Școala Gimnazială Dacia Tg. Mureș [302520]

UNIVERSITATEA „PETRU MAIOR” [anonimizat]-[anonimizat] I

Coordonator științific:

Lector. Univ. Dr. Han Bianca Oana

Candidat: [anonimizat] “Dacia” Tg. Mureș

Seria 2016-2018

UNIVERSITATEA „PETRU MAIOR” [anonimizat]-[anonimizat]:

Lector. Univ. Dr. Han Bianca Oana

Candidat: [anonimizat] “Dacia” Tg. Mureș

Seria 2016-2018

Table of contents

Argument ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Young learners ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

What do we expect from a language teacher? ………………………………………….. 5

1. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………. 6

1.1 Background and context …………………………………………………………………. 6

1.2 Purposes …………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

1.3 Significance of the study …………………………………………………………………. 7

1.4 Scope and Definition ……………………………………………………………………….. 7

1.5 Research Outline …………………………………………………………………………….. 8

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………………………………………….. 9

2.1 [anonimizat] ……………………………………………………………………………….. 9

2.1.1 Audio-visual materials in CLT …………………………………………………. 9

2.1.2 Use of visual aids in the Direct Method ……………………………………. 9

2.1.3 The Silent way and use of visual aids………………………………………… 10

2.1.4 [anonimizat]….. 10

2.2 Using the technology in language teaching ……………………………………… 11

2.3 PowerPoint as a visual material ……………………………………………………… 11

2.4 PowerPoint to help presentation skill ……………………………………………… 12

2.5 [anonimizat] ……………………………………………………… 12

2.6 Using picture during English classes ………………………………………………. 13

2.7 Songs in teaching language …………………………………………………………….. 13

2.8 Songs in Designing Activity ……………………………………………………………. 14

2.9 Audio-visual aids in making the class dynamic ……………………………….. 14

2.10 Benefits of using visual aids in teaching reading ……………………………. 14

2.11 The use of visual aids when teaching speaking ………………………………. 15

2.12 Audio-Visual aids in facilitating writing ………………………………………… 15

2.13 Audio and video in listening lessons ……………………………………………… 16

2.14 Planning for teaching listening …………………………………………………….. 16

2.15 Teaching vocabulary with visual aids ………………………………………….. 17

2.16 Challenges of using audio and visual materials during classes ………. 17

2.17 Summary and Implication …………………………………………………………… 18

3. INTERACTIVE SMARTBOARD IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO

YOUNG LEARNERS ……………………………………………………………………………. 19

3.1 Motivation …………………………………………………………………………………….. 19

3.2 Our memory …………………………………………………………………………………. 20

3.3 What is an interactive smartboard? ………………………………………………… 21

3.4 What do smartboards offer? ………………………………………………………….. 22

3.5 Smartboards and its advantages and disadvantages ……………………….. 23

3.6 The organization of the smartboards material ……………………………….. 24

4. LEARNING OBJECTS FOR THE INTERACTIVE

SMARTBOARD …………………………………………………………………………………….. 26

4.1 Evaluation of interactive products ………………………………………………….. 27

4.1.1 Way Ahead – Macmillan …………………………………………………………. 27

4.1.2 Project 1 – Oxford University Press………. ………………………………. 28

4.2 What do teachers say? …………………………………………………………………… 31

4.3 Learning objects ……………………………………………………………………………. 32

4.3.1 The Body ……………………………………………………………………………… 34

4.3.2 Clothes ………………………………………………………………………………… 45

4.3.3 Food …………………………………………………………………………………… 53

4.3.4. Games for revision ………………………………………………………………. 61

4.4 Conclusion on the learning objects in use ………………………………………. 66

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 69

Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………… 71

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 74

Argument

In the period of modern language teaching, a new aspect has been added in the methods and techniques. While the technology is developing, new innovations are brought up in the teaching of language. New technology was developed that many people from the past never dreamt of. Every day, every year, something new appears and we think that this should be the end. How far could people go and where are the limits? Thank to the experts and their cooperation our lives have developed to be more comfortable, easier and even more interesting. Schools are the places where new leaders of evolutional groups start to be formed and the technology that is used in schools has so much to say. However, teachers are the ones who have to stay current with the development of the new technology and to be able to give the knowledge on to the students.

Nowadays, language teachers use different audio-visual aids to help the teaching process. Beside the text books, language teachers are expected to use related pictures, audio materials, videos, power point slides, posters and many other things in language classes. The aim of this study is to find out the benefits that the language teachers and also the learners get when using audio-visual aids in teaching English language. A qualitative method was followed in order to collect the data of this research. It was found that using audio-visual aids helps the teacher and also the learners in teaching and learning the language skills. This research gives guidelines for the teachers on the efficiency of using audio-visuals aids in language teaching.

Young learners

Young learners are usually the students aged between 6 or 7 to 10 or 11 years old. According to Sarah Philips, “it is not so much the age that counts in the classroom as how mature they are” (1993:5). Teaching this age group means that you have to understand them, to know their attitudes, their opinions and what their interests are. Teachers should consider some characteristics when preparing the activities and when they are teaching young learners. The following are some characteristics of young learners presented by Scott, Ytreberg, Philips, Halliwell and Moon:

– students are very curious and active

– students have a limited attention span

– students need interaction in learning

– students are very imaginative

– students prefer physical activities

– students learn by manipulating things

– students mostly rely on speaking

– students require praise under any form

By knowing these characteristics teachers should teach young learners more effectively. For example, young learners are learning best in a playful environment where games and actions are present. Because their short attention spans teachers should explain things at the level of a young learner and be prepared to have answers to the many questions and also to repeat the instructions through actions and repetition. The teacher should guide the young students through the learning process as the students can’t determine what do they need to learn and how to follow rules.

Sarah Philips claims that the activities that are prepared by teachers should not be too complicated in order not to discourage the children . We must not forget what the abilities of their age group are so young students should feel the sense of achievement and satisfaction after and while their work. Listening activities like songs, chants, rhymes with a great amount of repetition are really important. Philips says that: “The kinds of activities that work well are games and songs with actions, total physical response activities, tasks that involve colouring, cutting and sticking, 9 simple, repetitive stories, and simple, repetitive speaking activities that have obvious communicative value”.

What is expected from a language teacher?

According to all the above mentioned characteristics teachers must be able to adapt the teaching and let students to enjoy the process of learning. The following are suggestions that are adapted from publications by Scott, Ytreberg, Philips, Halliwell and Moon:

1. Motivation is a very important thing in order to attract students’ attention.

2. Always try to involve movement. Physical response learning is a typical thing for young learners. Movement is a real natural part of them and students do not notice the learning process.

3. Use many objects and colourful pictures .

4. Play with a language –students need to use the language. Teachers should let young learners to create their own rhymes, songs, sing together, use short stories, fairy tales, poems etc.

5. All four skills are important for the students’ understanding of the language. Teachers should be patient while teaching reading and writing even if they take much time and often very unpopular with young learners.

6. Variety is necessary because students at this age are not able to concentrate too long . The variety could be changing the activities and also the materials used during the lessons, organization, methods etc.

7. Teachers should be systematic and have some routines to follo w. It is really important for students to know what to expect. They enjoy familiar activities; they also enjoy to repeat songs, rhymes, games etc.

8. Teachers should be fair. They should introduce rules and should follow them. When playing different games, Teachers should always praise.

9. Teachers should use the target language so the students could benefit from it. If they get input they will remember more.

10. Teachers should find time for feedback usually after an activity is finished or at the end of the lesson they sholud summarize and evaluate students’ progress and effort.

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the background, context and purpose for this research is discussed. After that, the scope and significance of the research is analysed.

1.1 Background and Context

In the modern period of language teaching, many and different innovations are tested in the field of teaching English. Nowadays, the accent is made on communicative language teaching than the teaching of traditional. While, in the previous time, when you learnt a new language you had to read the literature of that language, now the learning of a new language has developed into a communicative need. People now learn another language after their mother tongue for the reason to communicate with the people from other communities that are speaking another language. As a result, language is learnt for the purpose of communication, not as a subject. This is why with the continous changed necessity of learning language, the teaching methods and also the approaches were adapted. Language teachers try to bring some new innovations when they teach in order to make their language teaching really effective.

