The Effectiveness of Visual Aids in ELT

The Effectiveness of Visual Aids in ELT

Language is an important means of communication, which is essential to the existence and development of human society. In today's world only knowledge of the native language is not enough, so more and more attention paid to the study of foreign languages in school. At present, knowledge of foreign languages is a necessity most popular English language, as it has the status of an international language. Based on the requirements of modern education, every teacher has to solve many problems to find modern ways of learning, making it fun and relevant standards, to create the necessary condition of active teaching system of English, providing the process of foreign language acquisition with modern technology, methodological recommendations and supporting materials as well as visual aids in order to make teaching process significantly more efficient and more progressive.

It is not doubt that searching for appropriate and effective teaching materials occupies a great space of teacher’s thinking. Among these teaching materials visual aids have its significant role. Based on the findings of current researches we take much more knowledge through our visual intelligence rather than other senses or intelligences. There is a famous Uzbek proverb “one sighted is worth, a hundred words”.

Over the years, the benefits related to the use of visual aids in the language classroom have been a topic of lively debate. Today, one thing that cannot be denied is that language learners live in a media world, in which most of the information is provided by visual input, through different technological devices.

As scholars have always argued, in order to make the acquisition of the language more meaningful for the students, teachers must bring the real world into the classroom. There are three basic learning styles: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. Visual learners learn better by watching rather than listening and tend to remember details better that they can see. Auditory learners learn best by listening. They depend on hearing and speaking as their main way of learning. They may repeat back to themselves or others to sort through the information that is being conveyed. Kinesthetic learners learn best by using the hands-on approach, active movements, and through experience. They like to learn as they go and generally do not look at the instructions first. In addition, kinesthetic learners usually prefer group or team activities.

As it will be explained by Clark and Lyons, Visual support refers to using a picture or other visual item to communicate with an individual who has difficulty understanding or using language. The visual impact of images has been proved to be superior to the one of texts, and that is why visual aids result to be very effective to help students in memorizing new vocabulary and structures. Based on the ideas of Brinton allows visual materials can create a harmony between the students and the instructional methodology materials. They can be a helpful tool in the language classroom that they help the teacher to clarify, establish, correlate and coordinate accurate concepts, interpretations and appreciations, and enable him to make learning more concrete, effective, interesting, inspirational, meaningful and vivid.

It has been found that the students show favorable attitude toward the use of visual aids agreeing that they facilitate language teaching and learning in diverse ways.

By using visual aids in the classroom, teachers can teach languages making the class interesting. Different visuals bring variation in the classroom teaching which are helpful to draw the attention of the students toward the lessons. For example, if the language teachers use different pictures related to the lesson of the class, the classes become lively as well as learners get some schemata of the topic. It is always better to have something visuals in front of the students so that they can understand the lesson well. As suggested by Gardner’s multiple intelligence, all the learners do not learn in the same way. Some learns better by watching, some learn better by listening and so on. Therefore, having something visuals on the lesson are always helpful for the learners. Using pictures in the class makes the lessons appealing. Recent textbooks and the design of the newspapers which are intentionally designed in ways for grabbing readers’ interest.

The findings of the study suggest that using visuals as a teaching method stimulates thinking and improves learning environment in a classroom. Effective use of visual aids substitutes monotonous learning environments. Students develop and increase personal understanding of the areas of learning when they experience a successful and pleasant learning in the EFL classroom. In addition, students find visual sessions useful and relevant when it has some direct relation to the course content. The present research gave insights on students’ perception and opinions on the use of audio-visual aids and resources. However, it is also important to consider EFL teachers opinions, perceptions, experiences, failures and success while using audio-visual resources.

The technology and education are improving very fast, and taking into a count that teachers are more critical than technological is very important to discover new abilities in order to create students better thinkers.

Summarizing, visual aids are claimed to facilitate the learning process and to improve the outcomes in the language classroom. Visual aids are the devices that help the teacher to clarify, establish, and correlate and co-ordinate precise conceptions, understandings and appreciations and support him to make learning more actual, active, motivating, encouraging, significant and glowing.

Ibragimova Shakhnoza

Syrdarya region

Sardoba district

12^th school English language teacher

THE LIST OF REFERENCES

1. Alderson J.C., Urquhart A.H. Reading in a Foreign Language London, Longman, 1984.

2. Alderson J.C. Assessing Reading Cambridge, CUP, 2004. p. 123-234.

3. Hodgdon, L.Q. (1997). Visual strategies for improving communication: Practical supports for school and home. Troy, MI: QuirkRoberts Publishing.

4. Rashid Hamed Al Azri, Majid Hilal Al-Rashdi The Effect Of Using Authentic Materials In Teaching in International Journal Of Scientific & Technology Research, Volume 3, p 249, 2014