Using visual material in teaching Past tenses in 4th form

Управление  образования города Алматы

Алматинский государственный гуманитарно-педагогический колледж № 2 
 
 
 
 

Специальность: 0314002

«Начальное  общее образование»

Квалификация: 0314032

«Учитель  иностранных языков в начальной  школе» 
 
 
 
 

Курсовая  работа

По  предмету «Методика обучения иностранному языку»

«Using visual material in teaching Past tenses in 4^th form» 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Выполнила:

 учащаяся  группы И-47

Шаблакова А.В. 

Руководитель:

Мельникова  К.С. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Алматы

2011

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………..3

1. Theoretical aspects in using visual materialS in

teaching Past tenses.….…………………….…………………….…….5

1. The system of past tenses……………………………………………….…5
2. The role of visual material in language teaching ………………………8
3. The classification of visual material………………………………….…12
4. Visual material and their methodology…………………………………18

 
 

2. The practice of using visual materials in teaching past tenses. in 4^th FORM ….……………………………………………..20
1. Exercises for presentation a new material………………………….…..20
2. Tasks for revision …………………………………………………….….23

 

CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………….26

BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………….27

APPENDIX ……………………………………………………..………………28 
 
 

 

INTRODUCTION 

     Verb in the grammatical structure of English is quite exceptional place - because of their widely ramified system and the large role that verb forms are in the construction of the proposal. Categories of time, expressed in forms of inflection and derivation, are grammatical criteria verb.

     The study group for the verb has not only theoretical but also practical significance. Beginning with the first English lessons, students meet with the proposals, which meet turnaround time of this group. Need for proper use of them in a speech presupposes knowledge of grammatical specificity of the formation of this class of words. They need some visual material which can help them to understand better the new language. This determines the relevance of the topic term paper.

     I have chosen this theme because I think that visual material is very important and useful for teaching. It always was the main attribute in studying. Through the aids pupils can know the world; they can understand what is it – earth, countries, feelings and everything else. Also I always wanted to learn in detail how to use Past tenses, employing the different visual materials and teaching techniques on the lessons

  Using visual material in teaching is actual theme in our education, because there are a lot of helpful teaching aids in the markets; also teachers can paint their own material, they can use internet and colored printing to create new exciting lessons.

     The purpose of this study is to investigate the helping methods of using visual material in teaching Past tenses; to expose of variety of challenging often interesting activities and techniques in using visual material at the lessons of English.

     Objectives:

1. To analyze scientific and define the mechanisms of formation of sentences expressing Past actions in the process of speech
2. To give useful information how Past tenses can be approached with the help of visual materials.
3. To present a variety of tasks provide effective practice with Past tenses learning strategies

     This course work is devoted to teaching Past tenses using visual material on English lessons according to their structural and methodological features, as well as the peculiarities of historical development. Course work consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion, bibliography and appendix. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1. Theoretical aspects of using visual material in teaching past tenses

1. The system of past tenses

     The past tense is a verb tense expressing activity, action state or being in the past. In English, there are following types of past tenses:

     Past Progressive

     Past Simple

     Past Perfect

     Past Perfect Progressive

     A past tense  is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future (in a relative tense system).

     In English, there are two verb forms which are commonly called "past tense", the so-called simple past, sometimes misleadingly called the preterite, which is a true tense, and the present perfect, which is generally considered an aspect rather than a tense. These combine with other aspects including the progressive (continuous) aspect to create several additional forms:

     Simple past is formed for regular verbs by adding -d or – ed to the root of a word.

     Examples: He walked to the store, or They danced all night. A negation is produced by adding did not and the verb in its infinitive form. Example: He did not walk to the store. Question sentences are started with did as in Did he walk to the store?

     Simple past is used for describing acts that have already been concluded and whose exact time of occurrence is known. Furthermore, simple past is used for retelling successive events. That is why it is commonly used in storytelling.

     Past progressive is formed by using the adequate form of to be and the verb’s present participle: He was going to church. By inserting not before the main verb a negation is achieved. Example: He was not going to church. A question is formed by prefixing the adequate form of to be as in Was he going?.

     Past progressive is used for describing events that were in the process of occurring when a new event happened. The already occurring event is presented in past progressive, the new one in simple past. Example: We were sitting in the garden when the thunderstorm started.

     Past perfect is formed by combining the simple past form of to have with the past participle form of the main verb: We had shouted. A negation is achieved by including not after had: You had not spoken. Questions in past perfect always start with had: Had he laughed?

