Audio Visual Aids
Audio Visual Aids in the field of English Language Learning.
A pressing issue in the education of English these days is making the students direct their full attention towards the classroom and give them a clear understanding of the topics.
As new innovation have been developed ,modern technology has a solution for that. Nowadays, teachers use various audio-visual aids to facilitate the teaching process and enhance the concentration and learning ability of the students. Webster’s Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, defines Audio-Visual a Aids as “training or educational materials directed at both the senses of hearing and the sense of sight, films, recordings, photographs, etc used in classroom instructions, library collections or the likes”. So now ,along with books, teachers may use related pictures, audio clips, videos, power point slides, posters and so on in the classrooms.
Students (especially the younger generation) learn best by observing and copying the behaviours of adults. It is therefore clear that learning is more effective when sensory experiences are stimulated. These include pictures, slides, speakers, videos and other audiovisual tools. According to the Wikipedia, audio-visual education is defined as “instruction where particular attention is paid to the audio and visual presentation of the material with the goal of improving comprehension and retention. “. It can be first traced back to the seventeenth century when John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), a Bohemian educator, introduced pictures in his book Orbis Sensualium Pictus (“picture of the Sensual World”) which had around 150 drawings of everyday life.
The objective of using audio-visual aids is to enhance teacher’s ability to present the lesson in a fun, easy and efficient way for understanding of the students. Audiovisual material make learning more permanent and lasting since students use more than one sense. The use of visual and audio means make abstract ideas more concrete for the students .English language, which is considered as a global has become a major medium for communication across borders globally. With the appropriate implementation of various new media technological aids that can used in classroom to teach English as foreign language (EFL) such as laboratories, videos, pictures, slides, audio books and others, teachers can boost students‟ interest and making the teaching more efficient and lasting.
A study of the impact of Audio Visual aids on young students.
Very young students, who are learning English as a foreign language must also develop fundamental skills, which are also cross-curriculum; coloring, cutting, or following instructions are among them. The use of Audio visual aids is quite beneficial as it not only provides learning in English language but also provides a platform for the development of skills at a young age. Suitable audio visual materials for young students have been shown in the following table. The general objective is to implement an audiovisual materials-based teaching strategy to identify young student’s understanding of instructions when doing language tasks .
It has also been seen that the use of audio visual aids (especially in young children) has helped in maintaining the discipline of the class as most of the students are busy in learning. This interactive session also helps in developing critical thinking and reasoning that are important components of the teaching-learning process.
The following data is from a survey conducted in a certain Public school regarding audio visual aids in Kindergarten students.
Audiovisual aids provide opportunities for effective communication between teacher and students in learning. For example, in a study on English as Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, the difficulties faced by EFL learner are lack of motivation, lack of exposure to the target language and lack of pronunciation by the teacher, and such difficulties can be overcome by Audio as purpose of communication and Visuals to provide more exposure.
Young students learn easily when they are motivated and curious about something. As young students are getting more exposed to technology ,traditional methods of education are day by day becoming more obsolete for them. Often they symptoms of restlessness, boredom and general irritability.
Various types of AV aids.
More insight
Languages are not fixed but constantly changing, so are the media; modern means such as Internet, computer, television, radio and newspaper which are extraordinarily rich sources o language in use . Audio visual aids are those materials which involve the both audible and vision senses and provide update information. The internet can be a rich source of authentic oral models via recorded songs, talking electronic books, podcasts and video clips that help learners with pronunciation as well as acquisition and reinforcement of new vocabulary . It is regard as genuine new medium of linguistic communication. Using it allows learners to search through millions of files from different available websites, they can access authentic materials such as newspaper, magazine articles, news broadcast, movies and so on. Furthermore, browsing through the internet allow the students to develop their skills, by reading authentic materials available on websites, listening to foreign music and so on.’
Such aids will definitely help the future generations to facilitate the learing of English language But there are various problems associated with such aids , these aids are expensive and require technical knowledge to operate and install, which is often not available in various regions of the world. Often such systems aren’t installed due to above mentioned problems. But undoubtedly, such AV systems if implemented properly will enhance the quality of teaching and learning process.
