Flashcards!

Flashcards are a very useful tool when teaching new vocabulary to or young students is about, or maybe if you need your students to memorize some math formulas, etc.

They are easy to carry, very attractive(if you do it correctly) and toddlers, kids, and children love them. Also flash cards are a really good tool for our visual learners because of its bright colors and images.

These cards are very simple, but depending on our students' level we have to take into account some special characteristics. It is common that if we are working with kids or children, we are going to use images, colors, big and colorful letters or words. But, if our students are in a junior level or we work with adults, our flashcards are not going to be the same that we would use with kids and children; maybe we decide to just write on the card a simple word, a sentence or a formula. 

What is a flashcard?

A flashcard is a type of card used to learn easier by memorizing or asociating a word with an image. Flashcards are made of cardboard, plastic, paper, etc. They contain a word (the concept we are trying to learn or memorize) and an image. But, also we can find flashcards which contain only a word, those are called word cards or word flashcards.

"Flashcards is ELT jargon for pictures (or diagrams, words, etc,) that you can show to students[...] They are also useful for handing out as part of various activities. They are a very useful teaching aid, especially in your earlier years of teaching". - Scrivener(1994)

When do we use flashcards?

We can use our flashcards as a warm-up, as presentation, or even at the end of the class if we use them as a game or as practice. We can even ask students to create their own set to play at home with their siblings or parents so they will be learning out of the classroom. 

How do we make our flashcards?

If you do not want to make them by yourself, you can buy them. If you do not want to spend a lot of money by buying a set of flashcards you can create them easily. You can make them of any resistant material you want, but you need to know that flashcards should be large enough so the students who ar sitting in the back are able to see them. You can use pictures from magazines, newspaper, printed from internet of you can use your own drawings. DO NOT forget they have to be all of the same size, colorful and very attractive. Or you can tell to your students to create a different set(one per student), so the classroom will be already prepared to work with flashcards when they learn about animals, food, verbs, sports, etc.

You only need to give them the instructions and give them an example.

These are some examples of a set that I created. The flascards contain the verb in simple present above the image, and the same verb in simple past under the picture. The letter size is big enough so my students can read it well. Also the images are large and coloful.

Example of an activity using Flashcards

Memory game:

Level: 7-8 years old    2nd grade  Elementary School            Topic: Sports

Teacher places flashcards on the floor facing down. Half of the flashcards contain objects that students associate with a sport (e.g googles, swimming suit=swimming) and the other half contains only the name of the sport(e.g. SWIMMING).

Students sitting around the flashcards take a pair by turns. Students will be learning the name of sports by associating the objects with the word. Finally, the player with more pairs will be the winner of the game.

Bibliography:

 Scrivener, J. (1994). Toolkit 3: Tools, techniques, activities. In Learning teaching: A guidebook for English language teachers (2nd Edition ed., p. 430). Oxford: Heinemann (Oxford).  

Group activity with authentic material

Here, I'd like to implement an example of an activity working with authentic material; in this case a song with its lyrics video.

The student's level would be 9th grade (Junior high)

Students have to identify the irregular verbs (present or past) within the lyrics of the song and try to write them all per teams. After the song ends, they will tell aloud the number of verbs they found and the winner will be the team with the closest number, or the exact number of irreglular verbs.

Authentic Material

In the last years the use of authentic material has been increased and becoming more popular every time. Harmer defines authentic texts (either written or spoken) as:

"those which are designed for native speakers; they are real texts designed not for language students but for the speakers of the language in question". - Harmer(1991)

 On the same perspective, Nunan(1989) defines authentic materials as material which  has not been specifically produced the purposes of language teaching.

Rogers and Medley(1988) state that videotaped materials offer more clues for comprehension to the students than other materials because of the visual and nonverbal clues. Most students today have grown up with television and are accustomed to gaining knowledge about the world from the television screen as well as from books and newspapers. Using authentic videotaped materials to　teach the target language is effective not only teaching the target language, but also in teaching the target culture.

For example: The teacher shows the students a video where some native speakers talk about their favorite sport in a survey for ESPN channel. The students beside learning new vocabulary, they are learning unconsciously about the United States culture.

But also, many students are not used to the normal-speed conversation of a native speaker, this may be a challenge for them at the first levels. So that is why it is important for ESL teachers to keep in mind that videotaped materials should be used to stimulate rather than to discourage student responses. 

Now let's talk about the advantages and the disadvantages of using authentic material.

Little, Devitt, and Singleton(1989) state that authentic texts are more likely to have acquisition-promoting content than invented texts because authentic texts focus on content rather than form. One disadvantage is that because there are　often no support materials with authendc videos, preparing lessons from　 authentic texts and videos can be more time consuming than EFT,-specific　 materials. Also, many authentic listening passages are too long for teaching. On the other hand, authentic materials can provide a challenge to students and　 serve to prepare EFL students for real target language communicative　 interaction.　

Pronunciation

Some authentic children's programs, such as Sesame Street, show native　 speakers modeling pronunciation. Children's programs are very useful in　helping students acquire accurate pronunciation of the target language. 　

This helps EFL students to realize the phonological difference between their　first and second languages, particularly if the instructor uses videotaped　 materials to teach how to produce sounds in the target language at an early　 stage of instruction. Conversely, non-children's programs present native　 speakers speaking naturally; others show native speakers' different regional　 accents, providing students with a range of real world speech.　

Tv commercials

Authentic TV commercials in the target language are especially valuable for　EFL learners because they are short and contain a great deal of redundancy.　 Short, action-oriented commercials can also increase understanding because　 there is sufficient visual support. Many TV commercials are mini-dramas in　which meaning is conveyed through body language, facial expressions and　 other nonverbal clues that students can draw upon to increase their　understanding.　

　A TV commercial is full of environmental clues that help the learner to understand what the topic is about, more than the actual conversation among the native speakers. Students can also learn cultural background when the commercial shows customs specific to the target culture.

Songs

Abrate(1983) pointed out five benefits of utilizing popular songs of the target language:

1) holding the attention and interests of students

2) introducing native and colloquial use of language

3) presenting cultural phenomena and points of view

4) providing a context for learning

5) furnishing an entertaining alternative to textbook study.

In conclusion, we can say that the authentic material is the type of material that is not design with the purpose of teaching. Examples of authentic materials can be Videos, songs, documentaries, newspapers, TV commercials; but all these have to be spoken or written in the target language.

Sometimes working with authentic material can be more time consuming because, teachers have to select the appropiate material, thus this type of material is not already created for teaching. Also some videos or podcast can be too long for a class.

Students are exposed to learn about the target culture if they work with authentic material, because videotaped authentic material often shows cultural background or clues that help the learner to discover what the video is talking about.

Bibliography and references:

Harmer, J. (2008). Popular Methodology. In The practice of English language teaching (4.th ed., p. 448). Harlow: Pearson/Longman.  

Little, D., Devitt, S.& Singleton, D.(1989). Learning foreign language from authentic texts: Theory　 and practice. Dublin: Authentic Language Learning Resources.

Matsusa, Ken. "Applications for Using Authentic Materials in the Second Language Classroom." (n.d.): 41-43. Applications For Using Authentic Materials In The Second Language Classroom. 16 May 2013. Web. 24 May 2015.