PowerPoint
In my days in Tripoli we had a substantial selection of domestically produced and commercial wallcharts and sets of flashcards of various sizes. These rapidly became dog-eared with use and were much treasured by individual teachers.
In Belfast we have been able to make take advantage of PowerPoint to create a series of simple slides that provide the same sort of support for the teacher who is presenting, practising or revising new language. Each lesson in Stage One has 12-15 slides:
A hand-held device can be used effectively to flick forwards and backwards between the different slides, while maintaining eye contact with individual Learners and moving around the room.
In my days in Tripoli we had a substantial selection of domestically produced and commercial wallcharts and sets of flashcards of various sizes. These rapidly became dog-eared with use and were much treasured by individual teachers.
In Belfast we have been able to make take advantage of PowerPoint to create a series of simple slides that provide the same sort of support for the teacher who is presenting, practising or revising new language. Each lesson in Stage One has 12-15 slides:
- Pictures - These include pictures of the concrete objects that complement any realia used to introduce and practise the target vocabulary of each lesson. We have been able to make it increasing use of images of objects, buildings, parks and other places in the Belfast environment that are familiar to the Learners.
- Sight words - A few of the highest frequency small words in English are included for sight recognition in each lesson in Stage One, so that they can be used to join up individual words in the target vocabulary, and then sentences, when Learners reach Stages Two and Three.
- Video - We have had some success in embedding very short video clips, relevant to the learning outcomes for individual lessons, in some of the sets of PowerPoint slides; these add variety and are appreciated by the Learners.
A hand-held device can be used effectively to flick forwards and backwards between the different slides, while maintaining eye contact with individual Learners and moving around the room.