Content I. Introduction 3 II. Main part 4

II. Main part

1. 
   Using stories in teaching English to young learners
   

It is well known that visual aids are beneficial in English language teaching and make it comprehensible is one of the main aspects to consider in this paper. In spite of the amount of work related to visual aids, when the teaching of oral production is complemented with oral comprehensible input, students can feel more comfortable in their classrooms. Previous work have been made in Chile to teach grammar through visual aids, despite this, using visual aids to enhance oral skills is not mentioned in the work “On the Possibility of Teaching English Grammar through Visual Aids. You Will See What We Mean” (Bravo, Gonzalo. & Villalon, Margarita, 2011). Visual aids offer many advantages (Vale & Freunteun, 1995; Meredith, 1947) and can improve students’ development of oral skills since they provide students with real life simulations.
The main objective of this paper is to examine how the use and integration of visual aids in EFL classrooms enhance and foster oral communication in English language learning. The sections of the paper are organized as follows: Chapter 1 refers to the context in which visual aids are used in Chile and how they foster oral skills comprehensibly. To reach this, the present paper will illustrate different authors’ ideas focusing on the significance of incorporating visual aids with comprehensible input. The concepts visual aids, oral communication and comprehensible input will be described and defined separately to give the readers a wide understanding. Chapter 2 will offer a discussion on the relevance of the relationships of the aforementioned concepts. Finally, conclusions, suggestions and further research are presented.
The literature review was designed with the objective of improving and fostering the communicative skills and competences that XXI century students need to develop following the contents the Ministry of Education suggests in the current English Curriculum.
Justification:
Nowadays, the teaching of English language must respond according to the development of updated teaching techniques. It is known that learners need extra instruction for them to understand better contents, and comprehend a second language. When teaching English, educators must find ways to exemplify and clarify contents to reach different kinds of learners. For this reason, the design and management of visual aids take an important role for the development of linguistic skills in the target language inside the EFL classroom. As Cauley (1954) states, with a broader, richer and more functional concept of the purpose of teaching of English in mind, the search begins for material around which a problem or unit involving the use of English skills can be built.
Nowadays the Chilean Ministry of Education has made a great effort to provide public schools with appropriate materials. For instance, manifold kinds of games, stories full of pictures, didactic text books, and images for students to learn. In regard to the educational material, it can be said that the MINEDUC has also created audio-visual material due to the effective impact they have on students. This visual support consists of high technology devices with the main purpose of supporting better learning which also motivates the continuous updating of them. According to ReCrea (2013), a publishing company, these new visual elements have to be entertaining, mixed with learning elements, innovating and interesting for the students.
The Ministry of Education has also made emphasis on the kind of educational audiovisual aids that are being created, including games and softwares that motivate children and have them interested in such a way that they utilize them correctly so that the main purpose of enhancing the learning process can be accomplished. ReCrea also emphasizes that one of the mayor necessities that audiovisual aids must satisfy is to have the capability of addressing the different stages learners go through (2013).
How appealing the educational material is, is an important factor. In this sense, one can say that if the material is not motivating for students they may lose interest and the purpose of the material may be lost. The importance of the designed material for children and teenagers is also essential (ReCrea, 2013). In regards to the kind of visual
aids, the Ministry of Education considers essential the kind of supplies that are presented to the students, and as they usually do not know how to read, the material needs to be “plenty of sounds, simple and easy to comprehend” (ReCrea, 2013). The creators of these educational materials also emphasize the fact that if they want to succeed with the material for adolescents, they must focus on the context of the students, they must feel identified and the stories must be real. This company also mentions that another possibility is to make those materials interactive motivating the participation of the students (ReCrea, 2013).
Educational material creators have also thought about the educators when designing visual aids. Teachers of English use videos and other devices to present and contextualize situations in which the vocabulary can be used in such a way that students can appreciate the real setting in which they can use the contents (ReCrea, 2013). It is not a surprise that the schools which have used these materials have obtained good results because the students learn more and adapt the contents to real life situations.
