MEDIA IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

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Handout 1
What is classroom media in language teaching?
Any aids – mechanical and non-mechanical, glossy and non-glossy, pedagogical and non-
pedagogical, commercial and teacher-made alike – constitute valuable contributions to the
profession of language teaching.
 Chalkboards  Newspapers  Interactive whiteboard
 Textbooks  Radio  Computers
 Posters  Movies  Digital tools (quizzez,
 Pictures  Television kahoot, jamboard…)
 Realia  Tutorial video lectures

Rationale of using classroom media in language teaching

 serve as an important motivation
 create a contextualized situation for presenting and practising language items
 reinforce the direct relation between the language classroom and the outside world
 address the needs of more visual and auditory learners
 enrich students’ language learning experience
 call up students’ existing schemata and maximize their use of prior background
knowledge in the learning process
 provide teachers with a means of presenting material in a time-efficient and stimulating
manner

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Handout 2
INSTRUCTIONAL PURPOSES OF CLASSROOM MEDIA
1. Look at the following list of classroom media. What other purposes can you think of
for each item?
Classroom media Teaching purposes
Chalkboard Writing up planed vocabulary, grammar examples and
explanations

Relia Presenting vocabulary

Flashcards Practising grammar structures

Puppets Introducing new language in dialogues

Charts/Posters Displaying large pictures

CD/DVD player Listening practice

Television Showing movies

Computer Grammar exercises

Digital tools (kahoot, quizziz, Organizing motivating language games

google jamboard…)

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Handout 3

Select two technical media items & two non-technical media ones that you often use in
your teaching practice. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Classroom media Advantages Disadvantages

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Handout 4A
USING CHALKBOARD

1. Here’s a teacher’s chalkboard at the end of a lesson. How could the layout have
been organised more clearly?
2. What other uses of the chalkboard have you practiced apart from writing up things
of your lessons?

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Handout 4B

Using the board

Sue Clarke, Teacher and teacher trainer, British Council, Coimbra, Portugal

Do you have a blackboard, a whiteboard or an IWB (interactive whiteboard)? Whatever type of board
you have in your classroom it is important to be organised and to put yourself in your students' shoes
for a moment. What do they see when they look at your board? In this article we will consider ways of

Board basics
 Your students should have a clear, uninterrupted view of the board. Be careful that you don't
block learners sitting at the sides of the room. When you write something on the board move
away quickly so that students can see what you have written.
 Especially with classes of young learners you need to develop the ability to write on the board
with eyes in the back of your head. Don't turn your back on the class for too long. Good teachers
have the ability to write on the board while still keeping a sharp eye on their students!
 Write clearly on the board and make sure that you have written words/text big enough for
everyone to see from the back of the class. With chalk and blackboard make sure that you wash
the board often so that the writing stays clear. With a whiteboard make sure that the pen you
are using is in a colour that everyone can read - black or blue are best.
 Practise writing in straight lines across the board, particularly if you have students who are not
used to Roman script. In some languages letters may look slightly different or handwriting styles
may be different. Point out the differences to your students and make sure they can read clearly
what you have written.
 Check what you write as you write. Many students have visual memories so we must be careful
about accuracy of spelling and grammar, especially if we intend students to copy it down in their
notebooks to learn.
 Check with your students that they are ready for you to clean the board. If you are waiting for
some students to finish copying or doing an exercise don't leave the others twiddling their
thumbs. Ask them to make a personalised example or start the warm-up for the next exercise
orally.

Organising your board

If your board is messy and untidy then what your students write in their notebooks will be messy too.
 It is a good idea to divide your board into sections. Have one part for use during the lesson which
can be cleaned off and re-used. Use another part for important information which can stay there
for the whole lesson. For example, you could write up a list of the basic aims/activities for the
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lesson so that your students know what is coming. Tick items off as they are achieved during
the class. At the end you can review the lesson aims for students to evaluate what they have
learnt.
 For older learners you could write up other important information - key grammar points or
vocabulary needed for the lesson, or test dates etc. With very young learners it is better to write
this kind of information at the top of the board. Leave the lower part empty for you and the
students to write on. Remember they probably won't be able to reach the top half of the board.

