The use of any teaching aid is more than welcomed in the English classroom. From auxiliary materials such as exercise books, worksheets to authentic materials, menus from restaurants, articles from children’s press, stories, and any type of material may be valuable to the acquisition of knowledge. On-line teaching, which is much used these days, because of these health circumstances around the world, is no less important. On-line one can teach anything, and they might think that the range of approaches, methods is very limited, but it is not so. Yes, there might be shortcomings, but on-line teaching offers other possibilities which are not at hand in face-to-face teaching. When teaching theme-based lessons, language is not picked out and placed in colourful boxes, as in a textbook type of lessons. Thematic vocabulary must be discovered by pupils after some researches and then underlined and organised through mind-maps and vivid boards. First, pupils have to process the information, acknowledge it and then producing it. With textbook lessons, the vocabulary is all established and ready to be memorised.
In the previous chapter I have written about the method teachers should use in order to help pupils learn. Peter Watkins, in his research “Learning to Teach English – A Practical Introduction for New Teachers”, talks about the opportunities pupils need to have in order to practise the new language. Teaching aids are very helpful, especially with the form of the words. Pupils learn a language by hearing it. The more you hear a word, the more you use it yourself. But attention should also fall to the writing of words and their form. Thus, he comes with suggestions about advising pupils to learn: “make sure the learners see/hear new language again and again, not just in one lesson, but over a series of lessons; don’t teach too much new language in one go; write new language on the board (…)”[1]. These simple recommendations have a great impact on the pupil if put into practice. Because most of my pupils learn visually, I have created a space in the classroom where to display the new vocabulary once learnt. Also, at the end of a lesson, another board is written in order to make pupils see the words they used the entire lesson in their play. This game is pleasant for them because it can be done by one of them, or in groups, as a challenge.
With the help of the charts and boards that pupils make and by using teaching aids, lessons become engaging. Teachers should not limit themselves in exposing pupils to as many teaching materials as possible. Learners need to come into contact with authentic language as well, thus CDs and videos on different web-sites are encouraged to be used. Learners need to practise the language, thus different role-plays that depict different contexts of the daily life should be played in the classroom. Teachers need to be constantly updated, by keeping in touch with other colleagues, or participating in different training courses that promote modern ways of teaching.
[1] Peter Watkins (2005) – Learning to Teach English – A Practical Introduction for New Teachers, Delta Publishing, Surrey, England, page 31