ESCUELA DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

MENCIÓN INGLÉS

DISTANCE SYSTEM

The use of supplementary materials for teaching children in EFL classess

Research done in order to achieve the

Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching

English as a Foreign Language

AUTHORS:

Astudillo Segovia, Carmen Cecilia

Peralta Astudillo, María Eulalia

ADVISOR:

Mgs. Pinza Tapia, Eliana Ivanova

UNIVERSITY CENTER CUENCA

2012

CERTIFICATION

Mgs. Eliana Pinza Tapia

Certifies that:

This research study has been thoroughly revised by the graduation committee.

Therefore, authorizes the presentation of this thesis, which complies with all of the

norms and internal requirements of the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja.

Loja, marzo del 2012.

Mgs. Eliana Pinza Tapia

Thesis Advisor

ii

CONTRATO DE CESIÓN DE DERECHOS DE TESIS DE GRADO

Nosotras, Cecilia Astudillo Segovia y María Eulalia Peralta Astudillo declaramos ser

autoras del presente trabajo y eximimos expresamente a la Universidad Técnica

Particular de Loja y a sus representantes legales de posibles reclamos o acciones

legales.

Adicionalmente declaramos conocer y aceptar la disposición del Art. 67 del Estatuto

Orgánico de la Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja que en su parte pertinente

textualmente dice: “formar parte del patrimonio de la Universidad la propiedad

intelectual de investigaciones, trabajo científicos o técnicos y tesis de grado que se

realicen a través, o que el apoyo financiero, académico o institucional (operativo) de

la Universidad”.

Cecilia Astudillo S. María Eulalia Peralta A.

Autora Autora

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AUTHORSHIP

The thoughts, ideas, opinions and information obtained through this research are the

only responsibility of the author.

Date: Loja, marzo del 2012.

Cecilia Astudillo S. María Eulalia Peralta A.

Author Author

iv

DEDICATION

The present work is dedicated to my dear mother Carmen, who has been my support,

my guide and my inspiration and to my three big loves Iván Gilberto, Iván Andrés

and Pedro Sebastián that have given me their help and comprehension to reach my

goal.

Carmen Cecilia

This present project is dedicated to my grandmother Carmen, my mother Elvia, who

with her unconditional support gave me the strength to go on, and to my husband

Edwin, my little angels Doménica and Erika who were my inspiration to make my

dream come true.

María Eulalia

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT To God, who place in our path all of the necessary tools to reach this goal, for

providing us the intelligence, the patience, and strength to go on.

Our sincere gratitude to the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, which has given

us the chance to become professionals and thus to perform an important role in

society.

To Mgs. Eliana Pinza Tapia, who guided this present research work. Also, thanks to

her for giving us her friendship, confidence, and advice to overcome every obstacle

on the road.

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CONTENTS

CERTIFICATION ………………………………………………………. ii

CONTRATO DE CESIÓN DE DERECHOS…………………………….... iii

AUTHORSHIP ………………………………………………………. iv

DEDICATION ………………………………………………………. v

ACKNOWLEDGMENT …………………………………………………... vi

CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………. vii

ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………. 1

INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………. 2

METHOD ………………………………………………………………. 5

DISCUSSION ……………………………………………………………… 7

Literature Review …………………………………………………. 7

Results …………………………………………………………….. 22

Description, Analysis, and Interpretation of Results ………………. 27

Conclusions ……………………………………………………….. 65

Recommendations …………………………………………………. 66

REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………. 67

ANNEXES

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1

Abstract

This research study was focused on the use of Supplementary materials for

teaching children in EFL classes, whose main purpose was to identify whether or not

teachers use supporting materials into the classroom.

It was carried out at a private school in a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade with boys and

girls whose ages ranged between 8, 9, 10 years old.

This research was based on thirty observations whose results were registered in

pre-designed formats in every grade and class by class. The aspects of pertinence,

appropriateness, and quality were taken into account in the qualitative analysis. The

quantitative analysis was focused on the frequency of use of the supplementary

materials; the results obtained are shown in a graphical and numerical form.

