The effects of task materials techniques and other classroom variables on motivation and the learning outcome plan: I. Introduction 3 II. Main part 5

The communicative competence movement
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.