Oral communication and visual aids in Chile
Chile is growing in all senses, economically, socially, technologically and
especially in education. It is worldwide known that English is essential nowadays and Chile has intended to be inserted in an increasingly globalized world in which a certain level of English proficiency is an indispensable element. There are certain competences people must develop in order to take part of this globalized world. The MINEDUC (2013) states that “Through English, it is possible to gain admission to a great range of information, and by means of the mass media to know other cultures and realities” (p.
30)².Therefore, the competences to develop in education are focused on oral communication.
Language learning comes from the necessity of all the aforementioned. In education, English has taken an important part of the curriculum where the teacher, the students and the contents are the main components. Therefore, “there is a didactic triangle that should allow students to construct their own knowledge, a process that is not always easy to grasp and produce autonomously” (Diaz, C., 2011). Crooks, 2003, (as cited in Diaz, 2011) states:
“The purpose of teaching English as a foreign language via Chilean public education, semi-public and private education is to give students a linguistic tool that can enable them to understand and communicate information, knowledge and technologies as well as to appreciate other cultures, traditions and ways of thinking”. (para. 4)
One of the major issues when teaching a foreign language is how to prepare learners to develop their linguistic competences and enable them to use the language.
The Chilean curriculum is concerned with the development of skills “according to the methodological and communicative approach” (MINEDUC, 2013, p. 34) to enhance students’ competences. The English curriculum establishes that: “by means of the development of communicative skills, our students will have the possibility of acquiring the necessary tools to get access to information and participate in communicative situations, through conversations, reading and writing” (MINEDUC, 2013, p. 30)³. This means that with the enhancement of the communicative skills students will be able to use their knowledge and will be part of communicative in situational contexts nowadays.
In relation to the communicative skill the English curriculum (2013) contends that “the development of oral skills [...] opens the possibility to start using English to communicate information and to interact with the language in meaningful and familiar situations of daily life and personal interests” (p. 30)
One of the tools that can be used to enrich the Chilean English language lessons is the use of visual aids. The Chilean curriculum also proposes that “to develop and present information through the use of text processers, presentations (power point) graphs, tools and audio and visual applications” (MINEDUC, 2013, p. 15)⁴.
The contents proposed by the Ministry of Education are topics appealing to the students’ level, but they also consists of grammar and structures that the students should be able to show and manage. In this regard, the curriculum indicates that “grammar should be taught contextualized through interesting contents, relevant and motivating, available to interact and communicate” (MINEDUC, 2013, p. 34)⁵. All these suggestions help the teacher conduct and guide (Harmer, J. 2007) the teaching process in benefit of the students and their learning progress, with the final purpose of enhancing their communicative skills in English language.
At Universidad Austral de Chile, some researchers have carried out some investigations about these topics as well. For instance, in relation to visual aids, there is a proposal called “On the Possibility of Teaching English Grammar through Visual Aids: You Will See What We Mean” (Bravo, G. & Villalon, M., 2011). This study attempts to teach grammar through visual aids since the Ministry of Education emphasizes the Communicative Approach. Another research paper “The Impact of Multisensory Teaching Material on Elementary Schools Students’ English as a Foreign Language Acquisition Process under The Focal Skill Approach” (Bennett, D. & Zubber, k., 2012) looks for acquiring English through the use of multisensory teaching materials, but it is not directly focused on communicative skills. It can be said that visual aids have always been an issue of investigation for all the benefits they offer but not all of them intended to foster oral skill specifically.
What Visual Aids are
This section refers to the contributions and descriptions some authors give to the concept of visual aids it description and classification. Visual aids have been used since the beginning of learning and teaching. Most early reviews were concerned with the meaning of visual aids. As there are many authors who refer to visual aids, this literature review attempts to define them from manifold different points of view, thus provide the audience with complete and varied information. Moreover, this paper defines visual aids in different aspects; use, design, function, and the advantages of using them in the teaching-learning process. Gilbert Weaber and Elroy Bollinger (1949) define visual aids as “any specifically prepared drawing, illustration, model, motion picture, film strip, or other device that will expedite learning through the sense of vision” (p. 1). Current thinking contends that “[. . .] educational media or aids refer to all forms of information carriers that can be used to [. . .] store, preserve and transmit or retrieve information to promote and encourage effective teaching and learning activities” (Babalola, B., 2013, p. 108). Therefore, visual aids yield in improving the teaching-learning process. Visual aids are intended to help both the teacher and the students in order to make the contents better understood, to contextualize vocabulary and make it meaningful for the learners.
