A flashcard
is a laminated card with a picture of a vocabulary item. For example a picture
of a cat. The teacher points to the picture and says, “Cat.” The student
understands what the sound “cat” means and associates it with the picture.
Flashcards usually have the picture with the word written underneath.
Ninety-nine
percent of TEFL teaching for young learners involves flashcards (FCs). Even if
you prefer to draw your own pictures on the whiteboard, you are still following
the same basic principle. From lower levels (“cat”) to higher (“travel around
the world”) flashcards are used. Often for higher levels the flashcard picture
must be explained and concept checked before the repetition of the vocabulary
item commences.
Students
will have textbooks to fill in during class time, homework to do; and
grammatical structures, spelling, free speaking practice and many other areas
of the language learning will be taught within a lesson. This blog, however,
aims to solely deal with the teaching of picture flashcards as vocabulary items.
It is aimed at new TEFL teachers but can also serve as a handy reference for
experienced language instructors in search of some fresh ideas.
The
activities in this blog will be ordered so that they are progressively more
challenging. Primary drills are used for the first time the students come into
contact with the vocabulary (look, listen and repeat); then things become more
student centred: we test how well they can remember the FCs (matching games),
work on individual pronunciation, and finally the students are given the chance
to use the new vocabulary in language context.
Although
this blog is wholly concerned with different ways of teaching flashcards, there
are techniques discussed that can be applied to other areas of language
teaching.
