The role & importance of Audio-Visual Techniques in Teaching learning process and in Lesson plan writing

Zeal study shares you the detailed explanation about the steps involved in Teaching learning process and Lesson plan writing . Thus we introduce the topic  The role & importance of  Audio-Visual Techniques in English Language Teaching

English is a foreign language. Students cannot understand it as they understand their mother-tongue. Therefore, teaching of English becomes difficult for us. In the teaching of language, the main purpose of the use of audio-visual aids is to enable the teacher to make his lessons effective and interesting. In the teaching of English the teacher uses the direct method. Therefore, it is for the teacher to give a clear idea to the students through audio-visual aids. Such type of teaching make the idea permanent in the pupils mind. Books and other printed materials have been the basic tools of teaching for centuries, and they are still of great importance. History suggests that the basic conditions which strongly encouraged study and experimentation with visual aids were excessive verbalization in teaching.

To convey some concepts more effectively and successfully to students, the teacher takes help of some instructional aids, such aids are called audio-visual aids. Such aids can serve many a purposes in teaching of English. The effectiveness of teaching aid implies its relevance to the teaching point, achievement of some instructional objective and appropriate use.

F.W. Noel is right when he says, “Good instruction is the foundation of any educational programmer. Audio-visual training aids are a component part of that foundation.” Hence an English teacher should know about the various audio-visual aids he can use successfully in teaching English.

The use of Audio-visual materials has largely proven to be very much effective in teaching a second language. In recent years, a great tendency towards the use of technology and its integration into the curriculum has gained a great deal of importance. Particularly, the use of video as an audio-visual material in foreign language teaching classrooms has grown rapidly due to the increasing emphasis on communicative techniques, and it is also obvious that the use of video is a great help for second language teachers in stimulating and facilitating the target language. Language learning is generally a complex process. In this process, language teachers cannot be far away from the technology, which is the application of scientific knowledge to practical tasks by organizations that involve people and machines. It is a fact that technology cannot be separated from society. Machines have social origins and they emerge from the needs of society. Therefore, teachers need technologies relevant to the teaching-learning situation. If the educationalists want children to be technologically equipped, all the changes and preparations ought to be done within the curriculum, school, architecture, teaching organization and finance.

It is a well-known fact that audio-visual materials are a great help in stimulating and facilitating the learning of a second language.

According to Wright (1976:1) many media and many styles of visual presentation are useful to the language learner. That is to say, all audio-visual materials have positive contributions to language learning as long as they are used at the right time, in the right place. In language learning and teaching process, learner use his eyes as well as his ears; but his eyes are basic in learning.

River (1981:399) claims that it clearly contributes to the understanding of another culture by providing vicarious contact with speakers of the language, through both audio and visual means.

One of the most appreciated materials applied to language learning and teaching is, of course, video. A recent large-scale survey by Canning-Wilson (2000) reveals that the students like learning language through the use of video, which is often used to mean quite different things in language teaching. For some, it means no more than replaying television programs on a video recorder for viewing in class or private study. For others, it implies the use of a video camera in class to record and play back to learners their activities and achievements in a second language teaching. The research has been able to state that audio-visual materials are very effective in teaching a second language.

Objectives of Teaching Aids

1. To enhance teachers skills which help to make teaching-learning process effective

2. Make learners active in the classroom

3. Communicate them according to their capabilities

4. Develop lesson plan and build interest

5. To make students good observer

6. Develop easy and understandable learning material

7. Follow child cornered learning process

8. Involve intimation in objectives

9. To create interest in different groups

10. To make teaching process more effective

Types

It can be classified simply on the bases of sensory experience. Because human beings derive their experiences mainly through direct sensory contact. Keeping this in view, it can be classified in to three main groups:

1. Audio Aids examples are radio, tape recorder, gramophone, lingua phone, audio cassette player, language laboratory.

2. Visual Aids examples are chart, black and white board, maps, pictures, models, text-books, slide projector, transparency, flash-cards, print-materials, etc.

3. Audio-visual Aids examples are LCD project, Film Projector, TV, computer, VCD player, virtual classroom, Multimedia, etc.

ADVANTAGES OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS

- They create interest for learning in the students.

- They are time saving because they explain the idea easily and precisely.

- By their use the burden of teacher is reduced.

- The teacher can improve his own English by aural aids.

- They are the sources of a variety of experiences for students.

- English is a difficult language. Audio-Visual Aids make learning English easy.

- A good English teaching is possible only in a natural English environment. Audio-Visual aids help in creating that type of environment.

- They help in concentrating the attention of pupils in learning the lesson.

- The teacher can follow up the principle of from concrete to abstract with the help of audio-visual aids

References

Cengizhan, S. (2011). Effective use of instructional materials and technologies in teacher training: expectations and opinions of teacher candidates. International Online Journal of Educational Science, 3(2), 641-662. Retrieved from http://www.majersite.org/issue2/ozaslanandmaden.pdf

Cunning-Wilson, C. (2001). Practical aspects of using video in the foreign language classroom. The Internet TESOL Journal, 6 (11).np. Retrieved from http://www.tojet.net/articles/v3i3/339.pdf 

Çakir, D. I. (2006). The use of video as an audio-visual material in foreign language teaching classroom. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 5(4), 67-72. Retrieved from http://www.tojet.net/articles/v5i4/549.pdf 

Mathew, N.G., & Alidmat, A.O.H. (2013). A study on the usefulness of audio-visual aids in EFL classroom: Implications for effective instruction. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(2), 86-91. doi:10.5430/ijhe.v2n2p86 

Yunus, M. M., Salehi, H., & John, S. A. (2013). Using visual aids as a motivational tool in enhancing students’ interest in reading literary text. Recent Advances in Educational Technologies, 114-17. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.6360.pdf