Use of Audio-visuals to make the class interesting :
Almost all the students in modern scenario agree that use of different audio-visual materials makes the class interesting and enjoyable. Often a lengthy class becomes really tough for them if the teacher cannot make it interesting. They lose their attention soon from the lesson. Only the lecture based class becomes monotonous for the students. However, different types of AV aids can take away the monotony of the students. Students have claimed that they can pay more attention to the lesson as it becomes more attractive and attention-grabbing. It brings variation in the class. It has been seen that students can understand the lesson better if the teachers visualize the contents relating with any audio-visual materials. Also, the use of PowerPoint slides makes the class more interesting and stimulating.
Common Problems faced by teachers while using audio-visual aids:
Teachers often face the technical problem while using audio and video in the class. Sometimes, the materials in a pen drive get damaged by virus. Also, often it happens that the speakers do not work in the classroom or the video player does not support. As a result, teachers have to face a lot of problems. The selection of the appropriate materials is very challenging. As often teachers don’t have the facilities to design their own audio-visual materials suitable for our classes, they have to depend on the ready-made resources from different websites. As a result, it is very challenging for the teachers to find out suitable materials that match with the level of the learners and other criteria.
Common problems faced by the students when teachers use audio-visual aids in classrooms
Although, students generally agree that audio-visual aids facilitate their language learning, but sometimes they face some difficulties when their teachers use different audio visual aids in the classroom. There are occasional technical issues and other unseen problems that arise sometimes. As a result, they face difficulties to get the meaning. Sometimes they face problems in understanding the material. Therefore, there are both advantages and disadvantages of using audio visual aids in English language classrooms.
AV aids in The Learning Pyramid.
Studies have shown that varying your study methods and materials often leads to increased retention and recall of information, and enhance your learning experience. The “learning pyramid”, sometimes referred to as the “cone of learning”, developed by the National Training Laboratory. The Learning Pyramid model suggests that some methods of study are more effective than others and that varying study methods will lead to deeper learning and longer-term retention .’ The Learning Pyramid suggests that Audio-visual learning methods lead to around 20% retention of information learned. The audio-visual learning method may incorporate various audio-visual learning/teaching tools including videos, sound, pictures, and graphs. However, as media and computer technology continues to evolve, new forms of audio-visual instruction are leading to more effective learning and retention of material. The effectiveness of audio-visual learning and study methods are enhanced when combined with other, more active forms of study. These include incorporating it with demonstration, discussion , practice and teaching others.
What does the data suggest?
The following are the results of a survey conducted at South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The above figure illustrates the Students’ perspective about Usage of multimedia audio-visual aids in English language learning classroom. The data clearly shows that the use of audio visual aids were beneficial for the students. Moreover ,the group of students who were taught by using multimedia visual aid method performed well and obtained more marks than the group of students who were taught by using traditional method. The study explored that, students were very much responsive where the teachers used multimedia audio-visual aids.
The study recorded the student talk time and teacher talk time in the both classes where traditional and multimedia audiovisual aids methods was used to teach the selected topic.
According to the findings, in traditional method of teaching, the student talk time is limited to 35% and in the multimedia audiovisual aids usage of teaching, student talk time is exceeded up to 80%, it is clearly visualized in the figure as follows. According to the findings of the study almost all the students came with the idea that, use of multimedia visuals aids makes the class interesting and encourages them to learn.
Final Words
Audio-visual aids surely facilitate language learning. Both the teachers and learners are benefited from different audio-visuals materials in language classrooms. Audio-visuals make the language teaching and learning effective making the class interactive and interesting, motivating the learners, facilitating language skills and so many. The use of multimedia audio-visual aids in English language education in the classroom is an essential and effective way to enhance the English language knowledge of the students. It definitely increases the interest, knowledge and proficiency in English language among the students . Appropriate actions should be taken in order to facilitate the use of multimedia audio-visual aids in the English language classroom to enhance the English language proficiency of students .
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