Equipment and Teaching Aids

The Board

1. Definition of a Teaching Aid

A teaching aid is any piece of equipment that can be used to help the students learn.
Examples of teaching aids include : the blackboard, a tape recorder, a CD player, computers
or a language laboratory.

2. The Board

The most fundamental teaching aid and the most versatile piece of equipment is the board
whether this is of the more traditional chalk-dust variety or the withboard, written on with
marker pens. Interestingly, boards provide a motivating focal point during whole-class
grouping.

2.1 Uses of the Board

We can use boards for a variety of different purposes, including :

Giving instructions : teachers often use boards to reinforce oral instuctions. For example,
just writing up the page number and the exercise on the board in a large class saves a lot of
repetition.

Note pad : teachers frequently write things up on the board as these come up during the
lesson. They might be words that they want students to remember, phrases which students
have not understood or seen before, or topics and phrases which they have elicited from
students when trying to build up a composition plan, for instance.

Explanation aid : boards can be used fopr explanation too, where, for example, we show the
relationship between an affirmative sentence and a question by drawing connecting arrows.
We can show where words go in a sentence by indicating the best positions
diagrammatically, or we can write up phonemic symbols (or fraw diagrams of the mouth) to
show how a word or a sound is pronounced.

Picture frame : boards can be used for drawing pictures of course, the only limitation
concerns our (artistic ability). But we do not have to be genuis at drawing to use pictures and
drawings with our students. In fact, the worse the drawing are .. the more fun they are ! Try
to master basic stick men and faces with expressions, especially if your students are younger
learners.

Drawing pictures on the blackboard is an essential skill for explaining texts and stories to our
students. Pr(actise story-telling with basic pictures on the board. Remember you can ask
your students out to the board to draw too – this is a fun activity at whatever level. You can
create picture stories with your students and use these for further oral or written work.

Other visuals which are useful to draw are large-scale pictures such as maps, a plan of a
town, a plan of a house/school/new buidling etc.
Displaying : you can use the large surface of your board to display all sorts of items – posters,
pictures and charts. Use large pictures for class oral work but have students come out to the
board to point to or talk about various items. Magazine pictures can be used for a variety of
oral activities.

Try to encourage students to come out to the board to choose, select, order or describe
pictures. All of these will make your classroom more interactive and avoid too much teacher
talking time.

You can display other items such as authentic materials – e.g. maps, adverts, photos, as well
as learners’ own work.

Playing games : a number of games can be played using just the board. With noughts and
crosses, for example, teachers can draw nine box frames and write different words or
categories in each box. Teams have to make sentences or questions with the words, square
to draw their winning straight line.

A popular spelling game involves two team who start off with the same word. Each team had
half the board. They have to fill up their side with as many words as possible, but each new
word has to start with the last letter of the word before. At the end of a given period of time
the team with the biggest number of correct words is the winner.

2.2 Board Basics

Your students should have a clear, uninterrupted view of the board. Becareful that you do
not block learners sitting at the sides of the room. When you write something on the board
move away quickly so that students can see what you have written.

Especially with classes of young learners you need to develop the ability to write on the
board with eyes in the back of your head. Do not turn your back on the class for too long.
This tends to de demotivating and may cause the class to become restless. Good teachers
have the ability to write on the board while still keeping a sharp eye on their students, and it
would be better to invilve the students with the board as much as possible, either getting to
tell us what to write or using them to do the writing themselves.

Write clearly on the board and make sure that you have written words/text big enough for
everyone to see from the back of the class. With chalk and blackboard make sure that you
wash the board often so that writing stays clear. With a withboard make sure that the pen
you are using is in a colour that everyone can rea – black or blue are best.

Check what you write as you write. Many students have visual memories so we must
becareful about accuracy of spelling and grammar, especially if we intend students to copy it
down in their notebooks to learn.

Check with your students that they are ready for you to clean the board. If you are waiting
for some students to finish copying or doing an exercise do not leave the others twiddling
their thumbs. Ask them to make a personalised example or start the warm-up for the next
exercise orally.
 2.3. Organising the Board

If your board is messy and untidy then what your students write in their notebooks will be
messy too.

