Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition
Visual and audio aids to reading
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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 Reading 108 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 Reading 109 listed there may be borrowed from British Council Offices in various parts of the world. Download 0.82 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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