In this respect Yi-Hsun Lai (2011) maintains that using visual aids “not only stimulate students’ learning interest, but students can also interact with these visual aids, and can relate them to their past experience or their daily life experience” (p. 3). This leads us to confirm that using visual aids properly in the teaching-learning process stimulate students to participate and be familiarized with their own experiences.
Not exempt of defining visual aids, M, Jessa (2008) claims that they “refer to graphs, maps, pictures etc. used as aids in learning” and these can be separable into four categories:
NON-Projected 2D: wall board, roll-up board, picture, poster, chart, cartoon, cue sheet, flannel board, flash card
NON-Projected 3D: cut-out, model, mock-up, puppet, marionette, diorama, vocabulary wheel, keyboard, teaching machine
Projected 3D: slide, transparency sheet, film strip, microfilm, videocassette, CD
Verbal: text book, supplementary reader, workbook, magazine, document, duplicated materials, reference book, newspapers, and clippings. (p. 93)
Regarding this categorization Callista (1938) suggests how visual aids contribute to the teaching-learning process pointing out that visual aids firstly “provide for the learner a concrete picture of the situation in question” (p. 4). Visual resources accompany what is verbally said and help to understand ambiguous situations. Moreover, the school and the teacher must provide interesting sources to offer attractive educative experiences to the students. Callista (1938) also asserts that “another significant value of visual aids is economy of time” (p. 3). Teachers in general must be aware of the time while teaching, and in order to make use of it according to the contents and the learning outcomes it is necessary to manage every single activity and save as much time as possible in order to fulfill the objectives of the lesson.
M. Aina (2006) establishes useful characteristic of visual aids and makes suggestions to prepare and use them inside the classroom. The author includes some
features of visual aids as well. The characteristics Aina (2006) contends are the following:
The pictures, maps and charts should be attractive and with suitable colors.
Writing must be large enough and clear enough to be easily read from the back of the class.
The charts and posters should be accurate in spacing and planning.
The figures and the letters should be well formed.
Objects and pictures should be big enough for children to see from their sitting places.
There should be a great deal of pictures or materials to go round the children if possible.
Apparatus must be accurately prepared and be ready before the lesson.
Let all pupils first see any materials or apparatus before individuals or age group can see [them].
All pictures on the television must be clear and the radio should have a clear sound.
When preparing apparatus, the correct, accurate language and spelling must be considered. (p. 28)
Aina (2006) also outlines that these characteristics are essential when using visual aids properly because they “transmit information in such a fashion that will modify the attitude, habits and practices of students” (p. 35). The fact that the students are interested in an activity provides teachers with a useful tool that teachers must take advantage of.
This section alluded to visual aids in general; its categorization, characteristics, definition, usage and some other interesting features that some authors such as: Callista, Aina, Jesa point out. Next, visual aids are going to be defined from the perspective of the teaching learning-process.
Visual Aids in the Teaching-Learning Process
This section makes mention of the process where teaching and learning can be improved through the use of visual aids. Moreover, it makes reference to how students and teachers are benefited with this improvement in EFL classrooms. Students not only need to be told about specific topics, but they also need to verify the information according to what they have lived or experienced. The presence of visual elements in today’s teaching and learning is increasing as the integration of images and visual presentations with textbooks, instructional manual, classroom presentations, and computer interfaces broadens (Benson, 1997; Branton 1999; Dwyer as cited in Kleinman & Dwyer, 1999). Earlier thinking however, does not disregard this theory, but asserts the idea based on its magnitude as “visual aids in the teaching-learning process contribute significantly and allow students and teachers to fulfil their goals by using them properly” (Callista, 1938, p. 4).