It is a good idea to divide your board into sections. Have one part for use during the
explanation of the lesson which can be cleaned off and reused. Use another part for
important information which can stay ther for the whole lesson. For example, you could
write up a list of the basic aims/activities for the lesson so that your students know what is
coming. Tick items off as they are achieved during the class. At the end you can review the
lesson aims for students to evaluate what they have leart.

3. Final Tips

Try to make your board as interactive as possible.

Ask students to come out to draw, write, present or even work. You could allow one group
to work at the board when doing a group task.

Use your board as support for your voice – to give instructions, examples and feedback.

You can use board activities as an aid to discipline – settle a noisy class for example by giving
a quick copying exercise or work game.

Your board is an organisational tool too. Use it as a memory store for things to do or keep
you on track with a lesson. Remember the more organised you are on your board, the more
organised your students will be too.

When the class is over, courteous teachers clean the board and lave it ready for their
colleagues to use.

The Language Laboratory

1. What is a Language Laboratory

The language laboratory is an audio-visual installation used as an aid in modern language

teaching. They can be found, amongst other places, in schools, universities and academies.
Perhaps the first lab was at the University of Grenoble. In the 1950s up until the 1990s, they
were tape based systems using reel to reel or (latterly) cassette. Current installations are
generally multimedia PCs.

The modern language laboratory has between ten to twenty booths, each equiped with a
tape deck, heaphones, microphone, and now computers. The technology is organised in
such a way that students can work on their own, can be paired or grouped with other
students, or can interact (through their headphones and microphones) on a one-to-one
basis with the teacher. The teacher can broadcast the same taped or filmed material to each
booth, or can have different students or groups of students work with different material.
Students can interact with each other, and written texts can be sent to each computer.
 2. Characteristics e lage ool/new buidling etc.
pictures such as maps, a plan of atownritten work.
nger learners.
3. of language labratories

Language labratories have three special charactersitics which mark them out from other
learning resources and teaching aids :

2.1 Double track : the design of tapes and machiones means that students can listen to
one track on their tapes and record on another. They can listen back not only to the original
recording on the tape, but also to what they themselves said into the microphones which is
attached to their headset.

2.2 Teacher access : apart from the the separate language booths, labratories also have
console and/or computer terminal manned by a teacher who can not only listen in to
individual students, but can also talk, with the use of microphones and headsets, with one
student at a time. Modern systems allow teachers to join booths in pairs or groups,
irrespective of their position in the laboratory, by selecting them oin the screen. This can be
done on the same basis as we create pairs and groups ion classrooms, or by selecting the
right command computer randomly.

2.3 Different modes : in computer-equipped labratories, students can all watch a video
which the teacher is broadcasting to their individual monitors. An alternative is to have
students working with the same material, but at their own individual speed. Thus teachers
may broadcast an audiotape which records onto each individual tape at each booth. Each
student now can work at his/her leisure. The teacher can also send the same text to each
machine for students to read and/or manipulate according to their own needs. Finally, since
teachers can group students machanically, each pair or group can be given different material
to work with.

3. Advantages of the language laboratory

Language labratories have special advantages which make them a welcome addition to any
school’s resources :

Comparing : the double track allows students to compare the way they say things with the
correct pronounciation on a source tape. In this way they can monitor and get feedback on
their own performance, even without the intervention of a teacher.

Privacy : students can talk to each other (through their microphones), record onto the tape,
wind nad rewind tapes or types on computer keyboards without disturbong their colleagues.
Since every student is cocooned by his/her headphones, he/she is guaranteed some privacy,
and are free from the intrusion that the work of others would cause in a normal classroom
setting.

Individual attention : when teachers want to speak to individual students in a laboratory,

they can do that from the console. Unlike the situation in the classroom where this is
difficult because it stops them from working with the rest of the class – who may resent such
private conversation – in a laboratory all the other students are working away on their own.
The attention that the teacher gives to one student does not distract the others.

Learner training : the language laboratory helps students to train some students to really
listen to what they say and how they say. When they compare their pronounciation with the
correct version on the tape, they begin to notice the differences, and this awareness, over a
period of time, helps them to hear and pronounce English better. However, not all students
find comparisons easy. Different students are better or worse at hearing sounds. It will be up
to the teacher, from the console, to guide individual students who are are experiencing
difficulties into noticing differences and similarities.