What we can do with the board

We can use the board in many ways in the classroom, not just for writing up new vocabulary. You can
use your board for giving instructions, reinforcing oral instructions. For example, just writing up the
page number and the exercise on the board in a large class saves a lot of repetition! When doing group
work or project work use the board to organise your class - write up a list of who is doing what in each
group.
 You can write up messages, exercises, short texts or items for correction from oral activities.
Coloured chalks or pens are very useful for writing up dialogue parts.
 Use your board to provide records of new words, structures, how a word is used. Or brainstorm
new vocabulary with the class in a spidergram. With more advanced classes you can provide a
record of a class discussion, or give help with planning for writing e.g. for exam tasks.

Displaying
You can use the large surface of your board to display all sorts of items - posters, pictures and flashcards.
Use large pictures for class oral work but have students come out to the board to point to or talk about
various items. Magazine pictures can be used for a variety of oral activities. Flashcards can be used for
many games apart from simple matching activities.
 Try to encourage students to come out to the board to choose, select, order or describe pictures.
All of these will make your classroom more interactive and avoid too much teacher talking time.
 You can display other items such as authentic materials - e.g. maps, adverts, photos, as well as
learners' own work. Remember that you don't have to stick to the board.
 You could display items around the room, particularly if they are not large enough for the whole
class to see at the front. Ask your students to move around and look at the materials.

Playing games
We can play many different games using just the board. Teachers need a repertoire of board games as
warmers, fillers or lesson-ending activities which require no preparation.
 Apart from the traditional games of hangman, and noughts and crosses (answering questions
for O or X) you can play many others.

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 ‘Pictogram' can be played with all levels (Draw a picture and guess the word). With younger
learners spelling races are very popular.
 Word games are an excellent way of settling classes and revising vocabulary. Use anagrams or
jumbled sentences or for Very Young Learners words with missing vowels.

Using visuals
You don't have to be a genius at drawing to use pictures and drawings with your students. In fact, the
worse the drawings are .. the more fun! Try to master basic stick men and faces with expressions,
especially if your students are young learners.
 Drawing pictures is an essential skill for explaining texts and stories to our students. Practise
story-telling with basic pictures on the board. Remember you can ask your students out to the
board to draw too - this is a fun activity at whatever level. You can create picture stories with
your students and use these for further oral or written work.
 Other visuals which are useful to draw are large-scale pictures such as maps, a plan of a town,
a plan of a house/school/new building etc. These could be used with stick on cut outs to provide
a wealth of language practice.

Final tips
Try to make your board as interactive as possible.
 Ask students to come out to draw, write, present or even work. You could allow one group to
work at the board when doing a group task.
 Use your board as support for your voice - to give instructions, examples and feedback.
 You can use board activities as an aid to discipline - settle a noisy class for example by giving a
quick copying exercise or word game. Write a child's name up on the board if they are talking
too much instead of just telling them off.
 Your board is an organisational tool too. Use it as a memory store for things to do or keep you
on track with a lesson. Remember the more organised you are on your board, the more
organised your students will be too.

(Adapted from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/using-board)

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Handout 5A

USING FLASHCARDS AND RELIA IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

1. Look at the following set of flashcards

 How can you use this set of flashcards in your language teaching? Suggest at least three
ways.
 What /drawing may you draw more on an empty flashcard for the set?

2. Imagine that you have these real objects available in your classroom. What language
(words, structure, functions, etc.) could you practise using one or some objects?

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Handout 5B
Using flash cards with young learners
Joanna Budden, British Council, Spain

Flash cards are a simple, versatile, yet often underexploited resource. I would like to offer some reasons
for using flash cards and a selection of activities for use in the Young Learner classroom, although some
of the activities could also be used with fun-loving, lower level adult classes.
In this article there is one example for each type of activity. If you follow this link - Using flash cards -
you will find more examples for each type of activity.
 Why use flash cards?
 Where to get flash cards?
 Activity types for using flash cards
 Memory activities
 Drilling activities
 Identification activities
 TPR activities

Why use flash cards?

Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory reminds teachers that there are many types of learners
within any one class. Gardner's research indicates that teachers should aim to appeal to all the different
learner types at some point during the course. It is particularly important to appeal to visual learners,
as a very high proportion of learners have this type of intelligence. Flash cards can be bright and
colourful and make a real impact on visual learners. Many of the activities outlined below will also
appeal to kinaesthetic learners.
For children at reading age, flash cards can be used in conjunction with word cards. These are simply
cards that display the written word. Word cards should be introduced well after the pictorial cards so
as not to interfere with correct pronunciation.
Flash cards are a really handy resource to have and can be useful at every stage of the class. They are a
great way to present, practise and recycle vocabulary and when students become familiar with the
activities used in class, they can be given out to early-finishers to use in small groups. I sometimes get
the students to make their own sets of mini flash cards that can be taken home for them to play with,
with parents and siblings.

Where to get flash cards?

 Buy them. Some course books provide a supplementary pack of flash cards or they can be
bought in sets.

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 Make them yourself. If you don't have access to professionally produced flash cards, don't
worry, it's really easy to make your own even if you're not very artistic. You can use pictures
from magazines, draw simple pictures or copy from the internet or clip art. The most important
thing is to make sure they are all of the same size, on card (different colours for different sets)
so you can't see through them. If possible you can laminate the sets as you make them and they
will last for years. The advantage of making your own, apart from the fact that they're cheap
and yours to keep, is that you can make sets for your specific needs. You may like to make a set
to use in conjunction with a story book or graded reader, or even to accompany project work.
 Students make them. I have recently begun to incorporate the production of flash cards into the
classroom. After introducing a new lexical set, using realia or the course book, ask students to
produce the flash cards for you. Give each one an item to draw. They can be mounted on card
to make the set.

Activities for using flash cards

I have divided the activities into the following categories: Memory, drilling, identification and TPR
activities.
Memory activities
 Memory Tester
o Place a selection of flash cards on the floor in a circle.
o Students have one minute to memorise the cards.
o In groups, they have two minutes to write as many of the names as they can remember.
Drilling activities
 Invisible Flash cards
o Stick nine flash cards on the board and draw a grid around them.
o Use a pen or a pointer to drill the nine words. Always point to the flash card you are
drilling.
o Gradually remove the flash cards but continue to drill and point to the grid where the
flash card was.
o When the first card is removed and you point to the blank space, nod your head to
encourage children to say the word of the removed flash card.
o Students should remember and continue as if the flash cards were still there. They seem
to be amazed that they can remember the pictures.
o Depending on the age group I then put the flash cards back in the right place on the grid,
asking the children where they go, or I ask students to come up and write the word in
the correct place on the grid.

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This activity highlights the impact of visual aids. It really proves that the images 'stick' in students' minds.

Identification activities
 Reveal the word
o Cover the flash card or word card with a piece of card and slowly reveal it.
o Students guess which one it is.
o Once the card is shown, chorally drill the word with the group using different intonation
and silly voices to keep it fun. Vary the volume too, whisper and shout the words.
Children will automatically copy your voice.
o Alternatively, flip the card over very quickly so the children just get a quick glimpse.
o Repeat until they have guessed the word.
TPR activities
 Point or race to the flash cards
o Stick flash cards around the class.
o Say one of them and students point or race to it.
o Students can then give the instructions to classmates.
o You can extend this by saying 'hop to the cat' or even 'if you have blonde hair, swim to
the fish' etc.
o You can also incorporate flash cards into a game of Simon Says. 'Simon says, jump to the
T-shirt' etc.

(From https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/managing-
resources/articles/using-flash-cards-young-learners)

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Handout 5C

Some ideas for using relia in language teaching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVAQVsAndPk
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources/teaching-secondary/activities/pre-
intermediate-a2/realia
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Mumford-Relia.html
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/realia-0
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/realia-bag
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/how-create-resources-nothing
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/conveying-meaning
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/rachael-roberts/rachael-roberts-realia

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Handout 6

How English language teachers can use pictures in class

By Larissa Albano

Pictures are essential when it comes to engaging students who are learning a new language at any level.
They can be successful study aids during lessons, and they can act as useful prompts to help students
when they are practising speaking.
So how can you use pictures in the classroom? Here are seven tips for bringing visual aids into your
lessons, each starting with one of the letters in 'picture' to help you remember them.