According to the findings of this research study, we can conclude that teachers

used varied supporting materials; being the whiteboard the most commonly used.

The results of this research study will provide valuable information to improve the

exposure of the classes through of use of varied supplementary materials which

allows teacher to involve students in the learning process.

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Introduction

The implementation of English as a Foreign Language has become of

transcendental importance into the educational context due to the fact that this

language is widely used in all fields. In the context of the teaching-learning process

teachers have, at their disposal, several sources and aid to work effectively into the

classroom. If this material is used correctly, is to say considering the aspects of

pertinence (topic, objectives, and content of the class) and appropriateness (students’

needs), it will help children to understand and perceive clearly each lesson.

Therefore, the purpose of this research study is to find out whether or not teachers

use supplementary materials and also how this material is being used.

This research study was based on three specific objectives that were the

support to create and to organize both the bibliographical and field research. These

objectives were to identify and to analyze supporting materials used for teaching

children in EFL classes; to describe and to analyze each of the supplementary

materials used in EFL classrooms; finally, to determine the frequency and variety of

the supplementary materials used in the observed classes. Therefore, this research

encourages teachers to use the diverse supporting materials to make their classes to

be more active and engaging.

Considering the relevance of this research work, it is important to mention

some previous studies about the use of supplementary materials into the classrooms;

thus, according to Cheon (2003) the use of Computer Mediated Communication in

Korean learners will improve the chance to learn English increasing the opportunity

to acquire and to develop strategies to learn a second language, for this purpose the

author states the following hypothesis: 1) to identify how CMC may enhance second

language acquisition, 2) to investigate whether Korean learners engage in appropriate

3

meaning negotiation for SLA through CMC using a chat program, 3) to describe the

ways you which learners engage in such meaning negotiations, 4) to investigate the

students’ attitudes toward CMC. The main limitation identified by the author in this

study is that despite the advantage that CMC offers as a powerful tool of

complementing; the distance of the first language from the target language about the

phonological aspects will require oral practice in the target language; therefore, the

use of CMC will not replace the normal English classes.

The second study that we will refer was stated by Lin, L-F. (2010), which was

conducted in a University of Taiwan; the purpose of this study was to investigate the

repercussion that Video based computer had in learners with high and low reading

and listening proficiency, whose limitation was to recognize that the lack of

proficient English reading or listening ability can make that students do not

understand video-based lessons and worse the miss of vocabulary acquisition.

Akbari (2008), in his research at “English at Simin Language Institute in Iran”,

states that the main purpose of this study was to stand out the use of exact techniques

for teaching vocabulary items, and to improve the traditional way to teach them to

Iranian EFL students. The limitations identified by the author in this study were first,

the difficulty to teach abstract nouns was an obstacle in teaching due to the fact that

they can not be presented with physical objects; therefore, only concrete words

related with specific objects were used. Second, the vocabulary chosen for this study

was limited to the elementary level of Iranian students, and the last limitation was

that for this study only 160 male Iranian junior High School students were selected.

The main beneficiaries of this research work are both teachers and students.

Teachers, because by means of this study they will be motivated to utilize with more

frequency varied supplementary material to teach their classes, and students, because

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the use of supporting materials helps them to understand and to interact in the

learning process; therefore, the new lessons will be accomplished successfully.

The contribution that this research study offers to the linguistic field is the

potentiating of the students’ cognitive skills to effective learning of English as a

Foreign Language, through the perception of didactic resources by means of the

senses.

This investigation allow teachers to know the effectiveness of the use of

supplementary materials to teach a foreign language; therefore, this research will

serve as base to future projects that are aimed to innovate the supporting materials

already known and to create new according to the needs and exigencies of the

changing educational system.

The limitations identified in this investigation mainly were the following:

The number of observations, which we consider, was not enough to have a real

perception of the use of supplementary materials by the teacher /her classes;

therefore, it kept us from obtaining more accurate and favorable results.

To future projects of research will be important to take into account the size of

the sample to have more reliable results; besides, the field of research should not be

limited only to an educational institution.

5

Method

Setting and Participants

The educational institution chosen to carry out the field research was a private

school, located in the urban area of the city, making it easier for us to mobilize and to

work effectively.