The teaching-learning process is two-sided ( Wilhelm, J., Dube, J., Baker, T., 2003); it needs the teacher as well as the student. Not only can the teacher guide this whole process on his/her own, but s/he also needs an audience willing to give feedback. The student’s concern should be receiving information, constructing knowledge, and expressing outwardly personal ideas. This teaching-learning process is an active non-stop phenomenon where “the teacher is the skilled workman and any good visual aid is merely a tool which the teacher and a group of children can use intelligently in a learning situation, so as to achieve the desired objectives” (Callista, 1938, p. 5). This is the reason why teachers need to do their best to retrieve as much as they can from their students, especially when teaching English as a foreign language. However, this must be accompanied by a proper environment as the study Towards a Comprehensive School Health Program contends that “The school environment must provide for enrichment as well as remediation for optimal learning” (The Health Curriculum Guide, 2013, p. 1). In this sense, the teacher is the main responsible providing the best atmosphere inside the classroom, and make students feel comfortable to participate.
EFL stands for English as a foreign language, which refers to the English language spoken in a country where it is not official, as it is the case of Chile. In this country to be a teacher of English is a difficult task, not only because of the language itself, but also due to the lack of exposure to the language. Hence, teachers must draw on other sources at the moment of performing their work using as many available possibilities as they can to enrich their labor. Yu Ren Dong (2004) states that “we need to lighten the language load of the text for our [non-native English speaking] students using whatever we can, including physical movements, facial expressions, drawings, and real objects” (p. 205). From this, it can be said that teachers must include extra visual resources to give life to what it is said and taught.
Visual aids in teaching English have an important function in educating students and using them in every single class brings several benefits to teachers as well as to learners. Callista (1938) reports that “Visual methods not only increase efficiency of teaching [. .
.] when properly used” (p. 5). Consequently, one can assume that visual aids mean a significant tool for both students and teachers: students learn effectively and teachers save time to fulfill all the topics to be taught.
Any idea or information can be perfectly conveyed by visual material without using necessarily verbal communication. Because of this, visual materials become an indispensable instrument that gives ease at the moment of learning a language or understanding something that implies verbal communication. This occurs because the brain will withhold more information when using dual input during the learning process.
“Learning is the result of integrating all information perceived and processed. This integration takes form in structural modifications within the brain” (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2007, pp. 25-26). The brain lateralization process explains that each hemisphere of the brain has different capabilities according to cognitive functions. Visual input reinforces language learning and makes that both hemispheres work together, thus improving the learning process. M. Hunter and E., Torrance (n.d.) claim the following:
“Schools favor left brain-dependent activities, like the fact of always sitting, learning algebra, etc. Favoring the right hemisphere would include allowing students to stretch out, learn geometry, etc. These remarks led to the methods that engage the two hemispheres, some even going so far as to reinforce activities related to the right hemisphere. An example of these new methods is “show and tell.” Instead of merely reading texts to the students (left hemisphere action), the teacher also shows images and graphs (right hemisphere actions). (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2007, p. 9)
Nonetheless, recent study has pointed out that “It's absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people don’t tend to have a stronger left- or right-sided brain network” (Jeff Anderson, 2013 as cited in The Huffington Post Newspaper, para.
4). This basically means that people can use both sides of the brain for the same cognitive functions that were used to be assigned just to one side of the brain.
Other theories have come out regarding visual communication in learning. For instance, David Sless (as cited in Canning-Wilson, C., 1999) conceived the term of the Thinking Eye to explain the relationship between the functions of the brain and the eyes when learning. The author suggests that vision and thinking are just one process in which none of those concepts can be separated one from another. To support this statement, Canning-Wilson (2001) argues that “the eye is not [biologically] separated from the brain [and] they are part of the same organ” (para. 25).
Both theories The Thinking Eye and The Brain Lateralization point out two different perspectives of the vision and thinking process which converge in the fact that visuals enormously contribute to one’s understanding when learning, and facilitate the conceptualization of abstract ideas, thus producing a mental image of something concrete. Canning-Wilson (1989), in trying to find out why sometimes people tend to forget words when taking an exam even though they know the answer or at least have a general idea, came to the conclusion that images can be retrieved easier in memory.
