Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Visual and audio aids to reading
A further series of devices which may help to foster better
understanding are those which involve the use of pictures,
diagrams, charts and models. For example a map of the
submarine base where the commando raid took place—Used
as an example earlier in this chapter—might make the whole
description easier to follow. Similarly a picture of a dagger,
or the real thing, or a cut-away drawing of an automatic
pistol showing how the ammunition clip fitted into it might
help to clarify the conceptualisation of an unfamiliar bit of
military technology. A time line, or diagram, showing the
relationship between the time of narration and the sequence

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of events recounted in the story can also help to make
comprehension easier—especially in longer pieces of writing
like novels where the technique of telling a story in
‘flashback’ is often used. L.P.Hartley’s The Go-between is a
good example, and Joseph Conrad often uses the technique.
Similarly various kinds of tabulation or graph presentation
can make the architecture of a piece of writing clear. It can
show how various themes are developed paragraph by
paragraph or chapter by chapter, how several themes or sets
of characters are treated, with an interweaving of threads of
narrative, the giving of prominence to one event here,
another there, or it can help in keeping track of what
different characters were doing at different times in different
places—as for example in a detective story—so that the
solution of a mystery is clarified. Such visual displays can
often be prepared by the pupils themselves and the exercise
of doing it is a training in perceiving the meaningful
relationships within the text.
The value of aural presentation ought not to be neglected
either. At the very simplest level this may involve no more
than the teacher reading a text aloud. A reading like this may
resolve structural ambiguities like the one in the example
about the programme in Bremen, but it can also emphasise
the organisational signals—first, second, third or as a
consequence, thereafter and so on. With a taperecorder or
record player the roles and characters of participants in
dialogue and even the context of the dialogue can be made
much more vivid, since background noises and sound effects
may be introduced. In particular, understanding a play can
be made much easier and more enjoyable by listening to it
well read—though clearly plays should really be seen in
performance to arrive at the best understanding of them. A
great many courses for the teaching of English to foreigners
published today have taped materials to accompany them
and it is nearly always valuable to have these available to
support the written text, if for no other reason—especially
for the teacher who is a non-native speaker of English. A very
useful list of recorded spoken materials is published by the
English Teaching Information Centre (Information Guide
No. 3. Recorded Material for Teaching English, 1974) and
this is well worth consulting. Many of the records and tapes

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listed there may be borrowed from British Council Offices in
various parts of the world.