     Past perfect is used for describing secluded events that have occurred before something else followed. The event that is closer to the present is given in simple past tense: After we had visited our relatives in New York, we flew back to Toronto.

     Past perfect progressive is formed by had, the grammatical particle been and the present participle of the main verb: You had been waiting. For negation, not is included before been: I had not been waiting. A question sentence is formed by starting with had: Had she been waiting?

     If emphasis is put on the duration of a concluded action of the past, since and for are signal words for past perfect progressive: We had been waiting at the airport since the 9 P.M. flight. / They had been waiting for three hours now.

1. Auxiliary verb "to be"

The past form of the auxiliary verb "to be" is:

For third person singular: "was"

For all others: "were"

Examples: She was always coming late for dinner!

You were always coming late for dinner!

She was always coming late for dinner!

You were always coming late for dinner!

2. The Present Participle

The present participle is of a verb is a verb form that appears with the present tenses. The present participle is formed by adding -ing to the verb.

talk + ing = talking

be + ing = being

3. Auxiliary verb "to have"

The past form of the auxiliary verb "to have" is "had":

Mary had finished her homework before Mike came home.

Mary has finished her homework before Mike came home.

Mary hads finished her homework before Mike came home.

4. The Past Participle

The past participle of a verb is a verb form that appears with the perfect tenses. The past participle can be either regular or irregular.

The regular verbs are formed by adding -ed to the verb:  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2. The role of visual materials in language teaching

      A development is going on from word - text - to 'image'. 'An image says more than a thousand words', applies to the teaching situation too. Think of the enormous expansion of multimedia. The computer is an outstanding tool to look for these images, to adapt them, and present them. Not only for the teachers but also for the pupils. In the age of the comprehensive school we already gained many positive experiences using visual material within the subjects of  Studies. In local studies too working with images turned out to offer many possibilities.

      In local studies too working with images turned out to offer many possibilities. Working with visual material gives pupils many more possibilities to express their feelings. In this way abstract concepts become much more clear. In 1994 pupils can hardly conceive concepts such as 'right' to strike, child labour, the role of the church in former times and consequences of the industrial revolution. With the digitalized pictures  it is much more simple for pupils to study and present the concepts learned. If we present the visual material after showing a video film, it will be easier for the pupils to reconstruct the contents.

      The teacher takes his video camera to the open-air museum. The visual material serves for the processing of information by the pupils during classes. The available slides are also used, but they are less accessible to pupils. The method of working is very suitable for all subjects participating in this project. Example: Images of a novel adapted for the screen. The images also serve to test the pupils' fluency, to interpret a story.

      As a teachers we are always looking for suitable visual material for the subjects within our curriculum. Education should not become just some sort of news column. However, supply turns out to be enormous. If it is not available, we will film or scan it ourselves!

      We do not exaggerate when we say that media literacy in its widest sense is as important to our development as was universal literacy in the 19th century. Then, the written word was the only passport to knowledge. Now, there are many more.  And the most insidious digital divide is between those equipped to understand that and those who aren't.

A teaching aid is a tool used by teachers, facilitators, or tutors:

• To help learners improve reading and other skills
• To illustrate or reinforce a skill, fact, or idea, and
• To relieve anxiety, fears, or boredom, since many teaching aids are like games.

     A method is a system for the teaching of a language that is based either on a particular theory of language or on a particular theory of learning, or (usually) on both. These theories will underpin choices of syllabus type, materials, and classroom activities. For example, audio lingual is a method that drew on a structuralist description of language (—«linguistics) and behaviorist views of learning. Accordingly, syllabuses for audio lingual courses were organized around a graded list of structures, and the main classroom activity was the drilling of the structures so as to install correct language habits. Other well-known methods are grammar-translation, the direct method, and the communicative approach.

     Method should not be confused with course book: a course book is simply the material support for a method. In fact, some methods, such as the Silent Way, do not have course books at all. Nor should method be confused with methodology, which is a general word to describe classroom practices, such as classroom management, irrespective of the particular method that a teacher is using. Some theorists distinguish between method and approach, as in the communicative approach or the lexical approach. 'Approach' denotes a more general theoretical orientation, while a method is just one way that the approach is realized in practice. Nowadays, the term approach is used almost exclusively, method having fallen from favor. This is due to a strong reaction, in the late twentieth century, away from the 'method concept', on the grounds that methods are too prescriptive and too insensitive to local contextual factors. It is now recognized that language learning is a more complex process than any single method can hope to address. Hence, there has been an attitude shift in favor of eclecticism and of customizing teaching approaches to suit the particular and local needs of the learners -sometimes called a post-method pedagogy. In practice, however, most teachers tend to teach using the method in which they were originally trained, supplemented by activities gleaned from course books.