Learner motivation : a worry about learner autonomy in general is that some students are
better at working on their own than others. The language laboratory (where teachers take
the whole group into the laboratory) offers a good half-way house between teacher control
and learner autonomy since, although students work at their own pace, they are more open
to the guidance of the teacher.

4. Activities in Language Laboratories

Repetition : the simplest use of a double track laboratory is repetition. Students hear a work,
phrase, or sentence on the tape. A space (indicated by a bleep or buzz signal) is left for them
to repeat what they have heard, and the work, phrase, or sentence is then said again, so
that they get instant feedback on whether they have spoken correctly.

Tape voice : information

Buzz signal : ... (Pause of 3 seconds)

Tape voice : information

Drills : based on Audio-lingual methodology, language laboratories have often been used for
subsitution drills, using the same basic model as the repetition. The difference is that
students have to work out what to say (based on a cue) before the tape voice then gives the
correct response.

Tape voice : Do you watch television every night ?

Cue : Three nights.

Buzz signal : (pause)

Tape voice : No, I have not watched TV for three months.

Tape voice : Do you listen to the radio every day ?

Cue : Last Monday.

Buzz signal : (pause)

Tape voice : No, I have not listened to the radio since last Monday.
Speaking : language laboratories can give students the opportunity of speaking (apart from
repetition and drilling) in a number of ways. They can record their own talks and speeches
and then listen back to them and make adjustments in the same way as they draft and
redraft written text in a process-writing approach. But the tape can also ask them a series of
questions which encourages them to practise language which they have recently been
focusing on as in the following example for beginners :

Tape voice : What is your last name ?

Buzz signal : (pause)

Tape voice : What is your first name ?

Buzz signal : (pause)

Tape voice : Where do you live ?

Buzz signal : (pause)

The teacher can also prepare a topic for students to discuss (in pairs) and ask them to record
their discussion on the tape (in this case, one tape recorder with two headsets necessary – if
not a monologue will do) and then when they have finished, the teacher may analyse their
recordings and look for their strengths and weaknesses with respect to accuracy, fluency,
interaction etc. (This exercise is usually a success with more advanced learners).

Parallel speaking : Adrian Underhill gives examples of parallel speaking, where students are
encouraged to imitate the way the teachers says something and because of the double-track
system, do so at the same time as the teacher is speaking.

From the console the teacher can record a story (first in separate, but late as a whole) onto
all the individual stuent machines. At first, as the material recorded the students just listen.
But then, once they have the recording of (all or part of) the story, they speak along with the
teacher's taped voice, doing their best to imitate the teacher’s pronounciation and the
speed at which he/she speaks. According to Underhill, the aim is to try and do the same as
the teacher, not because the teacher is right but as an exercise in attention and noticing and
to gain insight from experience. Later they record the material independently onto their
machines, at later which point the teacher can listen in and give feedback where
appropriate.

Listening : listening of all kinds can be practised in the language laboratory. Activities such as
note taking, dictation, finding differences between a written text and taped account of the
same events, and answering conmprehension questions can all be performed successfully in
the laboratory setting. Tapes can be accompanied by written worksheets and/or students
can be asked questions on the tape which hey have recorded their answers to on the
student track. In computer-equipped laboratories, questions and texts can be provided on
the computer screen.
Reading : students can read texts and then record their answers on tape. In computer-
equipped laboratories both text and answers can be supplied on the computer screen itself.
The teacher can aslo have all students reading material from the same Internet website.

Writing and correcting writing : language laboratories allow teachers to give individual,
private spoken feedback on students’ written work. In computer-equipped laboratories
students can write at their individual machines and the teacher can then correct their work
either orally or in writing since he/she can look at each student’s work from the console.
The Overhead Projector/Bits and Pieces

1. The Overhead projector

1.1 Mechanism

An overhead projector typically consists of a large box containing a very bright lamp
and a fan to cool it. On top of the box is a large Fresnel lens that collimates the light.
Above the box, typically on a long arm, is a mirror and lens that focuses and redirects
the light forward instead of up.

Transparencies are placed on top of the lens for display. The light from the lamp
travels through the transparency and into the mirror where it is shore forward onto
a screen for display. The mirror allows both the presenter and the audience to see
the image at the same time, the presenter looking down at the transparency as if
writing, the audience looking forward at the screen. The height of the mirror can be
adjusted, to both focus the image and to make the image larger or smaller
depending on how close the projector is to the screen.

