AUDIO AND VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Coman Valentina

Liceul Tehnologic Constantin Brâncuşi, Piteşti

Rezumat: Articolul îşi propune evidenţierea avantajelor folosirii mijloacelor audio şi video în învăţarea limbii engleze.

Cuvinte cheie: audio, visual, aids, computer, advantages, students

In every country education should be a high-priority situation and this must include the new changes in technologies. Teaching, nowadays, has become a major challenge in the context of new technologies which have revolutionized the world around us.

In this respect, the role played by the computer and the video must be emphasized as a complex and dynamic process of teaching English. Representing a very useful tool, the computer has gained importance in the recent times. The computer offers the students the opportunity to learn by themselves and to manipulate the knowledge that they have already acquired. In the same time, the video exposes our students to genuine images which reflect the civilization and the culture of the people whose language they are going to learn.

The audio aids that the teacher uses in the classroom are extremely effective in improving the phonetics, pronunciation and spoken English of the students. As a listening tool, it enhances the listening experience for our students, but we rarely hear a disembodied voice in real life situations and, as teachers, we frequently ask our students to work with recorded conversation of people they never see. However, this can be changed by using videos and CDs in the classroom.

The teacher of English can use a lot of teaching materials (games, quizzes, songs etc.) materials which can be stored in the computer. The main advantage is that they can be accessed instantly and, thus, a lot of time and effort can be spared in the process of preparing for the next lesson. Using a computer, the teacher can organize the classes more effectively and, on the other hand, the student finds the computer a useful tool of which he never gets bored.

We would also like to mention some of the advantages that the computer and video-based activities bring, in learning and teaching English.

Among the most important we can mention that the students are exposed to high quality images and this can arouse their interest. They become anxious and develop a learning habit. The material helps the teacher to present the lesson in a clear and effective way and this catches the attention of the students. The exercises are game-like and fun at the same time. The students can work through the exercises as much time as they need and learning as they go. Learning with the help of the computer, the students receive immediate and non-judgmental feedback. Gathering information on the computer is an easier and more exciting task and the materials guide students to learn well reducing the stress involved in the process of teaching and learning. There are innumerable advantages offered by the audio and visual aids.

As a conclusion, we may say that using visual and audio aids definitely contribute to achieve our goals in the classroom while teaching English as a foreign language.

References

Damon, Thomas Frank, Using Audio-visual Aids in the Teaching of English, Stanford University, 1948

Salah, El-Araby, Audiovisual for Teaching English, Longman Publishing Group, 1974

Marlow, Ediger, Teaching English Successfully, Discovery Publishing House, 2010

Wright, Andrew, Visual materials for the language teacher, Longman, London, 1976