engleski

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Visual Tools in ELT

The ELT classroom cannot remain separate from the predominantly visual world in which it is located, where both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ media are bursting with images, where most students are visual learners and where the proverb ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ applies more than ever. Visual tools, such as pictures and videos in any available format, can be used for a wide range of activities, from speaking and writing to enhancing students' vocabulary and grammar skills because the simultaneous visual and auditory input provided by visual tools facilitates both teaching and learning foreign languages. According to studies, learners can record images and words in their memories and recall them later in image and/or word forms. In addition, using visual aids has proven to be a great motivational tool for students and teachers alike, as it provides the teachers with the opportunity to express their creativity in preparing new teaching materials. This paper focuses on using visual tools in teaching English as a foreign language at tertiary level, with an emphasis on the role of visual tools in facilitating the teaching and learning of language content widely considered to be ‘difficult’, or at least unpopular (e.g. conditionals, modal verbs, tenses, phrasal verbs and collocations). The paper will provide an overview of the experience in using visual tools with first-year business and cultural management students at the University of Applied Sciences Baltazar Zaprešić, Croatia and the workshop will provide some useful practical examples of classroom-ready exercises.

ELT ; grammar ; visual tools ; vocabulary

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