Visual aids provide more and indispensable resources to students, especially for those students who learn visually. The purpose of visual aids is to increase students’ and teachers’ practices in the teaching-learning process, but in order to do this it is essential to know how to use them. Callista (1938) clearly specifies that:
In order to get good results the teacher should know the different kinds of visual aids together with their use, design and management. Visual aids are creative and easy to use, bragging visual flexibility and brain geniality that makes them an invaluable tool for teaching and learning English. (p. 9)
In other words, Callista (1938) intends to put across that teachers have a powerful tool when they make the most of visual aids, not only for their own benefit, but also for the students giving additional material for them to build new information.
In the teaching process where the teacher has to transmit what s/he knows to the learners, it is well known that the use of visual aids gives good results in teaching English and they have been used for a long time since “the increasing complexity of life urges educator on to find vital, interesting and happy ways of teaching children to understand and appreciate their environment and of stimulating their interests” (Callista, 1938, p. 3). One can infer that the student’s context is as important as their interests, the visual aids have to make them relate their lives’ reality to make it interesting. Moreover, “visuals can be used in any subject area when teaching about concepts as Barbara Allison and Marsha Rehm (2007, p. 4) suggest. Under these theories, researcher can contend that visual aids address different students and contents. In this sense, students are familiarized with the visual aids and will be exposed to other cultures, which undoubtedly makes the learning process meaningful and contextualized. However,
Patrick Meredith (1947) states “. . . their function is not always clearly appreciated-even by teachers who use them” (p. 61). The author also contends that there are some fallacies such as “to suppose that visual aids can do the teacher’s job for him [. . .]” (Meredith, 1947, p. 61). Another significant assumption in the opinion of Meredith (1947) is that visual aids are “merely a superficial and unessential addition to the teacher’s job, making it more entertaining but contributing nothing fundamental to it” (p. 61). As one can see, there is a down side within all the benefits visual aids provide in the field of teaching. It depends on the teachers’ commitment to their work.
This section mentioned visual aids as a tool that can improve the teaching and learning process through the use of them. Moreover, it made clear reference to how students and teachers are benefited in EFL classrooms. Following visual aids are going to be alluded in the sense of how they help in the development of students’ skills.
In this section the main point is to put forward the fact that not only visual aids are used with a particular purpose, but also there are reasons why in teaching it is so important to address all the students and their diverse capacities. Visual aids imply visual methods, visual requirements and visual skills, but as teachers must know, visual skills are not well developed in all the students from the same classroom due to the different sensory preferences and learning styles. Visual aids can provide very useful tools for many students but some of them might not learn by looking at pictures or flashcards, therefore, visual aids must be carefully used in daily activities. Lai (2011) asserts that “Visual aids enable learners to use more than one sense at the same time” (p.
2). In this sense, visual aids support the learning process by addressing every student and their learning styles.
It is recommended to include the sensory preferences as well as skills in the learning process while using visual aids. According to Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers
“Unlike listening and reading which are receptive skills of a given language, speaking and writing skills are widely classified by many researchers as productive and active skills” (p. 293). This means that speaking and writing are the two more reinforced skills during classes, and using visual aids is not exempt of contributing in this aspect. Neeta Sharma (2010) contends “in language learning visual aids are helpful in developing language skills such as speaking and writing as they stimulate the learners’ sense of sight (p. 127). Visual aids can be stimulating and also enjoyable teaching materials for the learner by increasing the attractiveness of the tasks. Moreover, visual aids provide more and indispensable resources to students, especially for those students who learn visually. The purpose of visual aids is to increase students’ and teachers’ practices in the teaching learning process, but in order to do this it is essential to know how to design them addressing students skills, learning styles, among others.
To conclude the main points of this section, it can be said that visual aids are important to address students’ skills and their diverse capacities. Therefore their learning process is enhanced and strengthened. In the coming section receptive and productive skills are going to be depicted.