The selected sample for making this research study was 92 children belonging

to fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, whose ages ranged between 8,9,10 years old. The

English classes in the three grades covered 10 hours per week in each grade

distributed in two daily pedagogic hours of 45 minutes each of them.

Procedures

Several physical and on line sources, such as books and scientific articles,

were consulted in order to write down the Literature Review and to develop six

themes and eight sub-themes, as well as, five previous studies related to the

researched topic.

In the present research study the methods qualitative and quantitative were

applied to carry out the description, analysis, and interpretation of results, obtained

from the respective observations made in the field investigation.

The techniques used to collect data were note taking and surveys. We

considered primordial to register each one of the details observed into the classroom

in a sequential manner. Another technique used was survey which were applied to 2

children in every class, and 1 survey to every teacher at the end of the observations.

These techniques were the support for the subsequent analysis of results.

Considering the instruments that were used to carry out the field research, the

University provided us with the necessary formats to fill them with the required

information.

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In order to collect data different instruments were used such as observation

sheets and questionnaires. The observation sheets were used one per class to record

teaching information. And finally, questionnaires were used to get information from

both sides, the students’ and teachers’.

Once completed the process of observations in the different grades, the next

step was to analyze and to tabulate the results collected. For this purpose five charts

which are attached in the results section were used, in chart one were recorded the

data related to the type of supplementary materials used in the three grades. Finally,

charts two, three, and four contain data of the 4th, 5th,, 6th grade, respectively. The

data show the pertinence and appropriateness of the material used in class by the

teacher.

The process used for description, analysis, and interpretation of results was to

classify and to organize the data grade by grade, class by class in a sequential manner

and analyzing in detail each of the supplementary materials according to the aspects

of pertinence, appropriateness and quality.

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DISCUSSION

Literature Review

Nowadays, the use of supplementary materials in Teaching English as a

Foreign Language in classrooms has become an essential tool for both: the teacher

and the students. The teacher can use this tool for improving her/his teaching, so the

students can better grasp the topics of each lesson. In English classes it is important

to consider the use of supplementary material as: visual, audio, audio-visual, realia,

on-line and more, which will allow greater understanding and effectiveness of

learning by students. The limited uses of supplementary materials also limit a good

attention and assimilation of the themes.

The proposed themes for this study are: Teaching English as a Foreign

Language, Learners (age, learner differences, motivation), Learning styles, Teaching

Techniques (teaching children), Different Contexts for Teaching, and Supplementary

Material whit its respective subthemes :definition, Importance, Role of

Supplementary Material, Visual, Audio, Audio-Visual , Realia, On-line. Besides five

studies about the use of Supporting Material in EFL or ESL classrooms that

complement this research in an effective manner.

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Teaching English as a Foreign Language is a vital topic, because English is

amply used around the world in almost all fields, for example: communication,

tourism, business, education, etc. Peace Corps (1989) states that in Educational

settings teachers of English as a Foreign Language have been analyzing the best

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ways for identifying the weakness, attitudes, interests of their students and the most

important aspects for learning it.

In teaching EFL, the teacher plays an important and essential role in the

preparation of the students for learning a foreign language, for this reason

Carmerson’s (2002), suggests that EFL is not equal that to teach it as a first

language; therefore, a good English foreign language teacher must have special

qualities for imparting in a good way the teaching one language to his/her students

without affect student’s attitudes toward language learning, also an excellent English

teacher needs to have some characteristics as: intelligence, patience, and creativity;

that will improve their work in classrooms settings.

Satya (2008) states that Teaching English as a Foreign Language must have an

essential characteristic conveying information to students in an informative and

striking manner, for accomplishing a lot of purposes that learners have. For example:

to improve conversational English, to improve their knowledge for school exams, to

improve their English for entry the university or for getting a good job. It is

important that teacher of EFL have wide training in this field, so teachers have a lot

of range of books and a wide variety of supplementary material that can support

him/her to develop an excellent work.