Teaching language is considered not to be an easy task and it needs to be quite interesting in order to remove the anxiety of the students. That is why, language teachers are likely to adapt different techniques in teaching language in a more effective and interesting way. Because of the rapid development and availability of technology, language teachers are trying different additional aids with the text books when they teach language. Different smart boards, multimedia projectors, computers, audio and video equipments are making the task of the language teachers more easier and more dynamic.

Language teachers are using the audio-visual aids to deliver their lectures and teach the new language to the young learners making the lesson more interesting and more contextualized. However, the question is, if the use of audio-visual materials during in classes ensure really effective language teaching and learning? The increasing use of the audio-visual materials in the teaching of language made the researchers dwell on these issues and subsequently, on the present research.

1.2 Purposes

This research wants to focus on how language class can be more dynamic and more effective using the audio video aids. This research also investigates the way how the language teachers, as well as students, benefit from the audio-visual materials in the teaching and learning of a language. This research tries to make a clear view of the reason of using audio-visual materials in the teaching of language and also on its advantages from teachers’ and also students’ perspectives.

1.3 Significance of the study

Even if, the use of audio-visual aids in language teaching has become a frequent fashion for the teachers of languages, many of them are not be aware of the real effectiveness of them. This research gives an insight to the language teachers of using audio-visual materials in facilitating language skills of the students. The findings of the study should help the language teachers to know more about the efficiency of using audio-visual materials during the classes.

1.4 Scope and Definition

Use of audio-visual materials when teaching different language skills is really popular nowadays among the language teachers. The audio-visual materials help the trainers to make the classes more interesting and more enjoyable. It is generally said that learners during the language class when teachers are using different audio-visual aids makes them to pay more attention and to associate their learning with their real life. So, the use of audio-visual materials seems to be efficient for the teachers and also for the learners. This research shows how the audio-visual materials facilitate language teaching and learning for teachers and students, which audio-visuals are more effective, how classroom can become more dynamic because of audio-visual materials and so on.

In this research, the most commonly used terms are audio materials and visual aids. Here, audio materials refer to the fragments and texts that students can hear and that are recorded on CD. Any recorded dialogue, rhymes, speech, song, music can be an audio material for language classes. On the other hand, visuals are those materials like pictures, images, posters, graphics, videos, charts, flash cards etc.

1.5 Research Outline

The research consists of the following chapters:

Chapter One is an overview of the thesis, with background and context of the thesis, purposes of doing this research, significance and scopes of this research.

Chapter Two has the relevant literature review and also the significance and the findings of researches that are done on the related topics. It also shows the way how other researchers found audio-visual materials important for teaching and learning language in their studies.

Chapter Three gives details about the Interactive Whiteboard as an important audio-visual aid in teaching English to young learners.

Chapter Four shows the practical part of my thesis. Based on the theoretical part I tried to make some learning objects which were created to help teachers and also their students to put into practice vocabulary, speaking, pronunciation and writing too, as well as to show them how a language can be use for fun while also playing some games.

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses the different issues from different other researches that are really closely associated to the theme of this study. Firstly, there is a theoretical overview of how audio-visuals are an improvement in language teaching and learning. That refers to how different theories about language teaching and learning view the use of audio-materials in the teaching of language. Then, there is analysed the use of different audio-visual aids in English foreign language classes like PowerPoint slides, audio files, images, videos, songs, pictures etc. Then, it refers to how different language skills are facilitated with the use of different audio-materials. In the end, this chapter shows some of the challenges in using audio-visual aids when teaching language.

2.1 Theoretical and methodological aspects of using audio-visual aids in language teaching

Diverse language teaching-learning theories and also methods are supporting the concept of using supplementary audio-visual materials in the teaching of language. The guidelines of using audio-visual materials in language teaching and the relation with the development of language skills are discussed in these theories.

2.1.1 Audio-visual materials in Communicative language teaching

Recently Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is one of the most popular language teaching methods. Introduced in the early 1980s which meant the practical use of the language to communicate everyday. The use of authentic materials is recommended. Teachers should use different audio-visual materials in a communicative language teaching class. Because the aids are in general authentic, there can be a lot of ranges of use of the images and videos in the classroom in order to make the class more interesting and more authentic. Frequently, the activities from the classroom rely on the activities that are in connection to real communication. So, the students can see different visual materials like a map for giving different directions, images for describing places or people. (Freeman, 2000, p. 121).

2.1.2 Use of visual materials in the Direct Method

The Direct Method is one of the language teaching techniques that accentuates the total use of the target language. In this technique, teachers do not use any words in mother tongue in the classroom. The instructions and also other activities are specified using the target language. Even if any student cannot understand a thing, teachers do not use mother tongue; rather they should demonstrate and should show something to make them to understand better. Consequently, teachers can use different visual materials like images and posters in the classroom. An example could be the following situation: if teachers desire to teach how to give some directions to the learners, they could use a map to make the work more easy. Because they cannot use the mother tongue to explain things, using visual materials could be the best option for them. As well, it helps the students to have a clear idea about the topic with the help of visual materials (Freeman, 2000, pp-23-28).

2.1.3 The Silent way and the use of visual materials

In the Early 1970s a new language teaching technique appeared named ‘The Silent Way’ that was based on the Cognitive Approach. The Principles of this technique was that, learning is possible if the student discovers or creates more rather than remembers and repeats what is supposed to be learned, learning is also facilitated by associated physical objects and problem solving concerning the materials that need to be learned. With this method, the use of visual materials make more easy the teaching. Teachers can use sound-colour chart and also colour stick in order to teach the target language. Each color is representing a sound. Teacher points to a color on the chart of colours and the students utter the sound that is represented by the color itself. As a result, the visual materials are included with the method in teaching sounds (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 81-83).

2.1.4 Suggestopedia and audio-visual materials in language teaching

Suggestopedia is a language teaching technique developed by a Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov. This technique of language teaching favourably supports the use of audio-visual materials in language teaching . The most obvious features of Suggestopedia are the decoration, the use of music ,the furniture and arrangement of the classroom and the authoritative behaviour of the teacher (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 100).

Frequently, the arrangement of the classroom in Suggestopedia is with different colorful posters or images so that there is created a relaxing environment for learning and for the students. The main idea of this arrangement of the class is to eliminate the nervousness of the students and ensure a really nice and friendly and comfortable setting of the classroom. It is usually believed that if the students are free of anxiety and are really relaxed and comfortable, it is easier for them to learn new things and a new language. In addition, different types of relaxing music is used in the classroom in order to make the students more relaxed and more attentive to the learning process. The setting of the classroom is arranged in such a way that it can create an image of target language settings.

Freeman (2000) noted, „the challenge for the teacher is to make a classroom athmosphere which is bright and positive. An example could be a classroom where the walls are decorated with different scenes from the country where the target language is spoken. But there is not always possible to do that . In spite of this, the teacher should try to make an environment as nice as possible”.

2.2 Use of technology in language teaching

Science has been an important factor in the field of technology which has made our life easier and also comfortable. The impressive revolution of technologies has been influential. The field of education was also affected by this.. Today, teachers use a lot of technologies during their classes in order to make it diverse and useful from the traditional ones. Because now we have computers, multimedia projectors and interactive or smart boards, it is easier for the teachers who teach a new language to bring and create innovation in language teaching.

2.3 PowerPoint – visual material

In the modern teaching system, one essential material for the teachers is PowerPoint slides. PowerPoint slides are really popular for the teachers from a lot of disciplines. This device made teaching more lively with attractive presentations and audio-visualized kit. Most studies show that students will learn better if the materials are presented throughout visual tools. Teachers also think that PowerPoint makes the content of a lesson more attractive and makes the students more attentive.

In contrast, some think that PowerPoint slides are not in every situation useful for teaching. It can create an edge between the presenter and the audience because the presenter is concentrating more on the slides than on the audiences. According to Norvig (2003), “PowerPoint makes it harder to have an open exchange between presenter and audience, to convey ideas that do not neatly fit into outline format” (as cited in Craig & Amernic, 2006. p. 157). However, Corbeil (2007) in his study has found out that students enjoy PowerPoint because of their brightness, liveliness, clarity and also interactivity. It facilitates the students to understand better because they can see the visual with examples .