     Materials in the language classroom include anything that is used to support the leaning process. This includes course books, workbooks, visual aids, charts, board games, Cuisenaire rods, audio and video materials, as well as the software that is run by computers, data projectors and interactive whiteboards. Nowadays, it is generally the case that learners will have access to a course book for classroom use as well as some from homework book (workbook). The course book itself will consist of texts, both spoken and written, with accompanying tasks, grammar and vocabulary presentations and exercises, speaking and writing tasks, and usually some form of grammar reference section at the back. Books are usually supplemented with recorded material, and, increasingly, a photocopiable resource pack as well as a CD-ROM of extra exercises, and access to a web page. Books for children come with even more components, including charts, games, and even puppets.

      The arguments in favour of materials are: they relieve the teacher of having to do copious preparation; they are the stimulus to language production; they provide immersion-like language exposure; they allow learners to continue studying outside class time; they provide  variety also caters for different individual learning styles. On the downside, an over-reliance on materials can create a materials-centered classroom, at  the expense of a person-centered one. It is important, therefore, to select and use materials judiciously, taking into account the learners needs and interests, so that the materials are a help rather than a hindrance. 

      "A good aid is like a window, it should not call attention to itself, it should just let in the light." Teaching aids provide a means of reiterating lessons, and they provide students with the opportunity to learn in a new light. More than classroom decoration, teaching aids are designed to teach, illustrate and reinforce lessons.

      Students learn in a variety of ways; thus, incorporating various techniques into the learning process will prove most beneficial to students. Edgar Dale created "The Cone of Experience," which shows that "the more sensory channels possible in interacting with a resource, the better the chance that many students can learn from it." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

3. The classification of visual materials

      Teaching aids can be broken down into four broad categories: bulletin boards; charts; flash cards; manipulatives and experiments.

      Bulletin boards frequently set the ambiance in the class room; however, you should not overlook the potential to use this classroom space to teach a new concept. Permanently displaying a concept benefits students by allowing them to process the information at anytime during the day, Remember to replace bulletin boards routinely to introduce new material, review and reinforce past lessons, and show student progress.

      Use charts, which may be placed throughout the classroom as part of the décor, on a regular basis for instructional purposes. Appropriate charts for permanent display might include a cursive formation chart or a calendar. Display charts introducing new material for the first few days of the lesson, but take them down during quizzes or tests. Teachers should refer to charts often during instructional time but should not rely on the display itself to teach the students; students cannot be expected to learn new material unless it has been presented by the teacher.

      While flashcards are normally associated with arithmetic class, teachers can purchase or create flashcards for use in almost every subject. For instance, a science review could include a flashcard with a type of animal, such as "amphibian," written on one side, with the opposite side listing the animal's characteristics. A reading class could incorporate flashcards with a word on one side and the definition on the other side. Flashcards can be used by the teacher to generate competition among students, or they can be given to individual students or small groups for extra practice.

      Manipulatives and experiments are teaching aids that the children are allowed to play with and touch. Manipulatives could include magnets, counting objects, musical instruments, puppets or items of varying texture and size. By incorporating the five senses and integrating the concepts of Dale's "Cone of Experience" into the lesson, these teaching aids will heighten student interest and comprehension.

      Benefits

      Since the average child needs to be exposed to new material several times before it is retained, teachers must implement teaching aids in the classroom. According to the Visual Teaching Alliance, "Visual aids in the classroom improve learning by up to 400 percent."

      When teaching aids, such as charts, are displayed throughout the room, students are free to view them at their leisure, linger over the material, and refer to them throughout the day. Flashcards can be used as games between tables or rows of students in the classroom--this can encourage students to remember the lessons so as not to let themselves or their classmates down. Manipulatives are typically used for reinforcement of a lesson--these can benefit students of all preferred learning styles.

      Sources

      Teaching aids can be either homemade or store-bought and need not cost much money. Homemade flashcards can be made from index cards. Use small index cards for small group work, such as children quizzing each other, and larger index cards, such as 4" x 6" or 5" x 8", for an entire class activity. Other handmade teaching aids could include large charts or games.

      Store-bought visuals are available from teacher-supply stores and home-school retailers. A Beka Book is a Christian publisher of K-12 curriculum materials and provides high-quality visuals such as flashcards and charts appropriate for the classroom or the homeschooling family. Scholastic is another high-quality publisher of teaching aids and visuals, which are available online or in teacher-supply stores.