Learners

The importance of Teaching English as a Foreign Language is related to

several needs that learners have for acquiring a foreign language; therefore, an

English teacher must have into account some aspects of his/her students that

influence their learning as: age, learner differences and motivation. Referring to the

age Saville-Troike (2006) states that there is a popular belief that kids learn more

successfully than adults, but this belief is not real because older learners have a lot

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of advantages for acquisition a L2. Another important point is “that on languages and

the brain there is a critical period for first language acquisition: children have only

limited number of years during which normal acquisition is possible.” (Saville-

Troike, 2006). Thus, it is essential to express that everyone need the linguistic input

during the critical period for acquiring the first language, on the other hand, never

will learn any language normally. From another point of view Stevick (1978),and

Guiora (1972) state that there are two important aspects that affect the learning of a

L2. First, physical explanation, that is related to physical changes in the brain as a

result of age that interfere in the acquisition of a new sound system and

characteristics of a new language. Second, the psychological explanation that

pronunciation is part of our personality and when learners become older they are

more reluctant to change their personality and to adopt new pronunciation.

Continuing with the development of this research, the following item to be

focused is Learners Differences, which is an aspect that must be taken into account

for teachers because each student has different ways for learning. According to

Woolfolk (2007) every child has his own characteristic that make a big difference,

so each child own a set of talents, abilities, and limitations that make them unique.

Therefore, all children are exceptional, however it is important to mention that

teacher should consider these abilities, talents or sometimes disabilities that make

that the lessons are focused on different manners to ensure that all students can

assimilate the classes for equal, and the learning of L2 be successful. Woolfolk

(2007) suggests that teacher should to take into account the Gardner’s theory too.

The Gardner’s Theory is focused on the Multiple Intelligences, he distinguishes eight

separate intelligences is to say that children own al least one of them that directly

involve the learning of L2 in different way. These intelligences are: Linguistic,

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musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal,

intrapersonal and naturalistic.

The last aspect related to learner differences is motivation, which is an

important factor because the learners especially children need to be interested in the

topics for reaching a high attention and high learning. According to Saville-Troike

(2006) the motivation helps to students in a great manner in their L2 learning

process, and it will be a key for getting level of proficiency.

Educators are thinking that motivation’s students is an essential task of

teaching, which implies that students must cognitively, emotionally, and behavioral

be engaged in active and productive classes to achieve the maximum performance of

students.

Motivation has two relevant aspects Intrinsic and Extrinsic which are detailed

below; intrinsic motivation is the strength that every person has for accomplishing

the personal interests and challenges that can find in the learning process. In contrast,

Extrinsic motivation involves external factors as: earn a grade, to avoid punishment,

please the teacher or another reason that has very little to do with the task itself.

(Woolfolk, 2007).

Learning styles

Considering that the previous information about learners, is primordial in

learning L2, now we are going to focus on different Learning Styles for acquiring a

new language. Learning Styles involves what students do when they have to learn a

new thing, it is to say they develop their pattern of learning according to their needs;

thus, this pattern is known as learning styles, inside which we can discover

characteristics cognitive, affective, and psychological behaviors that act as indicators

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of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond at learning environment. (Keefe,

1979).

According to Colburn (2003) it is important that teachers take into account that

the concept of learning styles is intuitive, is to say that everyone has different

manners for learning. Thus, Takahashi (2008) states that there are seven styles of

learning: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, body kinesthetic,

interpersonal and intrapersonal, which allows students to adapt to each style

according to their abilities and skills. There are two important reasons that teacher

must know, about learning styles. First, each student tends to learn more readily than

others; therefore, teacher will leverage their strengths for improving achievements.

Second, the most of the teachers tend to teach according to their own learning style,

for example: visual teachers often teach a lot of visual aids.

Dun & Dun (1978) suggest that there are at least twenty one elements that can

influence learning, which are divided in five categories: Environmental, Emotional,

Sociological, Physical, and Psychological factors. Therefore, teachers should be

aware of their own learning styles, and to have in mind that each student has

different styles; consequently, teachers must try to elaborate her lessons taking into

account as many different learning styles as possible.