1.2 History

The first overhead projector was used for police identification work. It used a
cellophane roll over a 9-inch stage allowing facial characteristics to be rolled across
the stage. The U.S. Army in 1945 was the first to use it in quantity for training as
World War II wound down. It began to be widely used in schools and businesses in
the late 1950s and early 1960s.

A major manufacturer of overhead projectors in this early period was the company
3M. As the demand for projectors grew, Buhl Industries was founded in 1953, and
became the leading US contributor for several optical refinements for the Aid to
Education program stimulated overhead sales which remained high up to the late
1990s and into the 21st Century.

1.3 Use in Education

Overhead projectors (OHPs) are extremely useful pieces of equipment since they
allow teachers to prepare visual or demonstration material. They require little
technical knowledge, and they are usually easy to carry around. Therefore, it is not
surprising they have been widely used.

Just about anything can go on overhead transparencies (PHTs): We can show whole
texts or grammar exercises, pictures or diagrams, or student’s writing. Because they
can be of a very high quality. Especially where teachers are unimpressed by their
handwriting, the overhead transparency offers the possibility of attractive well-
printed script.

One of the main advantages of the overhead projector is that we do not have to
show everything on an OHT all at once. By covering some of the transparency with a
piece of card or paper we can blank out what we do not want the students to see.
So, for example, we might show the first two lines of a story to ask students what is
going to happen next, before revealing the next two lines and then the next,
gradually moving the paper or card downwards. We might have questions on one
side of the transparency and answers on the other. We start the teaching sequence
with the answers covered, and use the same ‘gradual revelation’ technique to
maintain interest.

Because transparencies are, as their name suggests, transparent, they can be put on
top of each other so that we gradually build up a complex picture, diagram, or text.
This is done by putting down the first transparency, say of a room, and asking
students what kind of a room it is and what happens there. Then a new transparency
can be laid over that one with pictures of a person in that room who the students
can speculate about, before we lay down another transparency on top of that with
more people. A diagram can start with one simple feature and have extra elements
added to it in the same way. We can put up a gapped text and have students say
what they think goes in the blanks before putting a new transparency with some or
all of the filled-in items on top of the gapped one.

1.4 Decline in Use

Overhead projectors were once a common fixture in most classrooms and business
conference rooms, but today are obviously being replaced by document cameras,
dedicated computer projection systems and interactive whiteboards. Such systems
allow users to make animated, interactive presentations with movement and video,
typically using software like Microsoft PowerPoint.

There are certain reasons for this gradual replacement. The primary reason is the
deeply ingrained use of computing technology in modern society and the inability of
overheads to easily support the features that modern users demand. While an
overhead can display static images fairly well, it performs poorly at displaying
moving images. The standards of users have also increased, so that a dim, fuzzy
overhead projection that is too bright in the centre and too dim around the edges is
no longer acceptable. The optical focus, linearity, brightness and clarity of an
overhead generally cannot match that of a video projector primarily due to the
plastic Fresnel lens, which can only approximate what would normally be an
extremely large and heavy glass lens.
 2. Bits and Pieces

Of course there is no limit to the various bits and pieces which we can bring into the
classroom. It might be photographs of our family, letters we have received, or even a
pet. Just as children in primary school are often asked to show and tell about objects
they hold dear, so we can base lesson sequences on objects that we think our
students might find interesting – though of course this has to be done with
discretion and a large dose of common sense about what will be appropriate in
terms of age and culture.

2.1 Realia

In education, realia are objects from real life used in classroom instruction by
educators to improve students’ understanding of other cultures and real life
situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen
student’s association between words for everyday objects and the objects
themselves.

Realia are also used to connect learners with the key focal point of a lesson by
allowing tactile and multidimensional connection between learned material and the
object of the lesson. Best utilized for simple objects lending themselves to classroom
settings and ease of control with minimum risk of accident throughout the student
object interaction.

Objects that are intrinsically interesting can provide a good starting-point for a
variety of language work and communication activities. We can find an object with
an obscure use and ask students to speculate what it is for (it might be/could
be/probably is) and or design various explanations to account for it (it is used for-
ing). The class could vote on the best idea. Where we bring in more than one object,
especially where they are not obviously connected, students can speculate on what
they have in common or they can invent stories and scenarios using the various
objects. They can choose from a collection of objects which three they will put in a
time capsule, or which would be most useful on a desert island, etc.