2.4 PowerPoint to facilitate presentation skill

Presentation skill is a very important skill because the purpose of learning English is to keep efficient communication. Speaking the target language in the presence of others is not so easy. It is usually quite a difficult job for everyone to give presentation. But when the speakers have some aids in front of them, it is an easier task for them to carry out a speech.

Use of PowerPoint during a presentation has become quite popular in the last period. Because multimedia projectors, interactive and smart boards and computers are available the task for teachers to use Power point slides in their lectures is easier. When using PowerPoint slides, the presenter can be more confident. It also helps the presenters to systemize their speech in a better way and like that the presentation can be more animated by the use of diverse colorful visuals and examples. This also helps the audience to give attention during the presentation because there is also something visual in front of them.

PowerPoint presentation is popular also among the language teachers. Teachers may present the teaching materials in a visual way in the class using a PowerPoint presentation. Also, the power point slides can be used to give examples with video or a lot of images. Consequently, the class is more interesting to the students and they are motivated and involved in all the class activities .

2.5 The use of video as an audio-visual material

Using video in teaching English as a foreign language is a frequent practice for the English teachers. These days, the internet facilities and because different technologies are available the job of the language teachers is easier. Teachers can download a lot of videos suitable for the students from the internet. Because there are many videos suitable for language teaching, teachers can choose whatever they need .

Videos can help language teaching in a lot of ways. It can make the class interesting eliminating the monotony of the students. They can also help the students to create ideas for discussion. This makes the class more attractive and effective.

The use of video in the language teaching guarantees an authentic language input for the students. More, when using content related videos facilitates the students to conceptualize the ideas . Also, students can focus using the contextual language they see in the videos along with non-verbal features of language that will help them to understand the target language .

2.6 Using picture in English classes

A common phenomenon is the use of pictures in language teaching. Pictures or images are effective extra materials in an English class. By using different pictures in classes transforms the class more interesting and more interactive. This also makes the teacher to visualize the content of the lesson. Furthermore, this makes the students more curious and engaged in their jobs. By using pictures when introducing a new topic to the students, teachers make the lesson more real. Like that students can get a better overview of the lesson and also improves their comprehension.

Using audio-video aids the learning becomes more long-lasting than using the traditional books instead. Some of the advantages of using pictures are : they are accesible online, you can find them on google. So anybody can find suitable images for the students. So, instead of giving a verbal lecture, better show a picture that can express a lot of words and learning can become more effective.

2.7 Using songs in teaching language

Another audio-visual aids that can be used when teaching English language to young learners are songs. Through music teachers can create a really relaxing environment. This is very important to reduce the anxiety level of the students. Suggestopedia which is an important teaching theory, supports the idea of listening to music in teaching language classes. So, relaxing music can be played at the beginning of a class in order to get rid of the anxiety of the students and make them attentive to the class. As a result, music is included in the language teaching in Suggestopedia. Songs are considered to be really useful in making the students relaxed in speaking and expressing positive emotions.

2.8 Songs in Designing Activity

In creating activities in a language lesson, songs can be very helpful for the teachers. Songs can be involved in teaching most of the language skills. Teachers can use them mainly in listening activities. Songs facilitate the teachers job to provide language input to the students and using them they can create different activities. Because songs can captivate the attention of the students in an easy way, pupils become more attentive and involved in their tasks. With the help of the songs, young learners are offered a large range of vocabulary and language experience.

Therefore, it is easier for teachers to create and sustain different activities like fill in the blank, crosswords, multiple choice, short questions to verify the students' comprehension of the songs. It is an useful way of evaluating the listening skill of the students. Songs are an interesting way of learning with fun. Furthermore, songs can be used as a pre-task activity. Teachers can verify their students understanding of the theme of a song after they listen to it. Songs may also be a good way of motivation for the students in speaking activities.

2.9 Audio-visual aids in making the class dynamic

Audio-visual materials help the teachers to create an important improvement in the class environment and also in the teaching process. By using audio-visual aids during classes, the topic of the lesson can be presented verbally and also through a visual way which can be very effective for the students and they will pay more attention during the lesson. Because some abstract things in the language can’t be explained verbally through an easy way and the subject matter may not be so clear to the students, teachers use different visual materials and make the learners to understand better. Presenting the visual and verbal things as a whole, students may get the information in a better and quicker way. If the teacher gives the instructions in the class using both visual things and the verbal way the proccess of learning becomes faster.

2.10 Benefits of using visual aids in teaching reading

One important language skill can be considered reading. But, students frequently do not like reading so much. So, the duty of the language teachers is quite difficult. If the teacher succeeds in making the reading attractive including visual aids, students may be attracted to read more. Using visual aids in reading should be profitable in many ways. Different visual materials like images, videos and projectors assist the students in understanding the abstract ideas from the textbook. Furthermore, visual materials make a realistic communication between the readers and the text. The process of reading becomes faster, interesting and active. Readers feel more interested in the text through visual materials.

2.11 Usefulness of visual aids in teaching speaking

In this period of communicative language learning and teaching an important if not even the most important language skill is considered to be speaking. If in the past learning a language meant to learn to read the literature of that language, over the years this has changed. These days, language learning is mainly founded on the need of communicating with others. People choose to learn a new language in order to communicate with other people. Consequently, the speaking skill gets maximum priority in language learning. When the language students are requested to speak the language, they found it difficult to speak and many of the students are nervous in their first period of language learning.

So, it is quite a demanding job for the teachers to motivate the students in speaking activities. There are a lot of ways of attracting students to speak in the class and one of the best ways is using visual materials. The correct use of audio-visual materials can help the teachers a lot. Visual materials are usually interesting to the students. Visual materials can make the students attentive easily. When the students see visual materials in front of them that captures their interest , they can be enthusiastic in expressing their opinions about what they see. If they get background information through the visual materials, it is easier for them to speak in the class.

2.12 Visual aids in facilitating writing

Writing is another important language skills. Now, different attractive visual materials are used in order to motivate the students in writing. Teachers use different colored visuals when they are teaching writing. If the students are requested to write a composition on a certain topic that they are studying from the beginning of language learning, they can be bored and become uninterested in the activity of writing. But if the teacher presents some pictures or videos on a certain topic, students can become attracted to write about that. Videos can be used by teachers to help reflective writing. In addition, images can be helpful to encourage students in writing short stories or texts.

According to Harmer (2001), „Teachers sometimes use pictures for creative writing. They might tell the students to invent a story using at least three of the images in front of them (on cue cards, for examples). They can tell them to have a conversation about a specified topic, and at various stages during the conversation, they have to pick a card and bring whatever that card shows into the conversation „(p.135). This type of writing activity is suitable for group writing. Instead of working individually, students can workand cooperate in small groups. This can give them more self-assurance and interest and multiple ideas can appear from the individuals of a group.

2.13 Use of audio and video in teaching listening

Teaching listening is one of the not so easy jobs for the language teachers. What is more, usually, people do not become conscious of the importance of listening. This is why this skill was quite ignored before in language teaching. With the progress of technology, the job of the language teachers became easier. Language teachers may download different listening materials from the internet suitable to the level of learning of their students in a few minutes.

So, the use of audio-visual materials in teaching listening skill has improved considerably. Audio and video materials help the students to improve their pronunciation . When the teachers use videos during classes as listening materials, students can find out about the non-linguistics characteristics which is very important when learning a new language. Having this technology in language teaching, students can experience and get used to the native accent that speakers possess.

2.14 Planning for teaching listening

Before teaching listening in a class, teachers should prepare some proper plans for the lesson they want to present in the classes. Firstly, they need the necessary materials and right equipment to be prepared. Also they should choose the suitable materials according to the proficiency level of the students. If the teachers choose some attractive listening materials, the students will be really interested in an active listening and learning . Besides, teachers should play the role of psychologists and sometimes even of singers and mentors. Furthermore, teachers should give clear instructions before listening starts. If the students know why are they listening the text, they will be more attentive and interested in listening.