Teaching Techniques

Teaching Techniques as well as Learning Styles are important fields in

Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Candlin & Mercer (2003) state that the

foundation of Teaching Techniques is based on the integration between teachers and

students, who contribute to the process of teaching and learning, it consists in the

attempts that teacher performs to attain adequate and effective classes, and how

consequence successful students.

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According to Persky & Golubchick (1991) children should take an active

participation in the learning process, it is essential that teacher creates the adequate

environment through activities such as: songs, role play, storytelling, puzzles, and so

on, to get that learners be involve actively into the language process.

Taking into account the study of Vale & Feunteun (2007) we can deduce that

the methodology of TEFL has been designed especially for adults and teenagers, but

not for children, for this reason it is important that teacher be supported and guided

in Teaching English to children because the methodology is totally different.

Teachers that are teaching to children should design and plan activities according

the overall needs of the child, for example: children are taught in English, children

can be taught in mixed abilities groups; thus, children with more knowledge can help

lower-level classmates. Children develop activities with high educational value;

children must be motivated and interested in their theme of the study. The process of

learning focuses on the individual child, it is to say that each child must learn at his

own rate and manner.

In the same manner, Persky & Golubchick (1991) state that teacher should

interact with the child in a style that motivate and facilitate them the communicative

effort and encourage the language development; therefore, the goal of the teacher

must be aimed at stimulating the participation of the learner and let them and

environment without fear of making errors and total confidence in their teacher.

From another point of view, according to Satya (2008) teaching ESL to adults

is different from teaching English to children because adults and teenagers have

different goals and perspectives in learning a second language, for example adults are

not looking forward to reach academic achievement, but they will need English today

to get a job tomorrow. Usually, when the teaching is directed to adults and teenagers,

13

teachers will need to use a lot of techniques and activities in the classroom in order to

accomplish the total attention of their students, consequently to reach excellent

results.

Different contexts for teaching

Continuing with this study, the following theme is about of Different contexts

for teaching, in this field the most relevant aspect is related with culture. According

to Li (2006) the culture is an essential part in the teachers’ pedagogic aims in TEFL;

therefore, we can see that Language Teaching and Culture Teaching are inseparable

aspects in this teaching field.

It is important to mention that Culture encourages to students to perceive new

norms, values, meanings, and symbols, based on the knowledge of their own culture,

it is to say that students apart from knowing their own culture, they have the

opportunity to develop a greater knowledge of world culture.

Li (2006) suggests that students learning a foreign language should also know

the cultural characteristics of target language, for example: ways to address people,

how to make requests, how to be agree or disagree, and so on. It is important that

learners know the patterns of conduct and intonation of the target community

because these can have a correct use in their culture community speech, but in the

target community can be received in different ways, for this reason all foreign

languages are considered intercultural.

According to Coskun (2010) “Teacher should be aware of the changing trends

and the increasing importance of the local context in the English Language Teaching

pedagogy; as a result, of cultural heterogeneity in context where English is taught.”

Supplementary materials

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Inside of the vast field of TEFL, the themes mentioned so far play an

important role as well as the use of Supplementary Material, matter of this study,

Dash & Dash (2007) state that Supplementary Materials are additional materials that

support the quality on the process of teaching and learning. Using these

supplementary materials, the teacher helps to students in the following aspects:

establish new ideas, clarify doubts, make interpretations, teach new concepts,

vocabulary, grammar, to use correct structures of sentences; therefore, the use of

these aids support the teacher to make his/her class more interesting, explanatory,

successful, effective and inspirational. These materials are aids that help students for

a better comprehension of the language spoken or written; besides, the use of these

materials help students in the assimilation and understanding of ideas.

Continuing this research, we emphasize the importance of use supplementary

materials in classrooms because these are necessary in TEFL. According Dash &

Dash (2007) children get a better teaching of English through sensory experience,

using their senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight. Thus, the learning process can

be taken in a 100 percent for learners.