Predict:
Students can look at pictures or watch the first part of a video in order to predict what the topic of the
lesson or the activity will be about.

Interact:
The game Pictionary, in which players have to guess specific words based on their team mates'
drawings, and other mingling games with pictures are fun activities that can be used with both children
and adults to review the vocabulary they have learnt. In order to engage students, teachers can show
a video or a picture only to half their class, and ask them to describe to the other half what they can
see. This second group will then have to try to report what the other students have seen, as accurately
as they can. Everyone will see something slightly different from the others, and the activity will
strengthen their rapport.

Create:
Students can write or tell a story by using a sequence of pictures, or, if the teacher wants to really fire
their imagination, the students can create a story based on just a single picture. This exercise can be
particularly interesting and productive if the teacher encourages students to use specific tenses (such
as past simple vs past continuous), vocabulary or functional language in their story - for example,
describing a conversation at the train station.

Talk:
At the beginner level, some students’ faces go blank when they are asked to answer a question.
Teachers can avoid prolonged silence and prevent their students from feeling embarrassed by providing
them with a picture. They can break the ice by asking the students to describe what they can see in the
picture.

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Understand:
What’s the easiest way to explain the meaning of a word? Show it! Classrooms may be fully equipped,
but they can’t hold everything. If there's an item or object that you want to show your students to help
them remember the word for it, try showing them a picture. Flashcards are an invaluable resource for
teaching or revising vocabulary. They can be easily downloaded or created online.

Reflect:
Not only does a picture give you the chance to reflect on what you can see, but it also represents the
opportunity to develop your other senses by considering what you can hear, smell and touch. This is a
useful exercise for teachers who are preparing their students for a speaking exam. Most of the time,
speaking exams are in pairs and students worry that they may run out of words because their partner
will have already said everything about the picture they have been shown. By using their other senses,
your students can add new information and will be able to avoid repetition.

Enact:
In any class, there is usually someone who is shy or quiet. So how can you draw them out of themselves
and encourage them to practise speaking? If you ask your students – it doesn’t matter how old they are
- to draw a mask, put it on and pretend to be someone else, they may feel less self-conscious. Putting
themselves into somebody else’s shoes can give students the chance to express themselves in a more
forthright way.

(Adapted from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-english-language-teachers-use-

pictures-class)

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Handout 7A

THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

1. Be the best complementary tool for teachers in the classroom

Educational technology today is advantageous for teachers in so many ways. Traditional
education is not so efficient anymore and teachers need to motivate their students more than
ever when presenting any material in the classroom. Books are taking a back seat and
technology means that classes can be much richer in content and more participative than
before.

2. Motivate and stimulate students

The use of technology as much in the classroom as outside it makes the students feel much
more motivated, using devices with which they can practice a language through features such
as voice recognition and interactive multimedia exercises. For young students, it’s much more
stimulating to learn with a lesson on a tablet or smartphone than with a traditional textbook and
its CD of practice exercises. Technology transforms students from passive recipients to active
learners and allows more profound and enriching linguistic immersion.

3. Create a unique experience as much for the teacher as the students

Technology is turning English classrooms into an environment where sharing, debating,
creating, and forming opinions is nurtured, a space which is much more creative and
participatory. English classes stop being boring and bland with a teacher merely explaining
something at a blackboard and become much more active in all senses. Learning is better with
virtual whiteboards; the students are a lot more involved and online exercises and interactive
multimedia content are motivating for them.

Reference link: https://www.dexway.com/5-benefits-of-educational-technology-in-learning-english

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Handout 7B

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF TECHNOLOGY IN CLASSROOM

Benefits

 Increased student engagement

 Encouraging teamwork and collaboration
 Preparing students for life after graduation
 Connecting students and teachers
 Improved teaching outcomes
 Supporting differentiated instruction

Challenges

 Students misusing technology

 Teacher knowledge and professional development
 Keeping students safe online
 Cost of new technology
 Keeping up with changes

Reference link: https://www.goguardian.com/blog/technology-in-the-classroom-importance-

challenges

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Professional Development