2.15 Teaching vocabulary through visual aids

Vocabulary is an important part of language learning. In order to communicate with others through a language, you must know the vocabulary of the target language. So, teaching vocabulary is really important in language teaching. Vocabulary should be taught in a particular context so that it would be easier for the students to keep in mind the words and then use them in their communications.

Visual materials are good resources when teaching vocabulary. It is really useful to present the objects to the students with the words so they will understand and learn better the objects and their meanings. It will be easier for them to remember the words. If the students only hear the new word orally, they may not remembered it for a long time. But, if the vocabulary part is presented with the images, it becomes more efficient.

Furthermore, visual materials facilitate the teachers’ job in giving emphasis on what is being taught and presented. According to Allen, Kate & Marquez (2011), “Visual aids impact and add interest to a presentation. They can create excitement. Visual aids enable students to use more than one sense at the same time. One picture can elicit unlimited words”.

2.16 Challenges of using audio visual materials in class

Even if audio-visual aids help the language teachers to facilitate their teaching, there are also some disadvantages. Sometimes, it could be a waste of time if the selection of audio-visual aids is not realised in an effective way. According to Cakir (2006), the main disadvantages are the costs, inconvenience, maintenance and sometimes the fear of technology.

Moreover, the sound and vision, quality of the copies produced at home could not be ideal. Another important matter in this case is that the teacher should be trained on how to use the video. Or, it becomes boring and unattractive for the students .

So, some factors should be considered when using audio visual materials in classroom. If the materials are not selected cleverly, the objective won’t be fulfilled. Sometimes, the language level of the audio or video can be irelevant for the students. Consequently, the materials are not understandable for them and that could increase the level of anxiety of the students.

Aditionally, sometimes, is very difficult to find the right audio materials for the students of elementary level. If the audio-visual materials are not connected to the contents, they could mislead and make students confused. This is why teachers need to be really careful when selecting the audio-visual aids for their young learners.

2.17 Summary and Implication

The literatures that were discussed in this chapter mainly present the utility of audio-visual aids in language teaching and learning. It is very clear that, audio-visual materials are supported by different language teaching theories like CLT, Suggestopedia, The Silent Way and The Direct Method. It has also been demonstrated that in EFL classrooms, language teaching turns out to be interesting when the teachers use different audio-visuals. Students are really motivated and attentive during classes when different colored audio-visual aids are used. Other literature recommends for audio visual aids to be used in facilitating language skills. Some authors spoke about the challenges of using audio-video aids in language teaching.

On the basis of all the information of above literature, a theory can be made that ‘language teaching is effective and dynamic when using different audio-visual aids.’

3. INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS

3.1 Motivation

First of all, motivation can be described in many ways, but when it refers to teaching and learning it can be expressed as: the reason why a person is doing something, in this case, the reason is for learning.

Teachers usually speak of motivation as being extrinsic (from an external source) or being intrinsic (from internal desire). Motivation can be a personal feature such as curiosity, an aspect of the situation like the theacher's enthusiasm, or a target to be achieved like a grade or a specific skill. Usually, motivation is the consequence of a complex relation between intrinsic and extrinsic influence and targets and the circumstances or setting in which action appears (Leah Davies).

Penny Ur says that motivation is not an easy word to be defined. She says that teachers should reflect on the term ´motivated learner´. This is a person who desires to make an effort in his learning so that he or she could get knowledge of new facts. Young learners are usually pupils at primary level and even fifth graders, usually at the age of 7 to 12. This is a mixed group with different types of motivation for learning. It usually depends on teachers how would they introduce the subject of the lesson they teach and how can they succeed to attract their attention. In general, these young learners are very curious; anxious to find out new things, how these work and what they are for.

Jeremy Harmer affirms that this curiosity is really motivating. However, young learners can’t concentrate for a long period of time, so it is really important to change and alternate the activities. Jeremy Harmer also suggests that young learners “need to be involved in something active and need to be appreciated by the teacher”.

Teachers are partially responsible for young learners motivation so to know the young learners needs is essential for those who desire to be an effective teacher. Aids, approaches, techniques and methods they choose may influence young learners motivation and their desire to learn, to collaborate, and to come to school because they want this not because they have to. Penny Ur and Leah Davies share some ideas regarding how to motivate young learners, what do they expect and the implications for teachers. They recommend that in order to raise their motivation the young learners should:

– be aware of the purposes of each activity they are doing

– demand interesting themes and tasks that have the solution

– manipulate things, look at them, and work with them, meaning that teachers should offer to young learners the resources that invite exploration

– need games

– get entertainment and also have fun

– know that the knowledge they get will be helpful for their future life

– work in a nice and encouraging environment

– expect teachers to treat them fairly and equally

– know that failure does not necessarily mean that they are bad people

– expect to be educated how to learn

– get rewards – teachers should praise them as much as they can

– try new methods, machines and things that are on the market

Smart board can offer almost everything that is mentioned in the list above. In an interactive way young learners individually or in groups can put into practice all the skills and their motivation for learning a new language could increase.

3.2 Our memory

Many psychologists are working with human memory and are trying to discover the best solutions for people to remember as much as they can for a long period. One of them was Edgar Dale, who created “A Cone of Learning”.(taken from NC State University)

Dale’s "Cone of Learning“ says that after about two weeks people are likely to remember 10% of what they are reading, 20% of what they are hearing, 30% of what they are seeing, 50% of what they are hearing and seeing, 70% of what they are saying and 90% of what they say and do. That indicates that when we do something and are involved actively, we tend to remember the most important things. Smart board materials, if they are created following some rules, may result in remembering quite a lot of things.

"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand."

Confucius

3.3 What is an interactive whiteboard?

The first interactive board (IWB) system was produced more than 20 years ago. Since then, it has been used by quite a large number of enthusiastic teachers in a lot of countries in the whole world. Moreover, the number of people who are using it is increasing. The smart board is a technical instrument that can be either put on the wall or on a cart with small moveable wheels so that it can be put anywhere in the classroom or even moved from one classroom to other rooms It needs a connection to a computer and to a data projector with an operating software, that can allow teachers to make their own teaching materials.

We could say that we can attract students’ attention by blending the opportunities that are offered by computers with the simplicity of the smartboard. There are many types of IWB but two of them are usually spread in Romania. The first one has a really hard surface and needs special pens to write on them and the second one has a really soft surface and stundents can easily write on them using their fingers .

Presently, there are three important manufactures of smart boards. They are SMART Technologies, who is developing Smartboard, the second one is Promethean, the developer of the Active Board, and Hitachi, who makes Hitachi DUO Interactive Whiteboard. Lately, the first two boards that are mentioned worked on their own, using their own software, and it wasn’t possible to create materials on Smartboard and use them with Active Board. But, because of an agreement of these two companies, teachers can now take the the best things from both of the boards. Interactive boards offer data to the whole class and allow students to work with them. They offer new topics in a nice, intresting and challenging way.

3.4 What do IWBs offer?

Computers appeared into our lives and we are using them since then for different reasons. Most of the people use them for working reasons, in order to communicate with other people from all over the world, little children like to play games on them, or to watch films, listen to songs, older children can utilize them for learning reasons and for having access to the Internet allows us to an even greater amount of various activities.

How can smart boards be used at school? As I have mentioned before, the smartboard needs to be connected to the computer and also to the data projector. Almost every school has access to the Internet that can offer a lot of ways of using IWBs in the classroom. According to some specialists, teachers, interactive boards producers and my own experiences, below we have a list of ideas and reasons for using an interactive whiteboard:

1. They sustain students’ motivation by permiting them to come to the front of the class and showing their knowledge to the other students from the class by solving a crossword, completing a sentence, a picture etc.

2. Interactive white boards when are connected to the Internet should be used for presenting to the students reality or real situations. An example could be when having a lesson about animals, it is recommended to present not only images of them, but also how do they live at Zoos thanks to the web cameras that are installed there.

3. Images can be used to every language class so instead of looking for magazines and cutting them out from there or printing them from the Internet it is an easier task to prepare them on the interactive board and use them anytime we want to. An advantage could be that we can use images through the IWB in various games.