Showing the importance of supplementary materials in Teaching English as a

Foreign Language, Dash & Dash (2007) state that it is necessary to support English

classes with improved tools for getting more active, more efficient, more attractive,

and successful classes, for Dash and Dash another important point is related with

psychological aspects, thus students can learn through three levels: direct experience

that is related with sensory contact, vicarious experience that is learning by models,

films, TV, and symbolic experience verbal and written languages. It is recommended

give primordial attention to Direct experience and Vicarious experience, because

these are directly associated with learning. Dash & Dash (2007) say that effective

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teaching is focused on defined presentation of abstract ideas, for this reason

Supplementary Materials is appropriate in relate abstract concepts with real forms.

Another function of Supplementary Material, is the role that it plays in

teaching English, it is to say the function that it has in the learning process. Dash &

Dash (2007) state that Instructional Aids encourage children to pay their attention in

tasks related with learning, to use their imagination and their observation in order to

get the knowledge; besides, these supplementary materials helps students to clarify

ideas and concepts about of events and phenomena in life, thus, supplementary

materials encourages learners to be active participants in the teaching-learning

process, and sometimes learners together with their teachers should create these

materials as: flashcards, card words, maps, etc. Using their imagination, Dash &

Dash (2007) says that teachers cannot be replaced for these aids, but rather these

materials help to save energy and time for both, teacher and students, making

learning interesting and attractive and achieving that the class has higher retention of

facts learned and as result students assimilate the knowledge in a quicker, accurate

and clear manner.

In the use of supplementary material in TEFL to children is important to

mention the different kinds of additional aids such as: Visual, Audio, Audio-Visual,

Realia and Online. According to Cunningsworth (1988) Visual aids can be pictures,

flashcards, wall charts, film scripts, slides, videotapes, and films. Practical visual

help to teacher to teach with them and through them. From another point of view

according to Dash & Dash (2007) Visual Aids “are those aids which appeal to the

sense of vision or eye;” therefore the learning process can be better assimilated,

associated, with these former ideas. Hodapp (1978) states that teacher can use visual

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and video aids to provide examples of speaking, listening and writing, in this way to

achieve a better understanding of actions and abstract words by students.

An additional kind of Supplementary Material is Audio that today is widely

used in classroom especially with the children, who are learning English through

songs, dialogues, narrative, stories, etc. Namely, these aids appeal the sense of

hearing of the ear. ( Dash & Dash , 2007).

Cunningsworth (1988) suggests that for learning be assimilated by learners in

a correct manner is important to revise that material used in the tapes be of an

excellent quality, because the most of times these tapes distort the spoken English; as

a result, learners can learn an incorrect pronunciation.

Following with the kinds of Supplementary Material we can cite Audio-Visual

as another instructional aid. According Dash & Dash (2007) Audio Visual aids are

those devices that are received by learners through of more than one sense;

moreover, using these supplementary devices learners are able to clarify, to

understand concepts, and to acquire knowledge.

Another interesting sort of supplementary materials is Realia that according to

Richards & Renandya (2002) are those simple things that are inside classroom or

other objects that can be brought to school or things that students can see through the

window; those real things encourage to learners to be creative, besides facilitate the

learning process, because by mean of them can represent real facts through toys. This

supplementary material is appeal to children for the reason that they can manipulate

the real things and assimilate the learning using all the senses.

The previous themes have been focused on the use of Supplementary Material

how an important tool in the acquisition of foreign language. To continue with this

work, we will mention some studies related to this topic.

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Cheon (2003) states that, the purpose of the present study is to analyze how the

use of Computer Mediated Communication in Korean learners improves the

opportunity for learning English. Achieving clear objectives this study proposes: To

know how Computer Mediated Communication increases the opportunities of

acquiring a second language, to analyze if Korean learners use a chat program

adequately for learning an appropriate second language, to detail the manners in

which the students develop the strategies for acquiring a second language, research

the feelings and reactions of students in the use of Computer Mediated

Communication.

In relation to this study Swann (1994) suggests that is useful to create a

combination of methods that will work together and as a result to obtain a precise

context of the language. For obtaining better results using mixed methods, this study

employed a quasi experiment and observations as a good tool for collecting data,

besides were used questionnaires to complement this study. In conclusion, it is

important to consider that, the Korean EFL environment in which the real interaction

in the target language is unusual and the most of the time students return to the

mother tongue, Cheon (2003) states that, tasks based synchronous Computer

Mediated Communication is an interactive learning contexts in where the students

can interact between them in the target language, as a result, students will build

important language development.