Receptive and productive Skills: Listening and Speaking
The aim of this section is to introduce the four language skills focusing, in particular, on listening and speaking. As it is well known, “learning styles are the general approaches that students use in acquiring a new language . . .” (Oxford, R., 2003, p. 2). However, it is important to mention that “the instructor’s teaching style should address the learning styles of the learners as much as possible” (Oxford, 2001, p. 1) since he or she is the one in charge of encouraging the students through the activities he or she plans. This implies that teachers must attend “to the practice of the four primary skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing because acquiring a new language necessarily involves developing these four modalities in varying degrees and combinations” (Oxford, 1990. p. 5). Vernier, Barbuzza, Del Giusti, Del Moral state that “if the teacher intermixes these four language skills “EFL students are likely to become communicatively competent” (n. d. p. 2).
The four language skills that teachers have to pay attention to while planning their lessons “are often categorized as receptive or productive” (Nunan, D., 2003, p. 24), what according to Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, and Pincas, (1980), are classified as “On the one hand, listening and reading with understanding are receptive (but not passive) decoding skills; on the other, speaking and writing are productive, encoding skills” (p. 66). The same authors state that a receptive skill “is involved in understanding the message” (p. 65), what is manageable through training in the teaching process as well as the productive skills. The Ministry of Education maintains that:
“Although these skills distinguish areas of learning they should not be developed separately. In the context of real communication, skills occur in an integrated way, since the interaction in the language involves understanding information and sending messages in response to the information received” (p. 31)⁶. Therefore, the integration of the skills should be considered by teachers in order to carry out meaningful and contextualized lessons.
The communicative competence movement that began in 1970s makes emphasis on speaking proficiency (Vernier et al., n.d., p. 276). Speaking as a productive skill cannot ensue without the receptive ones (listening and writing). These authors contend that “students do more listening than speaking” (p. 276) what makes it crucial to define listening skills in this chapter. Regarding the input students can obtain through the receptive skills, the importance of acquiring a language is evidenced in many research studies (Vernier et al., n. d.) which highlight the relevance of some approaches like the Total Physical Response (Asher, J. 1968) and The Natural Approach (Krashen, S. & Terrell, T. 1977) to give students the necessary input before they produce orally. However, “it is undeniable that the emphasis has been put on speaking proficiency in the last years” (Vernier et al., n. d.).
The development of oral production is not exempt of being associated to others skills, as Vernier et al. (n.d.) claim “the emphasis on oral proficiency does not and should not mean that other skill areas ought to be neglected” (p. 276). We cannot separate them but we cannot put them together in every scenario as when we asses listening and speaking; we should bear in mind that “the product of listening and reading is not the spoken or written response” as Douglas Brown (2003, p. 118) reports. People tend to associate productive skills as the result of listening and reading assessments, but “the productive skills of speaking and writing allow us to hear and see the process as it is performed” (Brown, 2003, p. 118).
On the other hand, the receptive skills are “the two more enigmatic models of performance” in Brown’s words (2003, p. 118). The author asserts that “[one] cannot observe the actual act of listening or reading, nor can [one] see or hear and actual product. [One] can observe learners only while they are listening or reading” (p.118).
The result of this is what Vernier et al. (n.d.) suggest as “through reception we internalize linguistic information without which we could not produce language” (p.
276). However, as the focus of this section is to enhance oral production listening and speaking skills will be described.
Listening, as a receptive skill and an element in teaching and learning, “is often implied as a component of speaking” (Brown, 2003, p. 119), that is to say, in order to speak a language we must listen to it first. The author also contends that “a good speaker is often valued more highly than a good listener” (p. 119). However, regarding the aforementioned, to be a successful speaker it is necessary to succeed in language acquisition and it “requires a person to receive and understand incoming information (input)” (Nunan, 2003, p. 24). According to Broughton et al. (1980) “listening should precede speaking” (p. 65), that is to say that not only the teacher needs to focus on speaking of expecting an ideal level of speaking without working on listening or providing listening input to the students first. The authors also mention that:
At first sight it appears that listening is a passive skill, and speaking is an active one. This is not really true, since the decoding of a message (i.e. listening) calls for active participation in the communication between the participants. (1980, p. 65)
This means that listening skill seems to be inactive, but as the person listens, he or she has to make different internal processes to decode the meaning of a message when the people have a conversation and interchange ideas. As Nunan (2003) states “nothing could be further from the truth. Listening is very active” (p. 24) since people do more than listening they make connection to what they know, their experiences or their ideas.