      Tips

      Select visuals that are dual-purpose--for instance a visual of a fish could be appropriate for learning about the characteristics of fish but could also be used when learning about the food pyramid. Additionally, change bulletin boards and charts often to introduce new life to the classroom. Children will enjoy the change in scenery and are bound to learn when exposed to fresh ideas. For example, incorporate the season or time of year into classroom visuals and discuss what makes it unique.

      Disadvantages

      The main disadvantage of incorporating teaching aids into the classroom relate to storage and expense. Some visuals can be expensive, so store them in a way that avoids damage. Consider an organizational system that allows for quick retrieval.

      Take care to not spend too much time with teaching aids. Games and experiments have their purpose, but don't overload the class with activities that take away from valuable traditional teaching time.

      To masses a foreign language pupil must be engaged in activities which are characteristic of the language; they should hear the language spoken, speak, read, and write it.

      To achieve effective classroom learning under the conditions of compulsory primary education, the teacher must use all the accessories he has at his disposal in oder to arouse in the interest of his pupils and retain it throughout the lesson which is possible only are actively involved in the very process of classroom learning. To teach a foreign language effectively the teacher needs teaching aids and teaching materials.

      During the last few years important developments have taken place in this field. As on result there is great variety of teaching aids and teaching materials at the teacher's disposal.

      By teaching aids we mean various devices which can help the foreign language teacher in presenting linguistic material to his pupils and fixing it in their memory; in testing, pupils' knowledge of words, phrases, and grammar items, their habits and skills in using them.

       Teaching aids are grouped into 

 
 
 

I2 

                                                                         

.

     By teaching materials we mean the materials which the teacher can use to help pupils to learn a foreign language through visual or audio perception.

     Since pupils learn a foreign language for several years, it is necessary for the teacher to have a wide variety of materials which make it possible to progress with an increasing sophistication to match the pupils continually growing command of the foreign language.

     Good teaching materials will help greatly to reinforce the pupils' initial desire to learn the language and to sustain their enthusiasm throughout the course.

      The following teaching materials are in use nowadays:

      1.Teacher's book;

      2 .Pupil's book;

      3.Visual materials;

      4.Audio materials;

      5.Audio-visual materials;

      Visual materials. Objects - there are a lot of things in the classroom such as pens and pencils different sizes and colors, books, desks and many other articles which the teacher can use in presenting English names for them and in stimulating pupils' activities to utilize the words denoting objects they can see, touch, point to, give, take, etc. Toys and puppets may be widely used in teaching children in primary school.

      Flashcards, Flashcard - is a card with a letter, a sound symbol or a word to be used for quick showing to pupils and in this way for developing pupils' skills in reading and pronunciation.

      Sentence cards. They bear sentences or sentence patterns which can be used with different aims e.g. for reading and analysing the sentences, etc.

      Wall-charts. A wall-charts - is a big sheet of paper with drawings of words to be hung in the classroom and used for revision or generalization of some linguistic phenomenon. Such as "English tenses", "Passive voice", "ing - forms", etc.

      Posters - or series of illustrations portraying a story. They are used as "props" in retelling a story read or heard. The teacher himself or a pupil who can draw or paint,  prepares such posters.

      There are 3 types of pictures:

• object pictures (e.g. the picture of a computer)
• situational pictures (e.g. pupils plays  tennis)
• topical pictures (e.g. picture of an England)

      Photographs - black and white and colored . e.g. views of Almaty, "our family" etc.

      Albums. An album is a book of pictures or photographs which is used in developing pupils language skills.

      Maps and plans. In teaching English the maps of Great Britain, the USA and the counties may be used.

      Slides. A slides is a glass of plastic plate bearing a picture. Slides are usually coloured and used in sets to illustrate a story.

      Film-strips. A film-strip represents a set of series of pictures as a rule, situational pictures in certain sequence which pupil sees while listening to a story from the teacher or the tape to reproduce it later.

      Audio- visual materials — sound films.

      Teaching materials used in various combinations allow the teacher to develop his pupils' oral- aural skills.

      Visual materials have an important role to play in the development of hearing and speaking skills. Carefully devised they help to get rid of the necessity for constant translation and assist the teacher in keeping the lesson within the foreign language.

      Visual materials can also be used to assist in the general development of the pupil's personality, and this is of great educational value.