4. Through IWBs teachers can use video clips, films, audio files like songs, interviews, different websites etc. to their lessons plans. When talking for example about The British Royal Family teachers can visit their official site and also many of unofficial Internet sites presentint to the students not only images but also short videos, reports about their life now and many historical events. Other very interesting themes for young students are for example schools, everyday life, holidays, hobbies, free time activities, animals, going shopping festivals and the list could continue.

5. Games should appear in every English lesson. Thank to the interactive white boards and the Internet teachers can find a lot of online games and let young learners to play either in teams competition or individually .

6. The lessons can be recorded and saved for other uses in the classroom, transmitted for evaluation by students later or to those students who were absent from school.

7. Young learners are really important parts in the process of learning and thank to interactive whiteboards they can easily turn into teachers as well as students.

However, quite a lot of teachers still hesitate and do not desire to change their techniques, methods and style of teaching. To avoid these it would be a good idea to ask those who are using with success the interactive whiteboards to give advice and help the teachers who are not used with IWB’s. It is also really important to encourage them a lot and last but not least motivation also plays a very significant part too. Many specialists suggest not to keep materials only for one's own purposes but to share them. Headmasters should be able to find sufficient money for IWB to become a regular part of each classroom even it is not needed to use it in every lesson. Teachers may be well prepared in other information technologies and may feel comfortable using them.

3.5 IWB with its advantages and disadvantages

It is clear that any technical equipment may have not only a big potential but of course they could cause some problems. According to Gareth Davis, SaraWalker and Richard Falvian and other teachers, here are some of advantages of using interactive white boards :

· we should agree with the fact that “IWB brings everything together at one place, at one time with the use of authentic materials” (Gareth Davis)

· the learning process doesn’t depend totally on books

· they sustain kinaesthetic approach of learning

· they support visual learners

· they offer the use of a lot of graphics, animations, cartoon effects that are appreciated by young learners and also by adults too.

· the exterior world and reality can be moved in a nice and easy way into the classroom

· they could also serve as a motivational tool

· there is not necessary to photocopy every worksheet meaning that they are friendly to the nature

· they let us not only to write, erase, enlarge and make smaller or bigger, circle or highlight sentences or words, but even more important is that we can save or print our young learners work

· they are really easy to use and to also easy to learn to use them

· they are healthier beacuse we don’t use chalk

· they develop the social skills by cooperation and participation

· the materials can be shared and used again

Some disadvantages of using interactive boards may be problems like not having the board switched on, technical problems, difficulties with pens. We can experience these problems any time. Some of these problems could also cause older teachers' refusal for using them. Many young learners like to be in the centre of teachers' attention, they are feeling really good the performances they get and the interactive boards offers them to prove this while the weaker learners could be discouraged for different reasons. Sometimes they may be shy; they are not so familiar with the topic or just don’t want to be in front of the others. Beside with above mentioned problems with interactive boards there is also those regarding the time. Preparation usually for a 50 minutes lesson is consuming our time. It could take more than one and a half hour for only one lesson.

Teachers should also be prepared to get the maximum of the interactive board potential. Finally, the cost of the IWB for one class is quite high in contrast to the traditional blackboards.

3.6 The organization of the IWB material

We all know that someone who is learning a new language, will better remember the new words and the grammatical structure if he or she meets them in varoius contexts.

Teachers should remember all the time that it is essential to start from common to new and from easy to more complicated. IWB aids should be created by following the same principles. They should start with presenting the new vocabulary, put into practice the new words in various ways and after that to practice them in every possible way. Mostly, a young learner when acquiring a language should have all the senses involved and that is possible, and movements also. The repetitions are really essential in various ways so rhymes, songs, poems, short stories and a lot of coloured images could positively influence young learners’ learning.

Following the principles for teaching young learners, teachers should have in mind that it is really necessary to alternate activities quite often and the duration of them should be suitable for the age level .

4. LEARNING OBJECTS FOR THE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD

This part of my thesis will be based on an investigation on the market that I have done. I have looked for some aids which could be helpful for both, teachers and learners of English as a foreign language. The purpose of my searching was to find really interesting, playful, coloured materials that have a teaching value that will be designed for interactive boards use. I have send some questionnaires to some teachers to find what they really want to have and use and also some questionnaires to publishing houses in order to see what the market is offering.

Many of the publishing houses are interested to change their coursebooks into the electronic forms, so they will be used on any type of interactive board . According to the questionnaires and a few discussions I reached to the conclusion that teachers would like additional materials more than having an electronic version for their coursebooks. So, I have decided to make some additional materials that can be called “learning objects” for our goals. These learning objects appear in the second part of this practical part.

Not long ago publishing houses have started to produce various materials for the use of interactive boards that are for different topics. IWBs are extensively spread all around the world and the language that these programmes are using is mainly English. Teachers can browse the Smart Technologies and can find sources that are separated according to topics and grades.

Also exist other Internet pages dedicated to interactive board education. I have also looked for some materials for English teachers. Even if, there are a lot of various learning objects to choose, some of them are of reduced quality. Because I am an English teacher I am firstly interested in aids which can be used as supplementary materials in teaching English. So, I have sent a survey to those who create course books and other supplementary materials for young learners of English. The answered questionnaires returned from Oxford University Press (OUP), Macmillan and Longman.

I have also requested for demo versions of interactive materials in order to evaluate and of course to compare them. As mentioned before there exists a lack of materials that can be used with young learners so the materials that returned are for teenage and adult learners. However, I decided to compare them using the characteristics they should all have and that were mentioned in the theoretical part of this thesis. The questionnaire can be found in the appendix.

4.1 Evaluation of some interactive products

Criteria of evaluation are :

1. attractive form – visuals, layout, typography etc.

2. easy or difficult to orientate

3. clear instructions

4. possibility to add own comments or some slides

5. audio – understanding

6. all four skills practising – variety of activities – e.g. filling the missing words, crosswords, anagrams, twisted sentences, choosing from the options

7. listening – selection of native speakers , interviews, reports

8. giving correct / incorrect answers

4.1.1 Way Ahead – Macmillan

Way Ahead is a 3–level course book for primary students, grades 3-5, published by Macmillan. It also has an interactive programme that consists of 6 CDs that can be used by young learners at home on their computers or by teachers at school with a help of interactive boards. Sadly, the publishing house didn’t send me a demo CD so my records and remarks are only based on demos that they have on the Internet Macmillan’s pages. So, I couldn’t evaluate and compare this interactive programme by my own trying but I could only evaluate what I could see on their internet page.

The first window shows 20 units which correspond to the 20 units that they have in their books. You have to choose a number and you are taken to the activities of that unit. Every unit has four or five activities. We can find the instructions at the top of the page and they are quite easy to read and to understand. Each activity has an example that is demonstrated.

There are a lot of different activities like spelling practise, songs, grammar exercises; vocabulary exercises. Speaking can be practised with matching exercises, by completing some missing words in a dialogue and then the teacher cand decide how to practice them. I didn’t found any dialogues that could be pre-recorded so that students could practise pronunciation oreven hear different dialects.

Images that are presented in these programmes are big and attractive for young learners in order to be attentive. Even if the grammar exercises are followed by supplementary images for example to practise indefinite articles “a” and “an”, students are asked to choose the correct article and place it on a line next to a word. Once doing this correctly, the picture appears. Some images are animated that is very attractive for students of this age. After doing the match students get an immediate response, usually a sound, followed by a word expression like “well done” or “No, try again”.

So, Way Ahead CD ROMs can be used with a course book or only as a supplementary programme for any coursebook used at primary level.

4.1.2 Project 1 – Oxford University Press

Project CD ROMs were produced for the use of both, young learners to practise and revise at home and also for teachers to use it at school to improve their lessons and make them more attractive and interesting. Oxford University Press wanted to prevent people to copy the CDs so they have decided that these CDs could be part of coursebooks. I got a copy of this CD Project 1 so I could try them with my students. They enjoyed it from the first time and were really eager to use them the following year.

Sadly, the activities used there appear in all the units so students get bored easily. It is the teacher’s task not to use many times this CD. Another problem which appeared was that this CD doesn’t use the whole interactive board screen so students need to come closer to the board to see the images and the writing clearly. The video in the culture lesson is quite small. The CD ROM is separated into grammar, vocabulary, situations and culture lessons and it also has two games that are the students’ favourite parts. Every section is divided like the units in the course book.

