Main principles of using visual aids in the classroom

Structurally paper consists of Introduction, two chapters, conclusion, a list of used literature and appendix.


CHAPTER I. MAIN PRINCIPLES OF USING VISUAL AIDS IN THE CLASSROOM

1. 
   Definition and kinds of visual aids
   

Visual aids in ESL materials can be defined as instructional aids that display
information visually for the purposes of English teaching or class use. Visual aids can be a mediating tool for language learners of all ages in making sense of the target language— English. Practically, visual aids include everything that a teacher wants to show to the students and to work with for achieving effective materials understanding. Visual aids include any objects used to allow for easy understanding and motivating media for language learning. Composite pictures are appropriate media that can display a series of events, such as storytelling, reading a history, telling a habit, telling a procedure, telling an activity, etc.
Pictures can be in color or black and white, depending on the goal of making use of the pictures. The most important thing is that pictures should be clearly printed or drawn. Second, stick figures are an exciting form of visual media because of their possibility and flexibility in terms of the design and implementation for class use. Such media can be used to visualize such things as objects, actions, emotions, and personalities. Stick figures are also easy to prepare because teachers can probably create stick figures by themselves using simple lines and circles . ²
Stick figures can be used to clarify simple concepts or word meanings to learners. For example, in teaching a comparative sentence, a teacher can simply draw stick figures of two persons with different height on a paper/handout, poster or black/whiteboard to tell the learners a comparative pattern and how to construct comparative sentences.
Thus, teachers should know about whether stick figures can be used for clarifying particular grammatical patterns. Different from that of stick figures, the use of photographs in ELT materials portraits actual matters to the learners. Using good-looking photographs in ELT materials can attract the learners’ attention in order to actively engage in interactive warm-up activity, to learn the ELT materials through actual visuals (e.g., people, places and objects), and to provide particular schematic knowledge of language (e.g., contextual and cultural inputs which are authentic). In ESL materials, a series of photographs can be used to provide students with pictorial stories in which students can tell a particular story. In addition, a series of photographs can be employed to facilitate students in completing visual essay writing tasks. In this task, students are asked to write down and develop ideas based on the photographs given. Graphs and other similar visuals such as charts and tables are properly used to illustrate a comparison of frequency, value or proportion of something, a process and a hierarchical relationship.
These materials are relevant to older learners since to grasp information presented through graphs, charts and tables requires some extent of visual literacy in interpreting the information given. However, simple graphs, charts, and tables are possibly used in teaching young learners as long as they are designed specifically to cater to the learners’ need and suit the learners’ level of understanding.
It is also important to note that the visual aids described above or other visuals can be produced commercially and locally. Commercial visual aids are made for the purpose of business and distributed by copyrights of the authors and publishers. Locally-made or teacher-made visual aids are usually designed by teachers to cater to particular English learning needs. The design of visual aids is not intended to standardize the media among English teachers, but to let the teachers find the flexibility and possibility of particular visual aids for their teaching materials. In such a way, this leads to creativity and innovation in the design and implementation of visual aids in ESL materials².

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