      Teacher materials acquire special importance in gaining cultural aims . From the earliest stages, thanks to visual aids, pupils are introduced to the foreign country and its people. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4. Visual materials and their methodology

     To masses a foreign language pupil must be engaged in activities which are characteristic of the language; they should hear the language spoken, speak, read, and write it.

     To achieve effective classroom learning under the conditions of compulsory primary education, the teacher must use all the accessories he has at his disposal in oder to arouse in the interest of his pupils and retain it throughout the lesson which is possible only are actively involved in the very process of classroom learning.

     To teach a foreign language effectively the teacher needs teaching aids and teaching materials.

     During the last few years important developments have taken place in this field. As on result there is great variety of teaching aids and teaching materials at the teacher's disposal.

      By teaching aids we mean various devices which can help the foreign language teacher in presenting linguistic material to his pupils and fixing it in their memory; in testing, pupils' knowledge of words, phrases, and grammar items, their habits and skills in using them.

      Tense' refers to the way that verbs are inflected (ie, have different forms) to express a relation with time. For example, happen vs happened; run vs ran; can vs could. The relation between tense and time is not an exact match. A present tense verb form may in fact refer to the future or the past, as in The bus leaves at noon tomorrow. Yesterday morning, I'm lying in bed when the phone rings .... And a past tense verb form may refer to the future or the present, as in If we went to Mallorca next summer ... Could I try it on? Nevertheless, there is a loose relation between time and tense. In the absence of context, you are likely to interpret it happens as having present reference, and the sentence it happened as having past reference. It is important to remember, though, that grammatical tense and notional time are not the same thing.

      Because tense describes the way that verbs are inflected, there are only two tenses in English: the present and the past. There is no future inflection in English; instead futurity is expressed in a variety of ways, including the use of modal verbs: It'll happen. It's going to happen.

      Modal verbs can also be marked for tense, although this usually indicates a difference in certainty rather than in time: It may rain. It might rain. I'll pay. Fd pay. Only in reported speech is the tense-time connection obvious: Dad says I can go. Dad said I could go.

      Tense combines with aspect to create the variety of verb structures in English that are commonly, if mistakenly, known as its different tenses.

      Since 'tenses' are strongly associated with grammar in general (due, in part, to the residual effect of the teaching of Latin and Greek), a focus on them has traditionally dominated course design - and still does. The so-called tenses are taught as independent discrete items. An alternative might be to teach tense and aspect as an interconnected closed system. Such an approach would, in theory, be a lot simpler. Rather than teaching eight (or more) 'different' structures, it would involve teaching the forms and basic meanings of two tenses (present and past) and two aspects (progressive and perfect). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2. The practice of using visual material in teaching past tenses

1. Exercises for presentation a new material

     After a phonetic drill, we are presenting a new material, aim of definite lesson and objectives to pupils. When they are ready to take the new theme, we continue the presentation. Firstly it will be some rules about  theme and after it we giving new information, for the practice we do some exercises.

     Pupils gets lists, where are the pictures and the text about Mr. Brown’s family. Pupils should answer on some questions and according to pictures make correct statements on Past Simple tense.

Class: 4 A

Theme: Bill’s holiday (Past Simple)

Aim: to teach pupil to use past tense in the right form, to find out the difference between present tense and past.

Objectives: educational – to develop pupils mental abilities, creative thinking

Cultural – to show pupils, how can we spend our holiday

Practical - to learn new theme, to teach pupils to use words and new material

Equipment:  auxiliary visual material, words on the blackboard,

Procedure:

Let’s ask Bill Brown some questions. Did you have a good holiday, Bill?

Yes. Last week I went camping on Sunday.

I went ________________  on Monday.

________________________ Tuesday.

________________________Wednesday.

________________________ Thursday.

________________________ Friday.

________________________ Saturday.

swimming: fishing: climbing: hiking: camping: dancing: jogging: skiing: horse riding: shopping: skate boarding.

 
 
 

Bill didn’t do 3 of the things in the box. Which 3 things didn’t he do?

He didn’t go ______________ 

He didn’t ________________ 

He______________________   
 

     On their lists pupils should write the right statements. After it we check what they’ve wrote.  On the pictures we can see Bill in his tent and in his house since one week, we see him  dancing with family, skiing, buying new picture. But there is no Bill jogging, horse riding, hiking etc. So we understand what Bill didn’t do on his holidays.

     At the next exercise we see some pictures with restaurant, giant switchback, cinema, friends and dog.

Exercise 2

Did you do anything else on holiday, Bill?

Yes.

i) I stayed at the Sunny Hotel.

ii) I__________________ some nice food.