Some teachers use a soft ball to make learning more enjoyable. When they want a
student to say something, ask a question, or give an answer, they throw a ball to the
student who then has to give the answer. The student can then throw the ball to a
classmate who, in his/her turn, produces the required response before throwing the
ball to someone else. However, not all students find this appealing, and there is a
limit of how often the ball can be thrown before students get fed up with it.

The only limitations on the objects which we bring to class are the size and the
quantity of the objects themselves and the students’ tolerance, especially with
adults who may think they are being treated childishly. As with so many other things,
this is something we will have to assess on the basis of our students’ reactions.

Interestingly, technology has begun to impact the use of realia by adding the virtual
realia option whereby three dimensional models can be displayed through
projection or on computer screens allowing the learner to see detail otherwise
difficult to acquire and to manipulate the object within the medium on which it is
displayed. The option of zooming tool in technical environments where it may be
difficult or impractical to examine an object in as much detail manually, such as the
workings of living organs or machinery containing hazardous parts such as
combustion engines.

2.2 Language Cards

Many teachers put a variety of cards and posters around the classroom. Such
posters can have notes about language items on them, or be a collection of ways of
apologizing or inviting, for example. Sometimes, with new groups, teachers get
students to write about themselves on a card and put their photograph next to what
they have written so that the class all know who everyone is. Students can also make
presentation posters of projects they have worked on. In multinational classes, for
example, many students enjoy providing short guides to their countries.

Cards are useful for matching activities, where students have to find another student
in the class with a similar card or one that has the answer to the question on his or
her card. They can be asked to place cards in the correct column for sounds, or with
the correct lexical group on a board or on a poster. Students can each be given word
card to hold in front of them and then be asked to move around until they form a
line where all the cards together form a question or a sentence.

2.3 Cuisenaire Rods

These are blocks of wood of different lengths. Each length is a different colour. The
rods are featureless, and are only differentiated by their size and colour. Simple they
may be, but they are useful for a wide range of activities. For example, we can say
that a particular rod is a pen or a telephone, a dog or a key so that by holding them
up or putting them together a story can be told. All it takes is a little bit of
imagination.

We can also assign a word or a phrase to each of, say five rods and the students then
have to put them in the right order (e.g. I usually get up at six o’clock). By moving the
usually rod around and showing where it can and cannot occur in the sentence, the
students get a clear visual display of something they are attempting to fix in their
minds.
Rods can be used to teach prepositions. Teachers can model with the rod sentences
like: The red one is on top/beside/over/behind (etc) the green one. They can show
rods in different relative positions and ask students to describe them. Students can
then position the rods for other students to describe (in ever more complex
arrangements).

Cuisenaire rods are also useful for demonstrating colours (of course), comparative,
superlatives, and a wide range of other semantic and syntactic areas, particularly
with people who respond well to visual activities.

Using Computers in the Foreign Language Classroom

“If you think of learning as a path, you can picture yourself walking besides her
rather than either pushing or dragging or carrying her along” -Polly Berrien Berends

Quite apart from their use in language laboratories, computers used in education
generally and in teaching foreign language and communications in particular,
continue to increase at an extraordinary speed. As with any technological advance
such as the language lab, video, and even the tape recorder, the proper place for the
various riches which computers have to offer is still under discussion.

Using a computer for/as...

A computer is a handy tool for many school assignments. To that end, the following
section focuses on some ways you can use a computer in your studies. Currently, the
main uses of a computer in language teaching and/learning includes the following:

a. Reference Use

One of the chief uses of computers and connected technology is as a reference tool.
There are already a number of popular encyclopaedias available on CD-Rom or on
the INTERNET. The availability of all sorts of material means that we can send
students to the computer to prepare their projects, following up references in course
books or to find answers to some particular questions that are not of general
interest. Many of the programs have visual and audio support that makes the
research work very attractive. The greatest potential for the computer as a reference
tool is, of course, the Internet, where by accessing directories and search engines
(such as ‘Alta Vista’, ‘Google’, etc), users can look for information on just about any
subject under the sun. However, as any regular surfers will attest, these searches
often throw up a huge amount of irrelevant material so that simple search can
become a protracted trawl through a number of useless websites (Harmer, 2001). P.
Sweeney (2000) underlines that letting your students completely independent in
their search activity is far more time consuming that he and his colleagues
anticipated. It is the teacher’s one of the most important task to prepare the
background by suggesting search methods and/or and narrowing the focus of the
enquiry so that students do not waste a whole class period searching. We also need
to keep an eye on a proceedings to avoid a situation in which students just surf the
net, becoming distracted by what they find there, and thus lose sight of the original
task (Harmer, 2001). However, if these drawbacks are taken into account, the
Internet is an extraordinary resource which has changed the face of information
gathering both in and outside the classroom.

