Ielts writing Essentials (book 2)

TOPIC NO. 21
CAN TV TEACH PEOPLE?
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Some people say that television is a very useful tool when it comes to education. Others
argue that television is a much overused, ineffective teacher.
Discuss both of these views and give your opinion as to the usefulness of television as an
educational tool.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge
or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
There is a lot of controversy about whether TV can play a role as a teacher. Some people hold
a viewpoint that it can never be educational at all. Others, although, disagree, referring to
TV's high potentials of teaching through amusement.
As a matter of fact, television nowdays, can hardly be called educational. All those talk shows
and soap operas, we can see every day are completely wastage of time and can even have
negative effects by distracting young and disciplined people from their studies. Moreover,
most of the so called educational programmes like the National Geographic Channel can not
replace books and academic lectures because they tend to entertain people and not have an aim
to give deep and concentrated knowledge.
Hovewer, TV can be a powerful means of delivering information and an effective part of the
learning process. Educational methodologists have proved that more senses are involved at
the time of studying, the more effective results can be achieved. Television produces both
picture and sound, so its usefulness is obvious. Many teachers already use this facility actively
by showing students audio/video cassettes which go as supplementary material to many
language courses. So why not broadcast such movies through television?
The problem of ineffectiveness of television as educational tool is in fact, not a problem of
the television itself, but of people who decide the content of a particular channel. It is hardly
unlikely that content directors would abandon their high profits and change the talk shows to
lectures and video-lessons. Therefore, those, who insist on TV's uselessness maybe right, but
let us not forget that as technology improves, new cheap ways of broadcasting, for instance,
video podcasts have also come up. They can prove to be an exclusive power of learning tool,
such as the television.

---