learning English there are some English-Russian,English-Uzbek, English-Karakalpak dictionaries available.

 

Programmed materials. They are necessary when programmed learning isused. The main features of programmed learning are as follows

1. Learning by small easy steps. Every step or frame calls for a written or an oral response which requires both attention and thought.

 

2. Immediate reinforcement by supplying a correct answer after each response. The pupil is aware that his response is right. The steps are so small and the their arrangement is so orderly that he is likely to make very few errors. When an error occurs, he discovers his mistake immediately by comparing his response with the one given in "the feed-back",

 

3. Progression at the learning rate of each individual pupil. Each pupil can work at his pace.

 

Visual materials. Objects (Realia). There are a lot of things in theclassroom such as pens and pencils of different sizes and colours/ books, desks, and many other articles which the teacher can use in presenting English names for them and in stimulating pupils' activities to utilize the words denoting the objects they can see, touch, point to, give, take, etc. Toys and puppets may be widely used in teaching children of primary schools, which is the case in the specialized schools.

 

Flashcards. a) Picture flashcards b) word flashcards. A flashcarcl is a cardwith a letter, a sound symbol, or a word to be used for a quick showing to pupils and in this way for developing pupils' skills in reading and pronunciation. Picture flashcards have the advantage that the teacher can prepare them at his/her leisure at home. In this way, they can be made more

attractive and colorful an can include details impossible to include in a hastily drawn blackboard picture. Although, they will probably be used in much the same sort of way and for much the same sort of purpose as blackboard drawings, they have the advantage of cutting down greatly on time as well as providing variety. One can also make double sided flashcards to use when drilling certain contrasting language items, e.g.

 

Side one: She usually drinks tea.

 

Side two: But now she is drinking champagne.

 

Wall-charts: A wall-chart is a big sheet of paper with drawing or words to behung in the classroom and used for revision or generalization of some linguistic phenomenon, such as "English Tenses", "Passive Voice", "Rules of Reading" and so on.

 

Posters or series of illustrations portraying a story. They are used as "props" inretelling a story read or heard.

 

Pictures. a) Object pictures (a bed, a cat, a table)

 

b) Situational pictures (the picture of a boy lying in bed)

 

c) Topical picture (a picture of a bedroom)

 

Printed pictures, magazine pictures. Printed and magazine pictures areone of the most useful visual aids available to teachers. The students can be presented with completely unusual situations in magazine pictures, which at the same time are stimulating and colorful. Magazine pictures are also easily accessible to everyone-they are cheap and easy to find.

 

Photographs. They are of two kinds: black-and-white and colorful e.g.

 

"Views of London" and etc.

 

Albums. An album is a book of pictures or photographs which is used fordeveloping pupils' language skills.

Maps and plans. In teaching English the maps of Great Britain, the USA, andother countries where English is spoken may be used. The plans, for example, of a house, building.

 

Slides. A slide is glass or plastic plate bearing a picture.

 

Audio materials. Tapes and records or discs belong to audiomaterials. Tapes and records are used for teaching listening comprehension, speaking, and reading aloud.

 

Audio-visual materials. Sound film loops and films, are examples of visualmaterials.

 

Sound film loops are becoming popular with the teachers. They are short (1,5-1,7 min.) and the teacher can play the film loop back as many times as necessary for the pupils to grasp the material and memorize it.

 

Films. Specially prepared educational films for language teaching haveappeared, e.g., "Australia", "New York", "Winter Sports¹' and

 

other.

 

Teaching aids used in various combinations allow the teacher to develop his pupils' oral-aural skills: These materials are valuable for presentation, exercised, revision, testing. Visual materials have an important role to play in the development of hearing and speaking skills.

 

Teaching materials can also be used to assist in the general development of the pupil's personality, and 'his is of great educational value.

 

Teaching materials acquire special importance in gaining cultural aims. In this connection it is necessity to mention the qualities teaching materials should possess:

 

1. Authenticity

 

2. Clarity

3. Practicality

 

4. Appropriateness

 

According to A. Spicer, "The purpose of teaching materials is not to usurp the role of the teacher, nor even to make his work easier. Their main purpose is to make it possible for the teacher to teach more effectively, more interestingly and more economically. It is equally important that the material should help the pupil to learn more easily and more rapidly."

 

 

 

Lecture 5