a. Communicating Your Instructor with other Students

a. a. E-mail Exchange

With an Internet connection, you can easily communicate with anyone who has an e-
mail address. You can send e-mail messages to your instructor or to other students.
In fact, “getting students from different countries to write to one another has greatly
increased both their English development and especially their motivation” (Harmer,
2001:148). You can also attach files to an e-mail message. For example, you can
proactively e-mail an assignment to your instructor if you must miss a class. Your
instructor may, in response, e-mail you what you’ve missed during your absence and
tell you what homework you need to complete.

Importantly, students should be encouraged to write to their teacher. According to

Harmer (2001), such types of messages are often written in a special speaking like
informal style. There is less of an obligation for grammatical correctness or even
correct spelling, but students can improve their fluency. So e-mailing with less of
correctness and formality can be turned into an advantage, a motivation for writing
and having a real unstressed communication.

Of particular interest is the fact that computer communication might become a

teaching “channel” if students can send word-processed work to their teachers who
can send feedback in the same way, in a short time.

a.b. Instant Messaging (IM)

Another way to communicate is by using Instant Messaging (IM). You set up a list of
your buddies and their screen names. If one of these students is online when you
are, you’ll be notified. You can then send text messages to each other by typing and
sending the message. This can be helpful if you want to ask a classmate for
clarification about an assignment. You can also use Instant Messaging to talk to and
make new friends online (within your school and beyond school). Keep in mind that
you can easily get distracted by messaging. If you are studying, keep the messaging
to a minimum or log off so that you can focus on your work.
 b. Teaching and Testing Programs

Language software packages, often supplied on CD-ROMS, offer students the chance
to study conversations and texts, to do grammar and vocabulary exercises, and even
to listen to texts and record their own voices.

Although some teachers have criticised computer-based programs of this kind being
only dressed-up workbook exercises, it would be unwise to underestimate their
usefulness for variety and motivation. As Harmer (2001:147) puts it:

Students who have been sitting behind their desks for hours might well find going
over to a computer to ‘play’ with some language exercises a welcome relief.

A trend which will almost gather pace is the attachment of CD-ROM-based packages
to accompany course books, full of extra input material and exercises. Some of these
will be available too on the Internet. However, there are also websites where
students can sign up for complete self-study courses, which include all regular
features of a course book together with the possibility of sending work to a tutor
who will monitor progress. In order to reduce evaluation time some tests may be
posted and taken on computer and feedback/results are instantaneous.

c. The Word Processor

In an article published in 1987, Alison Piper suggested that the most educational use
of the computer at that time was as a word processor, with students grouped
around a screen drafting and redrafting collaboratively (Piper 1987).

Using a word processor program for any kind of written work provides many
benefits, including the following:

 You can easily compose as you think.

 You can easily correct mistakes, either as you type (using the Backspace or
Delete key) or when you review your work.
 You can reorganise the contents of the writing. Sometimes, when you review
your work, you find that one sentence or paragraph belongs before another.
Or your conclusion may actually work better as an introduction. With a word
processing program, you can easily add more information to a different
location. You can also delete sentences, paragraphs, and words (to get rid of
repetition or to correct mistakes) and copy passages (if you want to use them
again in the same or another document).
 You can make formatting changing to improve the appearance of the
document. For example, in a research paper, you can make the section
headings bold and bigger so that they stand out. You can emphasize new
terms by italicizing them. You can create bulleted or numbered lists, add a
 border to a paragraph, change the page margins, create headers and footers,
and more.
 Check your spelling and grammar. You can use the spelling checkers to make
sure your paper doesn’t include any typographic errors. Most words
processing programs also enable you to check your grammar. Note, however,
that neither these tools is foolproof. The spelling checker on flags.