Every unit covers the subjects from the course book. Grammar part has seven exercises for each unit. The instructions appear in a target language, being quite easy to understand. Students can check the answers after they finish each task.

Vocabulary section practises the new words from every unit. There is also a dictionary and students can find an image next to a word with a recording that they can listen and get the correct pronunciation. Like this they can get an immediate response on their pronunciation. Every unit has a matching exercise, a crossword and three various levels of wordsearch.

Interactive boards offer different tools that can perfectly fit into these types of activities, like hiding a part of a dialogue. The dialogues are recorded so young learners can listen and then repeat them. Culture part has two sections, one is always a video that students can watch and then some supplementary questions to answer. People that are speaking on the video have different ages, can be women or men. The activities cover the subjects from the course book.

This table goes over the most important details about the programmes.

4.2 What do teachers say?

The purpose of the survey for teachers was to find out about the situation in schools. Only 22 out of about 50 returned. I want to present at least some facts I have found out. The first graphic presents the number of schools with IWB .

The following graphic shows the situation that even if teachers have IWB in their schools some of them don’t use them at all.

Those 31% who use them say that they usually use them only for some games from the Internet, for exercises to fill in and sometimes to prepare their materials for further practice. The cause for not using interactive boards is in 100% cases the time for preparing everything. One of the them even mentioned that sometimes they have to organize the materials for the interactive board almost a whole afternoon. If those who don’t use the interactive board had the possibility to use ready made materials they would certainly use them.

Those who use interactive boards say that it is very attractive and interesting for students. The average age of teachers using interactive boards is about 35 years. So, the lack of money for buying an interactive board and a long period for preparing the materials are the biggest obstacles preventing teachers to use this high technical tool in their lessons.

4.3 Learning objects

The circumstances from the market improved in the last years and teachers can find different theoretical and also practical books and materials that they can use in the classes. We can found now the new technology in the classrooms and the publishing houses started to produce some materials for the interactive boards for teachers to use.

We have some coursebooks in interactive versions, some CD ROMs to work at home and at school but unfortunately there aren’t enough supplementary interactive materials that could be used with the coursebooks for more practice in classes while and after teaching a new subject. So, I have decided to make some supplementary learning objects for primary teachers. I have tried to create them following the principles that appear in the theoretical partof my thesis.

The purposes for making these objects were obvious. There are a lot of photocopiable books to choose from when repeating the new vocabulary in the class but there is no possibility to use them with interactive boards. I have designed some learning objects that are following the syllabus of a coursebook and teachers can use them without adjust them.

I have asked my colleagues to pilot these learning objects, to make notes when they think that something is not there, what they enjoy and do not enjoy about them and to tell me about young learners opinions. I have interviewed them and their opinions appear at the end of this part.

Some of the learning objects are presented in the next pages and some observations are added to them. Every page of the objects had been digitalized and copied from the InteractiveBoard Software. Because I wanted save some space there are only some examples of the pages with learning objectives, with the teacher’s remarks and activity notes.

I can’t show the interactive characteristics on a page, so I have tried to digitalize some of the activities after the young learners work, so first the activity is introduced and then there is a page with the answers. Every page also includes indications or suggestions so that teachers will know what my purpose was regarding the activities that are presented.

A few notes are hidden and some are situated at the top of a page. There is the option to adjust the activities to students and teachers’ needs, repeat the pronunciation and so on. Some of the learning objects are relatively large so the teacher can decide which of them to choose to use in the lesson.These objects can’t replace totally a coursebook. They were created for more practice. Some pictures are interactive and help teachers to be more familiarized with the learning objects. They can take the users back to the pages with the content, present them how to go to the next page or guide them to the answer pages where they can find the right answers to some exercises for students to check their answers.

A few of the objects have direct links to Internet pages where they may watch short movies, listen to different songs, see how a British or American school looks like, visit a zoo and many others. All Internet links guide teachers and young learners directly to the pages they want to see.

4.3.1 The Body

On the first page the topic is presented.

On the second page are all the teachers’ remarks and a link to lesson explanations.

The contents pages are interactive and offer to the teachers the possibility to find easy what they desire to practise.

The purpose of this activity is to put the words in the correct places.

Young learners repeat the body vocabulary and try to discover the mistakes that were made by putting back the words under the correct picture.

Wordsearch – young learners have to discover the body words in all nine directions. Doing this they practise spelling. Once the students finish the task they can click on the “Click twice for the answer” button and then they can see the right answers right away.

This page presents the right answers.

In this activity when students click on the dice a different image with various body parts appear and students are asked to say what body part is that. This game can be played in two teams.

This is an activity that practises speaking. Young learners come to the interactive board and complete the text with words that can be found at the bottom of the page. Then what can be practised with the whole class is to describe all the people from the page. This can be a pair work or a group work exercise.

The goal of this page is to learn a body rhyme. First students have to read it and then replace the images with words. After they practice the reading they can learn the rhyme in groups, pairs, or individually.

This is page that contains direct Internet links.

Young learners can practice vocabulary through a famous game called Tic Tac Toe. This activity should to be a short activity that could be used in any lesson in order to practise the language characteristics or only to have fun with the language. Teacher can use flashcards or students can translate the words. Each correct answer gives them a cross or a nought and puts them in a placethat they choose. The goal of the game is to have three of their signs in diagonal or vertical direction. The interactive board software gives the possibility to save objects for later use so anytime a teacher thinks it is time for a Tic Tac Toe game puts a grid from the gallery into a page and students can enjoy the game.

This is a memory game – students have to find a matching pair between the image and the word. It is played in pairs.

This is a matching activity . Students have to put words under the correct images and after clicking on the check button the right answer appears.

Students repeat correct spelling – they can pick a word that they think is spelled correctly, put into boxes under each image and obtain an immediate answer to their choice as it is represented in the next picture.

This slide is a direct link to the Internet page and students learn a song about the body. Students can also hear a pronunciation of a native speaker.

In the next three pages students can practice to understand a text, repeating vocabulary, creating a monster .

Every learning object has at the end a Well Done Page. It also has some interactive features like saying congratulations, clapping hands, saying a rhyme.

4.3.2 Clothes

Learning objectives:

1. Learn some new words

2. Repeat pronunciation

3. Repeat spelling

4. Study the genitive case

5. Repeat the verb “have got”

6. Play some games and enjoy the new language.

On the first page the topic is introduced.

In this activity students can practise spelling. Using the alphabet they place the letters on the lines under each image. The next picture shows an example.

This activity is suitable for all the young learners to check their knowledge about clothes. They come to the interactive board, roll a dice and name an image according to the numbers they have on them.

In the next page young learners have to correct the spelling errors and match the words to the images. If they want to find the right answers they have to put the flowers into the vase. (the next image shows that). This activity can be done with the whole class or individually.

It is really important to practise speaking so students can see the words they are learning in use. In this activity they can repeat the genitive case, ask and answer different questions about the characters in the images. Students have to put the clothes under each person. Then they should ask and answer questions.

The next image presents how the clues and ideas for the teachers are put on the slides. In this exercise students practice speaking. They have to describe how are the people dressed using the verb „have got”.

This is a team game with the instructions presented in the image. The next slide presents a memory game.

In this slide students have to find the right matching pairs.

This game is inspired from the famous game called “hangman”. Students can choose from various versions that appear also in other learning objects. This is a basketball version and students have to pick a letter in order to spell the word in the right way.

4.3.3 Food

Learning objectives:

1. Learn new words

2. Repeat spelling

3. Practice speaking

4. Play some games

On the first page the topic is introduced.

In this two pages a new vocabulary is presented. Teachers can repeat with the students the pronunciation, put the images in various orders and using different skills can teach the new vocabulary. A few of the words are known to students so that’s why there are more than would be advisable to teach in a lesson.

This is a matching exercise.

The purpose of this activity is to repeat spelling of the words by using interactive pens.

This is an activity that improves students’vocabulary and practises pronunciation.

Students in pairs, come to the interactive board, choose a dice, click on it and express what they enjoy or do not enjoy. They can take turns when ask a question: ”What do you like?”

The purpose of the next speaking activity is described on the slide. Students may work in pairs.