English language teachers must be aware if students understand what they are listening, and here there are components that help the listener to interpret a message: stress, rhythm and intonation, lexis and grammar for instance (Harmer, 2007). Another alternative is “to listen to a passage of natural English speech suitable to their level” (Broughton et al., 1980, p. 68) or as Nunan (2003) suggests “It’s not just what they are listening to. It’s what they are listening for” (p. 30). It is important to set a purpose, or let students find a purpose.
As one can see, speaking or oral communication cannot be mentioned without taking into account the listening skill. It is central to enhance one first and both at the same time. A good listener precedes a prepared speaker ready to decode and feedback inside a lesson, especially when learning a second language.
Regarding speaking, Josef Essberger (2013) claims that “it is the delivery of language through the mouth” (para. 1). Speaking is usually the second language skill
that we learn in our mother tongue as Essberger points out (2013, para. 2). Sari Luoma
asserts that speaking “is generally the most complex process [. . .] in the educational context (as cited in Bougandoura, F., 2013, p. 2). The same author claims that “speaking in a foreign language is very difficult and competence in speaking takes a long time to develop” (p. 7). In this regard, Broughton et al. (1980) outline that:
“However good a student may be at listening and understanding, it need[s] not follow that he will speak well. A discriminating ear does not always produce a fluent tongue. There has to be training in the productive skill of speech as well”. (p. 76)
In this sense, the role of the teacher is fundamental. Despite all the difficulties, the process of teaching English should be contextualized and advantageous for the learners. Not only skills should be developed by using visual and other resources or strategies, but how to do this is important to reach the objectives in teaching.
The aim of this section is was to acquaint the four language skills focusing, in particular, on listening and speaking and how these are related to visual aids and how are fostered when including visual elements inside the classroom. In the following section visual aids are going to be covered from the viewpoint of design and advantages.
Design of Visual Aids and Advantages
This section refers to what must be taken into account when designing visual aids and advantages bearing in mind some authors’ advice and tips. The design of visual aids must be focused on the needs of the target in order to be effective. For achieving this aim, visual aids should be “. . . simple, relevant, and reinforce the content of the speech” (p. 1) as Gates Matthew (2009) contends. The author also asserts that visual aids “. . . convey what words alone cannot, explain abstract concepts, aid retention of information, and maintain audience interest” (p. 1). Regarding Matthew’s point of view, it is not difficult to think that visual aids must be concise and give the necessary information according to the audience or target. A recent research points out that “visuals have been found to be especially helpful when teaching students whose first language is not English (Carrier, 2005; Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2003, as cited in Allison & Rehm 2007). In this regard, visual aids facilitate learning as it has been stated in this research.
When designing visual aids, there must be a starting point as Matthew (2009) suggests, “there are some good design rules to follow. A rule can serve as effective guide, but also can be a constraint . . .” (p. 5). This means that many rules help in creating to design, but there are some rules which according to the situation may be not necessary at all. However, the rules which this author refers to, in order to have an effective result, are the following:
Choosing colors: the color choice when preparing visual aids will impact the audience's ability to read them.
Margins: ignoring margins might be unreadable to the audience as speakers attempt to place too much content on a poster, slide, or overhead.
Beyond bullet points: Less can be more. Bullet points are to serve as sign­posts for the audience.
Readability: when visual aids are an afterthought and created just for the purpose of having a visual aid.
