We are advised to use effectively chalkboards and whiteboards with the following strategies:
You have to remember to organize the board:
As you are selling the material you put on the board, try to arrange it for your customers in an organized, ordered, and attractive fashion. One way to do that is to divide the board into two or three blocks that are to be filled then erased in order.
The use of highlights such as underlines, borders, frames, etc. is also very useful You should not block the view:
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Make sure that you are not blocking the view of the students. Some experts suggest that right-handed instructors may fill the board from right to left (and vice versa for left-handed), so that the students will have a longer viewing time.
Another obstruction is objects such as projectors, briefcases, etc., staying in the students’ view. They tend to annoy students, thus, try to put them aside.
Sometimes, poor lighting can contribute to law visibility of the material on the board.
You must avoid writing in the “dead” area:
For students sitting in the last desk in a class, the bottom of the board is obstructed by the students in the front. That is why it may be considered as “dead”
for them. Thus, avoiding this area is very appropriate. You may set in the back raw while the class is going on to estimate this region. In some situations, it may vary from ten to thirty centimeters. Obviously, this is not the case in an auditorium.
It will be more effective if you write legibly and clearly:
This will help students read, write, and follow what you have put on the board. Small and obscured handwriting is very frustrating to students, reduces their willingness to take notes, and hence, their retention. In general, try to make large clear writings that are not condensed in the space. This works even for instructors whose handwritings are not nice
III.3.2. Tips for using effectively photographs
Some suggested tips should be given to use photographs effectively:
You have to make sure that your students can see your photographs:
Do not display the photograph at where your students cannot see photos clearly. If you stick the photo on the board, you should not stand before the photo.
You can stand aside the photo and use pointer to support what you are going to say.
You must remember not to allow all students touch your photos:
If you are tending to pass your photo around the classroom, it is better if you call one or two students to stand nearly the photo and describe it for every student.
This will avoid students’ neglect of your photo. If you allow all students touch
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your photo, they will pay attention to touching the photo, not what the photo is about.
It had better if you give some questions about the photo:
To help students understand the message of the photo, you can ask them some questions in order they can describes the photo.
Some questions can be:
1. What do you see in this picture?
2. How do you feel when you look at the picture?
3. What do you like about this picture?
4. What do you dislike about this picture?
5. Does this picture have some parts which are more interesting than other parts? What are they? Why are they more interesting?
6. What is the setting? Where? When? Date? Season?
7. Is there any action - describe.
8. Are there main figures?
9. What is the relationship between the main figure(s) and the minor figure(s)?
10. What is the relationship between the figures and the setting?
11. What feelings are exhibited in the picture? Do they "fit" the picture?
12. Talk about shape, line, light and shade, color, tone, texture, balance, repetition, variety, etc., especially in a 'painting" or other "work of art'.
13. What is this picture about? (Some pictures are really "sententious"; other less so).
14. Include both sensory and sentient experiences in discussion. (Sensory Experiences: touch, smell, taste, sight, sounds. Sentient Experiences: [emotional content?] fear, happiness, pleasure, loneliness, longing, sadness, love, hate, etc.)
Of course, after the students describe the photo, you have to explain clearly your photo.
Faculty of Foreign Languages 37 III.3.3. Tips for using effectively posters
It is more effective if you follow some following tips:
You must place the poster at where students can easily see it:
This is the first and foremost most important criterion. If you bring the poster to your class and put it in the place that it is difficult for students to see, your poster will be useless. You have not toput it at too high position because your students will not comfortable when seeing the poster.
You have to remember to take the poster back after using:
Because the poster is big, you have to take it back after you finish what you say. If you do not collect it after using, instead of paying attention to what you are saying, your students will look at the poster and neglect the lesson.
III.3.4. Tips for using effectively computer presentations.
If you want to delivery your computer presentation effectively, some following tips will be helpful:
You ought to practice with computer presentation before using and plan for bad situation:
A computer presentation relies on computer and projector, so you had better check your equipment before delivering it. In real lesson, you certainly run into some troubles such as losing of electric power, having problems from your PC or project and so on. Therefore, you should have a spare plan for unexpected situation.
You should face your students, not your aid
Even though the screen to which you are speaking is behind you. So that you know what your students is viewing at any given time in the presentation, either have a computer screen on a desk in front of you showing the presentation or print off the slides and use the paper copies as a speaking aid.
You should display slides only while discussing:
As with other types of visual aids, you want your PowerPoint slides to be visible only when you are discussing them. You can achieve this goal by adding blank slides as needed. You have to notice, for example, how the speaker in the
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Great Wall presentation uses blank slides at various parts of the speech. By doing so, he keeps his listeners focused on what he is saying at the moment, rather than having their attention diverted by the previous slide. It is also a good idea to add a blank slide at the end of your presentation, so your last content slide will not continue to be exposed after you have finished discussing it.
III.3.5. Tips for using effectively charts
You must display chart where students can see it
If your chart is very large, you can stick it on the board. However, if your chart is not large, you are able to move the chart near the students or pass it around the classroom.
It is better if you explain clearly and concisely the chart:
The chart is the way that covers the complex information and data. Therefore, you have to explain clearly and thoroughly what the chart describe about.
III.3.6. Tips for using effectively models
You have to make sure your students can see it clearly:
Put it in the best place that your students are easy to see and you should not obstruct the view of their students.
You absolutely do not allow all students touch your models because your students will pay more attention to touching the models, not what you are saying.
To solve this problem, you can call one or two students come to the board, see and describe the models.
Faculty of Foreign Languages 39 PART THREE CONCLUSION I.Summary of the study
In conclusion, it cannot be denied that visual aids play an important role in teaching English. However, due to the shortage of time, this thesis cannot reveal all aspects of this subject. Therefore, it mainly focuses on the usage of the mostly used visual aid types of the fifty K35A trainee teachers from Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hanoi Pedagogical University Number 2.
The research outcomes reveal important information regarding visual aid usage in teaching English. The teachers may use the visual graphics colorful slides in their computer presentation as a teaching aid. The thesis gives an understandable and complete picture of the utilization of visual aids in teaching English. Besides, this thesis also gives an overview of visual aids such as related definitions, types, benefits of visual aids. Furthermore, how to design and use effective visual aids are mentioned. I hope that the teachers will have a full look at using visual aids in teaching English.
Through clear and careful analysis and the results collected from the questionnaires, some main findings concerned the research questions have been revealed as follows:
Firstly, the study has found that the most common types of visual aids used in teaching English are blackboards and whiteboards, posters, photographs, computer presentation, charts, models and objects.
Secondly, the study shows that the quality of trainee teachers’ utilization of visual aids is mostly fair. The number of who use visual aids badly is the smallest;
charts and computer presentations are two categories that have the highest number of trainee teachers used badly.
Finally, the study gave some suggested suggestions about how teacher should use some common types of visual aids effectively to have successful lessons.
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