This is a fun activity where students have to guess the hidden objects behind the tiles. It can be played in pairs.

This image presents what is hidden behind the tiles. The images are connected to the subjects.

This is a wordsearch activity.

This is a spelling activity. I think this activity is very helpful mainly with students who have difficulties in learning like dyslexia, dysgraphia or others. They even laugh when they hear how the words are spelled but when they have to write always make mistakes. In this activity they feel nice when they choose the right spelling of the word.

This is an interactive game like the famous Tic Tac Toe. The purpose of this game is to repeat vocabulary and also to have fun. Students try to get as many signs (crosses or noughts) as possible by identifying the hidden things rightly . The following is an image of a slide that is presenting some of the pictures that were hidden behind the tiles.

Anagrams. Students have to put the balls correctly in order to gain points.

Well done page at the end of the topic.

4.3.4. Games designed for revision

This learning object was created in order to repeat the vocabulary parts after a holiday.

The learning objectives are:

1. Improve vocabulary

2. Repeat pronunciation,

3. Practise understanding simple questions

4. Practise correct spelling

Subjects to be repeated and revised:

1. The bedroom

2. Animals

3. Holidays, toys and clothes

4. How are you today? (feelings)

5. Different topics in various games

Students have to answer to simple questions and they have to do this by clicking on the letters of the answer in the right order. Like this they practice spelling and also understanding. Even if the time limit ended students obtain points for the right answers.

This is football game – students get hints that describe the animals and they need to spell them right. This way they repeat the reading and understanding of a short text.

In this activity students need to organize the words according to the topics. This should be done as quick as they can because they have a time limit to finish the task.

The following page is about creative thinking. Young learners need to think of words that can be created from the shown phrase. They should express and write their ideas in their notebooks and also on the interactive board.

The next slide is an iteresting board game. Students are grouped into teams. Every team picks out its own cone. Teams will take turns, roll a dice and have to solve the task that they find on the tile. If they are right, they can stay on the tile. If the answer is wrong, they need to return where they were before throwing the dice. Answers can be found on the other sides of the tile. The winning team can see the fireworks. This activity can take quite a long time but it practices reading, speaking and also the understanding of a text.

This is a crossword activity and students can practice here vocabulary, spelling and writing.

4.4 Reflection of the learning objects in use

As mentioned before I have asked my colleagues to use in their classes these learning objects so that I could have some opinions and to find out about some mistakes and problems that could appear. Then we met and in order to find out their opinions. I was interested in students’ feedback, their desire to participate at the activities, the problems that appeared, if the instructions were clear and understandable to them and if the letter fonts and images were big enough to see them.

We are a school with three English teachers. We have six IWBs for the primary classes and two for the secondary level. It is mainly English teachers who use the interactive boards in their classes. The meeting was in a class with an interactive board in it because I wanted my collegues to show me the possible problems and ask me supplimentary questions regarding the activities. The best thing for them was that they could use the interactive board with no preparation time at all because I have offered them the learning objects. I have promised to make the rest of the learning objects soon.

Regarding the pictures teachers and also the young learners appreciated the fact that the pictures weren’t so repetetive so the activities weren’t boring at all. Using different images on each slide means to have a lot of reserves of interesting images. The teachers also said that the pictures were like a surprise for students mainly the ones that were animated. The difference the teachers have observed between a classical blackboard and an interactive board was the young learners participation in activities. The students who usually don’t cooperate were eager to come to the interactive board and participate to the activities.

Certainly, a few problems have appeared too but they were only technical ones, mainly regarding the computer. A few times it took three or four minutes for an Internet page to be opened so one teacher told that students started speaking and she lost some minutes of the lesson. It is advisable to have some short activities prepared before in case technical problems appear.

A different problem that has appeared was about the writing exercises, mainly those where students had to write words by using letters. For these type of exercises students need more time and while one student is writing on the interactive board the others may get bored. So students should repeat writing individually in their notebooks while another student will write on the board. My colleagues also said that when students played a dice game, they made a queue in order to role the dice and one by one did the activity, some of them doing it twice. The following games: anagrams, Tic Tac Toe, quizzes, matching and other games were a great success for students but also for teachers.

It’s true that can appear problems in the future but luckily they won’t be so important and can be repaired in an easy way. If there was an interactive board in every classroom teachers could use just a few of the activities from these learning objects simultaneously with the coursebooks. But because they have the opportunity to use the interactive boards only once or sometimes twicw a week they spend the entire lesson by using it and practising what they have to. I have also noticed that learning objects as have been designed are for really good students but also for slower ones. They raise their motivation, and they can’t wait to have English lessons using the interactive board. The last thing I became aware of is that some pages from the learning objectives are very suitable for even older students. One of my colleague has used The Food lesson for his students using the Snapshot Elementary coursebook, in which Unit 6 is all about food.

CONCLUSION

The major aim of this research was to discover how the use of audio-visual materials helps language teaching and learning. After the data evaluation I realized that teachers and also the young learners show a positive attitude regarding the use of audio-visual materials agreeing that they help language teaching and learning in various ways. Both teachers and students are benefited by the use of audio-visual aids. By using audio visual aids during classes, teachers can teach the target language making the class more interesting. Various visuals bring variety in the lesson teaching which are useful to draw and keep the attention of the students during the activities. An example could be when the language teacher uses different imagess related to the lesson , the classes become more active and students are more interested of the topic. It is really a good idea to have some audio visula aids in front of the young learners so that they can understand the lesson better.

The literatures that was discussed in the second chapter mainly shows the helpfulness of audio-visual aids in language teaching and learning. So it makes clear the fact that, audio-visual materials are supported by various language teaching theories like Communicative Language Teaching, Suggestopedia, The Silent Way and The Direct Method. It has also been said that in English language classes, language teaching is more interesting when the teachers use various audio-visuals. Young learners are very motivated and pay more attention to the activities when different colored audio-visual aids are used. Other literature says that audio visual materials are used to help language skills.

Based on all the information from the literature , a theory can be made that ‘language teaching is more effective and active with the use of various audio-visual aids.’

The main purpose was to design some learning objects that will help teachers and at the same time will be useful when teaching with the help of the interactive boards. I also wanted to find out the advantages and disadvantages of using interactive boards in the process of learning English as a foreign language. Based on the theoretical part I made some learning objects that were created to help teachers and also their students to put into practice vocabulary, speaking, pronunciation and writing too, and also to show them how a language can be use for fun while playing some games too.

I have noticed that learning objects might not only raise young learners’ motivation, but also help teachers’ with their preparation time for the activities also help sudents’ learning in a positive way. It should be clear that when something new appears into our lives we want to discover how useful it can be and find all the possibilities it offers.

I have made a list of the ways that interactive boards can be used at schools. I have also consulted English teachers in order to get some opinions regarding the use of the learning objects that I have made. The feedback confirmed the fact that the interactive board is a very interesting and attractive tool and if objects are really well produced and well used than the process of teaching and also learning becomes an enjoyment for the ones that are involved.

All the results from the data collection sustain the idea that audio-visual materials help language learning. Teachers and also young learners get advantages from various audio-visuals aids in language classrooms. Audio-visuals make the language teaching and learning more efficient transforming the class more interactive and interesting, motivating theyoung learners, helping language skills and many others. If teachers can use the audio-visual materials prudently, the language teaching and learning can become efficient.

Bibliography

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Freeman, D. L. (2000).Techniques and principles in language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Cunning-Wilson, C. (2001). Practical aspects of using video in the foreign language classroom. The Internet TESOL Journal, Retrieved from http://www.tojet.net/articles/v3i3/339.pdf

Mayer, R. E. (2001). The cambridge handout of multimedia learning. New York: Camnridge University Press.

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Craig, R. J., & Amernic, J. H. (2006). PowerPoint presentation technology and the dynamics of teaching. Innov High Educ

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Secules, T. Herron, C., & Tomasello, M. (1992). The effect of video context on foreign language learning. Modern Language Journal

Spanda, N., & Lightbown, P. M. (2006). How languages are learned. New York: Oxford University Press.

Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching listening. England: Longman.

Cunningsworth, Alan. Choosing Your Coursebook. New York: Macmillan Heinemann ELT, 1995.

