2. are aimed at different learners’ styles – auditory, visual,
kinesthetic; and involve all our senses (Elena N.) and the
more senses are involved in the process of learning, the
longer the information learnt stay in memory (Elena M.);,
encourage learners to become more involved in the
learning process (Veselina), diversify teaching, bring
variation and difference during the lesson. ( Elena Ch,
Nora, Gergana, Larisa);
pedagogical and psychological research has given an
immense amount of data portraying the significance which
stimuli have regarding the well-being and overall
development among learners. Offering a range of effective
and engaging activities supported by a number of teaching
aids serves as a learning force. (Elena D);
help students assimilate new material and extend their
knowledge, make lessons more attractive and keep their
attention captured (George),
3. It is possible that teaching aids will distract students
(e.g - photos can provoke discussions irrelevant to
the lesson), but this does not happen often
(Veselina).
when they are more colourful with topic close to
students (Nora);
If you use them ones a year they certainly will. But if
it is a natural part of your lessons students will soon
stop overreacting and will be looking forward to your
next lesson all the time (Svetlana);
as long as the aids are being used to achieve part of
a lesson objective, there is no real evidence to
suggest that this is true (Mary);
when it comes to the children in the main stream,
teaching aids can only be beneficial…although a
balance needs to be acquired (Elena D.).
4. It is up to the teacher to manage the
classroom in the most effective way
(Veselina),
a larger number of students would require a
very flexible environment regarding the
teaching aids. Especially having in mind that
the tendency is to have less teacher talk and
more active student participation (Elena D.)
5. instead of writing down words, transcriptions and
explanations on the whiteboard you can use an OHP to
project a table with the new vocabulary and give copies of
it students (Veselina),
A PPT presentation can be of real help esp. if it is a
lecture in English for University students (Elena CH.),
depends if they work, if they are already in the classroom
or have to be booked, if electricity supply is reliable etc
(George);
It's much easier to write everything at home and create a
presentation than to write down all the ideas on the
blackboard during the lesson wasting time that you could
have used for discussion (Svetlana, Gergana, Larisa);
It is also nice to know that in case of emergency when the
copies aren’t ready for some reason - there is always an
option of showing the needed pages using the computer
and the projector (Elena M.);
6. Sometimes the pages students have to see
don’t necessarily need to be made for all of
them because later on they won’t be of use.
So using the projector to show this info in
class will save us the need to make a lot of
photocopies of pages which might be of little
use later (Elena M.)
7. can seem silly and childish to teenage and
adult learners (Elena N.);
it is true for concrete vocabulary, but not
for abstract words (Mary);
one of the best ways to prompt
conversations, role-play and develop an
active vocabulary (Elena D.);
suit different learning styles, so it makes the
process more effective (Larisa)
can seem silly and childish to teenage and
adult learners. (Nora)
8. there are many activities to practise with flashcards
(Elena N.), especially with young learners (Nora);
a saying in Russian : "It is better to see once than to
hear a hundred times". It explains the need to use
realia. It makes the process of understanding easier
and creates motivation (Elena M.);
They have many uses (Mary);
Good for visual learners and they always givevery
positive outcomes when applying them. (Elena D.);
‘Flashcards are the most effective and easiest way
to learn and remember new information’ (Gergana);
they also enable teachers to give prompts for drill
without saying anything. (Larisa)
9. There are lots of programmes that allow the
admin watch what other users in the net are
doing and even interfere with them. So if a
teacher knows how to use such programmes the
control is even higher, as if you just go round the
classroom students can pretend that they are
studying, and after you turn your back start
playing some game. But here they know that you
are able to watch everything they do without
even leaving your place. The productivity
increases. (Svetlana);
Efficiency gets bigger. If the students are
informed that their teacher is capable to observe
them, they will be responsible and concentrated
for their tasks (Gergana)
10. In some countries this can be a big problem. The
teacher can read out dialogue herself instead of
learners listening to a cassette or a CD.
(George),
there is always a risk (Nora);
in the modern world we're under risk all the
time, so a broken equipment doesn't seem a
problem at all. A pencil can break while you're
writing! Shall we stop using them at all?
(Veselina);
teachers should always have a plan B, be ready if
something goes wrong and replace the task
(Mary)
11. It’s an audio-visual aid. It’s authentic, it’s
interesting, the information is reliable, e.g.
authentic settings, accents, postures, gestures
(Elena N.), the visual content can help students
guess the meaning of verbs or nouns. Also, if the
video presents new vocabulary, students will be
able to relate it to visual images, this will help
them learn faster. Visual learners with thrive!
(Veselina), We teach verbal and non-verbal
communicative skills, we try to convey cultural
messages to students, so videos can be of great
help in language learning and teaching. (Elena
Ch.),
12. When they watch a video, learners are able
to guess the meaning of words and phrases
based on reactions, facial expressions,
mimes and gestures (George, Svetlana);
especially good with teenagers and adults
(Nora) Youtube is a priceless source of videos
on every topic. Videos present authentic
material and help to learn in a fun way. Can
be used for warmers and lead-ins(Elena M.,
Larisa); A really good video contributes a
good context, good language, good
pronunciation and good understanding
(Gergana)
13. Not to let learners be passive the teacher is
to think over pre-watching, watching, and
after-watching tasks (Elena N., Mary)
It can be true if learners are just asked to
watch the video without doing any activites
on it. Here the role of the teacher is very
important (George);