The Teacher as an Aid

A teacher affects eternity; you can never tell where his influence stops

Henry Adams

Apart from the different roles we adopt in the classroom, and how these roles are
performed, we are a kind of teaching aid ourselves, a piece of equipment in our own
right. In particular, we are especially useful when using mime and gesture, as
language models and providers of comprehensive input. Furthermore, we may be
helpful when using movement, body language, eye contact, facial expressions,
speech, student talk, and names.

Mimes and Gestures

One of the things that we are uniquely able to do on the spot is to use mime, gesture
and expression to convey meaning and atmosphere. It is not difficult to pretend to
be drinking, or to pull a sad face. The ability to demonstrate words like frightened or
old is fairly easy for many teachers, just as shrugging shoulders can be used to
indicate indifference.

Mime and gesture work best when they are exaggerated since this makes their
meaning explicit. However, gestures do not have necessarily universal meanings, and
what might seem acceptable in one situation or place will not be appropriated in
another. We need, therefore, to use them with care.

Importantly, arms and hands are a very expressive visual aid. They can be used to
describe shapes, actions, movements etc, but remember to keep still while listening
to a student. Otherwise the message sent to the student is that he is being
longwinded or boring. In other words, habits such as fiddling with notes and books,
playing with pens, key chains, or doodling with chalk on the black board can be both
distracting and irritating for the student.

One gesture which is widely used, but which teachers should employ with care, is
the act of pointing to students to ask them to participate in drill or give some other
form of response. Though it is quick and efficient, especially when we are having
trouble with our students’ names, it may seem aggressive and depressingly obvious
to the students that, in having failed to learn their names, we are less than respectful
to their identity.

Language Model

One way in which we can model dialogues is to put up two faces on the board and
then stand in front if each of them when required to speak their lines. For such
activities, we should make sure that we can be heard, and we should animate our
performance with much enthusiasm as is appropriate for the conversation we are
modelling.

Reading aloud is a skill which some teachers have tended to ignore. Yet the reading
aloud of a particularly or interesting excerpt can be extremely motivating and
enjoyable for a class, especially when students have been encouraged to predict
what they are going to hear. Poems too, are very engaging for many students when
teachers read them to the class.

Anyone who doubts the power of such activities only has to look at the reading
circles in primary classes where learners group enthusiastically around the teacher to
enjoy the experience of listening to a story. Story-telling and story/poem-reading can
work with adults too, though the content and the way it is handled will be
significantly different.

Reading passages aloud to students can capture imagination and mood like nothing
else, but in order for this to work we need to ‘perform’ the reading in an interesting
and committed way and, as with so many activities, we must be careful not to use
this activity too frequently (Harmer, 2001).

Provider of Comprehensible-Input

An issue that confronts many teachers in classrooms is how much they themselves
should talk, and what kind of talk this should be. On most training courses, a
distinction is made between student-talking time (STT) and teacher-talking time
(TTT). It is the concern to maximise the former that leads many teachers to use pair
and group work; it has been assumed that on the whole we want to see more STT
than TTT, since as trainers frequently point out to their student teachers, you don’t
need the language practice; they do.

Advantageous for their students, especially since those teachers are unlikely to be
permanently interesting. However, it is widely accepted that a vital ingredient in the
learning of any language is exposure to it. The American linguist Stephen Krashen
described the best kind of language that students could be expressed to as
comprehensible input, that is language which students understand the meaning of,
but which is nevertheless slightly above their own production level. For instance, if
the learners’ stage ‘I’, then acquisition occurs when they are exposed to
comprehensible input that constitutes ‘i+1’, provided they understand the language
containing ‘i+1’.

Krashen (1982: 84) writes:

... Language acquisition ... happens in one way, when the acquirer understands input
containing a structure that the acquirer is ‘due’ to acquire, a structure at his or her
‘i+1’.

Yet where can they go for such language input? In the world outside the classroom,
English if they have access to it, will frequently appear incomprehensible, especially
when they are at a low level. They need someone to provide language which has
been roughly-tuned to be comprehensible to them, and there is someone right there
in the classroom to give them just that.

As teachers we are ideally placed to provide comprehensible input since we know

the students in front of us and can appropriately react to them in a way that a course
book or a tape, for example, cannot. We know how to talk at just the right level so
that even if our students do not understand every word we say, they do understand
the meaning of what is being said. At such times the language gains, for the student,
are significant.