Professional appearance: the credibility can be enhanced or diminished based on the professional quality of their visual ads. (Matthew, 2009, p. 5-7)
Matthew (2009) also claims that “the decisions you make in preparing visual aids “. . . should always include how to best achieve these benefits while avoiding the temptation to overwhelm your audience” (p. 9). This statement can be proved when there is “. . . absence of planning and poorly designed visual aids . . .” (Matthew, 2009, p. 9). Planning visual aids poorly can be easily noticed by the audience since what one person is saying should be related with the visual aids s/he is using. Designing visual aids is a matter of compromising with the audience and being conscious of this compromise since what is said must be reflected on the visual aids, which also give information about the next steps to follow. Likewise, Sharma (2010) argues that “a well- developed language program supported by suitable, relevant and effective aids provides a number of enriching experiences” (p. 127). In this sense, the same author claims that this influences the development of skills.
After knowing how to design visual aids it is appropriate to set the advantages of using them which are manifold especially when they are properly utilized inside the classroom. When one says properly, it means that their optimal utilization leads to a side effect: saving time as Callista (1938) suggests. In this sense Sharma (2010) also asserts that “through such aids we can say much in a short time and in a short form what otherwise would take a lot of time and space” (p. 127).
The purpose of visual aids is to increase students’ and teachers’ practices in the teaching learning process, but in order to do this it is essential to know how to use them. Lenny Laskowski (1997) sets several advantages of using visual aids as follows:
You don’t have to worry about what you’re going to say next - Your next visual aid has your next major idea on it.
Visual Aids allow you to move around the room -Movement helps you to relax and adds energy to you presentations, and allow the listeners to follow you and pay closer attention to you.
You can have good eye contact with your audience - You can look at your audience all the time.
Your audience feels comfortable knowing you’re on your planned track - well designed visual aids show that you have a plan and have properly prepared (p. 1)
These advantages can serve people in any situation; presentations, teaching, among others, as they “can serve as your notes when speaking” (Laskowski, 1997, p. 1). Moreover, they establish interesting pieces of advice to be aware of when using and designing visual aids and how it is possible to obtain good results in teaching English. Visual aids are not easily to design and not only a set of rules come to organize their use, but also some tips have been developed in order to prepare good and organized visual aids in oral presentations. “In any oral communication, concrete images are always more powerful than abstracts concepts” (Tamblyn, D., 2003, p. 214). This leads to suggest that oral presentations must be carefully prepared.
Summing up, the application of visual aids in EFL classrooms implies several issues to take into consideration in order to address students with different characteristics. They refer to anything which is used by teachers or students to facilitate the language learning process. However, the role of the teacher is fundamental in this process; it is the teacher’s duty to conduct the learning and to provide the necessary tools. In this sense, visual aids contribute significantly in this process and in other scenery as is oral communication process.
Conclusion
This paper provides information related to the importance of considering certain factors involved when fostering oral skills in students of English as a foreign language. After elucidating the relevance of promoting oral communication through visual aids and comprehensible input in Chilean EFL classrooms, and having considered the actual context for teaching and learning, it is pertinent to withdraw conclusions and to suggest directions for further research.
Several researches have carried out investigations in relation to visual aids and oral communication. Most have concluded that visual aids are a source of comprehensible input, but the amount of input depends on the quantity of visual materials teachers offer to students in every activity. In this concern, researchers agree that oral communication is a process which involves as much input as possible to reach learning outcomes. Through oral communication students can improve their oral skill; however, the role of the teacher is fundamental to make it possible. The Chilean Ministry of Education expects students to develop communicative skills in order to benefit from using the language in several areas such as education and technology (MINEDUC, 2009).
According to the literature review, the main factors that influence the enhancement of oral skills are visual aids and comprehensible input. When the curriculum contents are provided to EFL students, by means of visual aids, the language learning process becomes appealing and meaningful for them (MINEDUC, 2013) In this regard, visual aids provide a natural environment to the teaching-learning process by emulating reality for English language learners which is favorable in terms of accuracy to convey messages.
The exposure to the target language is fundamental to reach the levels of English expected from Chilean students. Therefore, visual aids, comprehensible input, and oral communication complement each other in a way that makes the foreign language learning process more effective in such a way that it can contextualize the contents proposed by the Ministry of Education.