Teaching aids in ELL classroom
1. Learners need to develop listening skills, but are very nervous about listening to tapes.
The fact is that there are not so many auditory students and so the problem of how to adapt audio files to support all the learning styles is obvious. Giving learners a video, that is audio supported by visual aid, will make learners feel much more comfortable with listening .If they don’t understand everything from audio they have a nice opportunity to guess what it was about and then, compare the resuts.The video should be introduced with pre-, while- and post-watching activities to help learners improve listening skills through skills integration.
2. The textbook mainly uses texts to present new language. The layout is not very attractive.
It’s always possible to use:
· different flash cards (with young learners) as they may have either words or pictures, or both variants are possible;
· graphic organizers(charts and diagrams) to systematize the vocabulary;
· visual aids (video) or realia let learners understand the vocabulary much better because they may have a picture of a real thing in their mind.
New vocabulary should be understandable for learners bearing in mind their age peculiarities. So, it’s up to the teacher which of the mentioned aids should be used. No doubt, that the more colourful and realistic the vocabulary seems to learners the better they will understand and remember it.
3. Teacher would like an interesting way of teaching vocabulary such as shiny, glossy, gleaming, sparking etc, which didn't rely on dictionaries.
In my opinion OHP, a computer or a video will help learners understand the words even without translation. For example, to demonstrate the meaning of the words it’s possible to show the Universe with billions of stars(“sparkling”), the sunrays(“shiny”), the surface of the river under the moonlight (“glossy”)and a poet who attracts people’s attention by his( ‘gleaming” )poems.
4. Teacher wants to introduce stories to young learners involving fairy-tale characters.
The best way to introduce stories is with the help of puppets. This can help young learners get acquainted with the story characters, have everybody ‘involved’ in the tale presented. All learning styles will be supported here .Puppets can motivate mix-ability learners to have an active speaking practice.
5. Teacher wants to summarize the main points of the lesson at the end of each class, highlighting points in different colours.
The best way to do this is using a whiteboard or a computer. Having coloured chalks at the lesson either learners or teacher may highlight the key points of their cooperative work in class. This way visual and kinaesthetic learners will be supported. Having a multicoloured survey template in computer learners may mark things they liked/disliked using coloured scale (eg.black-white-yellow-red) where each colour will have different meaning (agree/strongly agree/disagree/strongly disagree). For summarizing different graphic organizers(scales, charts) can be used as well.
6. Teacher wants to encourage learners to use dictionaries to help them with pronunciation.
Working with dictionaries learners will feel responsibility for the results of their individual work. Printed dictionaries almost always have the same structure and not everybody can understand the signs of transcription. That is why on-line dictionaries will really help learners master their pronunciation and will let learners see the visual support, that is a picture, of the word pronounced. It’s always possible to find online dictionaries for different age groups of learners. If there is no Internet access at school a teacher may always download an e-dictionary to CD/computer and let learners work with it.
7. Teacher wants to encourage learners to study outside class.
It’s always possible to make learners study the subject if they are really interested in it and if they understand its practical application.
Computer+learners+teachers may become a powerful way to encourage learners to study outside the class. I mean it’s always possible to organize videoconferences with different English-speaking countries sharing cultural and educational experience, participate in webinars, and use blogs for corresponding with people from all over the world.
The other way to attract learners to study is to have SAC where learners will have an opportunity of self- or peer- assessment according to rubrics or templates worked out by learners themselves.