Pictures of objects are very effective materials for teaching - TopicsExpress

Pictures of objects are very effective materials for teaching English. It is said that a picture/ photo worths one thousand words. Pictures can be used in language class in the form of strip story techniques. Students are well motivated to learn language skills, vocabulary, language items and language structures. The picture should be of right size and of quality and should be directly related to the objectives of the lesson. Pictures should be suitable to meet the cognitive level and academic level of the students and should be clear and eye-catching. Students should have enough time to watch them. The timing for the display and removal of the picture should be proper. Using pictures in the class means making the students sensitive to writing and speaking activities, being familiar with foreign culture. The language teacher may describe the picture in sequence orally to make a story and make the students do the same. Posters are wall posters that are other effective visual aids to facilitate language learning-teaching. While using posters as teaching aids the posters should be relevant to the text and they should be available in appropriate size and quality to be used in the class and should be managed to store properly after their use. Posters are to be used to teach composition such as story-writing, essay writing, paragraphs writing, and practising oral work. Posters may have contained the composition work in accordance to the levels of the students. For example once it may have the language items teaching simple past and the next time there should be the use of simple present tense. Posters can be effective and knowledgeable to be in harmony with the objectives of the course in order to decorate the class and to motivate the students for learning English. The unnecessary use of posters and overcrowdings of them may cause inconveniences for learning English. Magazine cut-outs may also be effective materials for language learning to the students. These are infact pictures or any piece of writing like advertisement, report, drawings from magazines or newspaper. Magazine cut outs are generally used vividly for teaching vocabulary; for practising oral work; for practising written composition; and for teaching language situational. They are equally so useful in teaching the meaning of concrete words to the students easily. Magazine cutouts are easy to prepare and are cheaply available for use. They are not only authentic visual aids but also very entertaining and informative means for the learners, even to get information about the current affairs. As they can be easily displayed on chalkboard and white board for teaching English they have been one of the most popular materials of the language learning. Some of the demerits in using cutouts includes , to be selective to choose right magazine cutouts, the need of appropriate sixe to be seen by the all students in the class and inaccessibility of the magazine or newspaper in remote parts of the country. Models can also be effective materials for teaching English. Models are smaller than real objects such as models of birds, vegetables model, vehicle models and other models. These models are often made of mud, stone, cardboard, wax, metals, plastic and different types of paper etc. Models are more advantageous than the pictures for teaching language aspects and language skills to the students. As large, big objects can not be presented in the class the models are locally made and can be brought from the market. They can be easily stored and are set properly after the use for future. They are impressive than the pictures and they are motivating to the students to learn English. Some limitations of models are: difficulty to manage and prepare to present in the class, costly, less impressive than real object, difficulty to carry and store in comparison to the pictures. Pinmen are also known as match stick figures. As the name suggests these materials can be easily drawn by combining pin like lines as black board/ white board sketches, functioning as real picture to be prepared in minimal time and efforts in comparison of real pictures, even for the teachers who are not good artists.