However, we do need to be aware of how much ourselves are speaking. If talk all the
time, however, ‘comprehensible’ our language is, the students are denied their own
chance to practise production, or get exposure through other means (from reading
or listening to tapes, for example). They may also become bored by listening to the
teacher all the time.

Movement

Sitting behind a desk or standing on a dais creates a “distance” between the teacher
and the students. Try to have an aisle and enough space between the rows so that
you can easily reach those at the back. This way you can talk to individual students,
allow the shy ones to ask questions quietly without the fear of embarrassment, as
well as check their work and help them. Some movement on your side is essential,
because it allows the students to focus on you. Remember that stepping forward to
emphasize a point, small steps genuine interest in what he or she is saying.

Body Language
Your body should be in your control. Hold it in such a way that you look alert and
awake. Avoid slumping and sagging. Just as too little movement is boring, too much
movement can be a distraction.

When your posture is erect, it puts you in control of the situation and the students
realise this. It also encourages the students, subconsciously, to become alert as well.
You may notice the lazy ones sitting up and paying more attention to what is
happening around them.

Eye Contact

Make an effort to keep eyes lively, aware and interested. Move them around to take
in everything. Fix them on specific students, but not for so long that they become
uncomfortable! Avoid focusing on the worst or bust students.

Knowing that the teacher demands eye contact keeps the students alert. It also gives
the teacher a feedback on the impact of what he or she is saying. This is particularly
important in large classes, where “distance” between the teacher and learner is
greater, and individual attention is more difficult.

 An effective teacher can control class behaviour to a great extent by the

expression of his or her eyes.
 Make sure that you make eye contact with each student, so that it seems you
are talking to him or her individually.

Facial Expressions

 There is nothing worse than a constant frown, which discourages students

from asking questions, feeling free to discuss a problem or coming for help.
 A smile can work wonders. It encourages the student to participate more
actively and dispels the notion that the teacher is over critical.
 Look interested while a student is speaking.
 A smile, a grimace, a curl of the lips, raised eyebrows etc... at appropriate
moments will and messages as needed.
 Send positive vibes and cultivate a sympathetic and encouraging expression!

Speech

 Have you even heard yourself speak? Do you know what your voice sounds
like to others? A low monotone or a high-pitched voice can be difficult to
understand or grating to the ears. Does the sound of your voice send
students to sleep or running for earplugs?
 Be critical of yourself. Try taping your voice – listen to yourself. Where are
you slipping up?
 Make your own personal checklist:
  Are you speaking at the right volume?
 Does the end of your sentence fall so low that students sitting at the back
cannot hear?
 Are you hemming and hawing too much?
 Are you speaking too fast?

Student Talk

 Break the monotony and give students plenty of time to talk! It will keep
them alert.
 Make small jokes, be friendly.

Names

Call students by their names. It sounds warmer and friendlier and lessens the
distance between the teacher and learner.

Native-Speaker Teachers and Non-Native Speaker Teachers

For many years an opposition has been created between native-speaker teacher of
English and non-native speaker teacher. However, the world is changing, and English
is no longer owned by anybody in particular least of all the native speakers of the
world who are in a minority which is becoming daily less significant at least in
numerical terms.

Non-native speaker teachers differ from native-speaker teachers in the following

way. Non-native speaker teachers have the advantage of having the same
experience of learning English as their students are now having, and this gives them
an instant understanding of what their students are going through. Native speaker
teachers, on the other hand, often have the advantage of a linguistic confidence
about their language in the classroom, which non-native speaker teachers
sometimes lack indeed. It may be differences in linguistic confidence which account
for some differences in teaching practices between the two groups.

As a recently as ten years ago it would have been impossible to find a single non-
native speaker teacher working in a language school in, say, Britain or Australia. Yet,
that is no longer the case. Progress may be slow in this respect, but there are signs of
such progress. In the end, provided teachers can use the language, is it the quality of
their teaching that counts not where they come from or how they learnt or acquired
English.

Conclusion

The teacher is the best teaching aid. Be sure that you are using yourself to the full
effect.
Most of us send up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers
have thousands of people who remember than for the rest of their lives.

Andy Rooney