Graves, Kathleen. Designing Language Courses. Boston: Heinle, 1999.

Halliwell, Susan. Teaching English in the Primary Classroom. New York: Addison-Wesley Longman, Limited, 1993..

Moon, Jayne. Children Learning English New Ed. New York: Macmillan Heinemann ELT, 2005.

Ur, Penny, Marion Williams, and Tony Wright. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. New York: Cambridge UP, 1996.

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Barrett, Craig R. Intel. Intel Corporation. 4 Aug. 2008

<http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm>.

Confucius. "Quotes for Transformation ~ Parenting & Education." Personal Development | Self Help Tools for Transformation. 8 Sept. 2008

<http://www.trans4mind.com/quotes/quotes-parenting-education.html>.

Dale, Edgar. "Cone of Learning." Chart. NC State University. 8 Sept. 2008

<http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/sae/ppt1/sld012.htm>.

Davies, Leah. "Motivating Children." Kelly Bear. 10 July 2008

<http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip42.html>.

Grindrod, Warrill, prod. "Innovations in Teaching." New Directions. BBC World Service. London, United Kingdom. Aug. 2004. British Council. 20 Dec. 2007. British Broadcasting Corporation. 10 Oct. 2008

<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/podcasts/innovations-teaching>.

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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard>.

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<http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/pubs/smartboard.htm>.

Others

English365 Whiteboard Software. Computer software. Cambridge.

<http://www.cambridge.org/elt/whiteboardsoftware/english365.htm>.

Face2face Whiteboard Software. Computer software. Cambridge.

<http://www.cambridge.org/elt/face2face/>.

Greenstreet Online Ltd. 320,000 images. CD-ROM. St Ives, Cambridgeshire: 2006. Hutchinson, Tom. Project 1 CD-Rom. Computer software. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Appendix

A letter and a questionnaire sent to the publishing houses

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am a teacher at Scoala Gimnazială Dacia from Tg. Mureș. I am teaching English at primary and secondary level. Next year I am going to write my thesis and the topic is “Using Audio-Visual technology in teaching young learners” ,especially the interactive whiteboard(IWB). I would like to find out why and how could teachers use the interactive boards in the process of teaching and learning English. I want to do a research regarding this type of equipment and ask you, the publishers, to answer some of my questions. I would like to find out how are the programmes for these interactive boards. I have a short questionnaire and I would really appreciate if you could answer to my questions. It would be really helpful for my thesis. Could you please send a demo version of one of you programmes. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Gălățean Anamaria

Questionnaire:

1. Do you have any materials for Interactive Boards?

2. If not, are you going to create anything in the future?

3. If yes, are they supply for course books?

4. What is the age group that they are suitable for?

5. What kind of skills do they usually practise?

6. What type of activities are regularly used there?

7. Do you want to include also games there? (eg. Fill in exercises, crosswords etc.) If

yes, what kind of games?

8. Do you have or do you want to create some interactive courses for every course book you publish?

9. Can the interactive programmes be used with different course books?

10. Do you have or do you want to create any interactive programmes related to different topics like grammar, vocabulary?

11. How long does it take to your team to create one programme? How many pages should it have?

12. Have you got a team of experts who are responsible for these types of activities?

13. How much will it cost a programme for the interactive board?

14. Do you want to put them on the Internet free of charge?

15. Will the software of the programmes be available for all types of boards?

Thank you very much for your time.

Questionnaire from Cambridge University Press

1. Do you have any materials for Interactive Boards?

Yes:

English365

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=1845651081

face2face

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=1845651227

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521698245

Interchange

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=1845651103

2. If not, are you going to create anything in the future?

–

3. If yes, are they supply for course books?

Yes, each of them accompanies a book-based course

4. What is the age group that they are suitable for?

English 365 is for learners of business English; so adult learners.

Face2face is for adult learners.

Interchange is for adult and also young learners.

5. What kind of skills do they usually practise?

English365 is concentrated on social and business communication skills.

Face2face concentrates mainly on speaking and listening in a real world .

Interchange isconcentrated on speaking and also listening skills in an international context.

6. What type of activities are regularly used there?

Video and audio activities are suitable for the interactive board, mainly beacuse you can choose to highlight and play small extracts from audio scripts. Drag and drop and multiple choice activities are also popular.

7. Do you want to include also games there? (eg. Fill in exercises, crosswords etc.) If

yes, what kind of games?

We would like, but we have no plans now.

8. Do you have or do you want to create some interactive courses for every course book you publish?

Now only some of our courses have also interactive elements.

9. Can the interactive programmes be used with different course books?

At this time, all our boards software are together with course books.

10. Do you have or do you want to create any interactive programmes related to different topics like grammar, vocabulary?

Yes, but no definite plans as yet.

11. How long does it take to your team to create one programme? How many pages should it have?

For example, face2face elementary had two hundred fifty slides and took about nine months to create.

12. Have you got a team of experts who are responsible for these types of activities?

We are working with external software development companies to make our whiteboard software, that we specify and test internally.

13. How much will it cost a programme for the interactive board?

In the UK, each disc for face2face and English365 costs one hundred pound; Interchange discs cost two hundred pounds.

14. Do you want to put them on the Internet free of charge?

No.

15. Will the software of the programmes be available for all types of boards?

They are designed to run on all types of interactive whiteboard.

This is a letter and a questionnaire for teachers

Dear teachers,

I am a teacher at Scoala Gimnazială Dacia from Tg. Mureș. I am teaching English at primary and secondary level. Next year I am going to write my thesis and the topic is “Using Audio-Visual technology in teaching young learners”, especially the interactive whiteboard(IWB). I would like to ask you to answer some questions regarding the new technical equipment.

Thank you for your time and willingness to help me.

School (name of the town, or the village): Number of pupils:

1. Do you have any interactive board at school?

2. If yes, how many ?

3. How many of them do you use for students at the age of 6-10 and how many for students at the age of 11 – 15?

4. Are they fixed in special classrooms or are they portable?

5. Can anyone to use them anytime he or she wants? How do you share them with your colleagues?

6. What subjects are they usually used for?

7. What is the age of the teachers who use them?

8. Do you personally use them?

9. If, yes – what do you usually use them for?

10. If not, why don’t you use them?

11. If you prepare your own materials, how much time will it take you to prepare your lesson?

12. Are you using any products made by various publishing houses? Which ones?

13. Do you organize the lessons in order to use them over again?

14. What kind of activities do you prepare usually?

15. Are you using interactive boards as a tool for writing tests?

16. What do you find interesting and attracting about interactive boards?

17. Would you like to have some ready to use materials for interactive boards that you could use as extra practice with your course books?

You can add any other remarks regarding the interactive board.

Thank you very much for your time.

Questionnaire from a teacher

1. Do you have any interactive board at school?

Yes.

2. If yes, how many ?

Two.

3. How many of them do you use for students at the age of 6-10 and how many for students at the age of 11 – 15?

One for 6-10 and one for 11-15.

4. Are they fixed in special classrooms or are they portable?

Yes, they are fixed. One is in the Foreign languages room and the other one in one classroom.

5. Can anyone to use them anytime he or she wants? How do you share them with your colleagues?

There is a special schedule regrading the hours when we can use it.

6. What subjects are they usually used for?

English classes mainly.

7. What is the age of the teachers who use them?

35-40.

8. Do you personally use them?

Yes.

9. If, yes – what do you usually use them for?

Exercises, games, special activities.

10. If not, why don’t you use them?

–

11. If you prepare your own materials, how much time will it take you to prepare your lesson?

About 1-2 hours.

12. Are you using any products made by various publishing houses? Which ones?

–

13. Do you organize the lessons in order to use them over again?

Sometimes.

14. What kind of activities do you prepare usually?

Vocabulary exercises, listening and speaking activities.

15. Are you using interactive boards as a tool for writing tests?

Yes. I do.

16. What do you find interesting and attracting about interactive boards?

They are attractive and interesting for my young learners and transform a boring activity into a dynamic and active one.

17. Would you like to have some ready to use materials for interactive boards that you could use as extra practice with your course books?

Yes.

Pictures (students using the interactive whiteboard)