Flashcard Games - Introduction

Flashcard Games - Introduction

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.

 Flashcard games are difficult to source because so many are passed on by word of mouth. Even with activities you think you have invented, it is highly possible that another teacher somewhere has come up with the same concept.

I hope that the information gathered together in this blog can be of help to all TEFL teachers. The memory of my first day in the job still remains fresh: stuck opposite twelve young children with a pile of flashcards in hand. All I could think of to do was show them the FCs one at a time and say, “Repeat after me ...”