In the next study we will analyze the opinions and points of view considered

by Al-Jarf (2005) who states that the goal of this study is to understand if the

teaching of Grammar instruction through on line improves the attainment and

attitudes of freshman students.

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According to Al-Jarf (2005) the methodology utilized in this study were pre-test and

post-test, which were applied to two groups of students, the experimental and control

group, for both groups the grammar pre-test consisted of grammatical topics to be

studied during the semester, also at the end of the course the two groups made the

same post-test that contained all of the topics learned during the semester. The

content of the test consisted of requirements which referred to points of grammar

such as: a) Fill in the blanks which a pronoun; b) Write the singular form of the noun

where necessary. This pre-test and post-test do not contained names of the students

but number or ID; therefore, the author, graded this tests blindly. Grading, these

authors used an answer key and marks were according to the spelling mistakes.

Another aspect related with the methodology is that at the end of the semester,

students were given an Open-ended-questionnaire which consisted in 10 questions

that were focused only around a course; is to say focusing on results, perspective and

attitudes of the students, for example: some of the questions were, a) What problems

or difficulties did you face in using the on-line course?; b) What did you like about

it?.

Al-Jarf (2005) concludes that there were important differences between

experimental and control group in grammar attainment in the results of post-tests,

which show that experimental group have improved using on-line and in-class

instructions; therefore, this study states that the use of on-line instructions as an

additional aid in classroom is a powerful tool in increasing the students’ knowledge

in grammar topics. Besides, this study points that active participants acquired higher

knowledge than passive participants. As a last conclusion the author cite Friggard’s

study (2002) who states that some students preferred learn grammar in classroom

19

rather in a computer lab.; however, all the structure in the present research was

interested in acquiring grammar knowledge throughout of on-line.

Another study analyzing the use of supplementary material in TEFL is stated

by Akbari (2008) who raises the following research questions: “Is picture more

effective than contextualization in teaching vocabulary items?; Is picture more

effective than traditional way in teaching vocabulary items; Is contextualization more

effective than traditional way in teaching vocabulary items?”. Thus, the purpose of

this present study is to highlight the importance of accurate techniques for teaching

vocabulary. The methods that Akbari (2008) used were a general test of language

proficiency, a pre-test and post-test, the general test was designed according to the

book “New Generation” by Granger & Beaumant (1987), which is material of the

study utilized at the Institute. The goal of this test was to separate the total of the

students in three groups with equal characteristics. The pre-test was focused on

vocabulary which was elaborated by researcher in the following way: first, the

researcher took 100 vocabulary items used by students in their books, after that

researcher made the test using the 100 items in multiple choice option, utilizing for

this purpose a small group for performing pilot study and obtaining as a result 10

items rejected and some changed; therefore, according researcher the reliability of

the test was estimated in a 0.94. The objective of post-test was to show the accuracy

of the method applied to the experimental group.

Akbari (2008) referring to the present research concludes that the prior

analysis was focuses on control and two experimental group, whose results were

analyzed, taking into account the results of null hypotheses were discarded, however

the three groups reach different scores in the post-test, therefore the differences were

statistically important. According the researcher the reason for rejecting the null

20

hypotheses was that pictures are a meaningful tool for teaching vocabulary to EFL

learners, consequently pictures can be used in other contexts such as to teach

grammar and abstracts vocabulary items.

The following study to consider was accomplished by Lin (2010), whose

purpose of study was to investigate the incidence that Video based computer had in

students with high and low English reading and listening proficiency.

Data collection was executed in eight stages, with duration of 50 minutes per

week; thus, in the earlier stage of this study the total of the participants were given a

GEPT- intermediated stimulated test, and according to results the students were

divided in three English proficiency groups. In the subsequent stage were delivered a

vocabulary pre-test. From the third stage to the seven stages, students were freely

exposed during 30 minutes to use the internet for studying the video lessons, of this

way learners take one video lesson in each class. Then, the participants were

evaluated immediately after of each video lesson, as a consequence, the researcher

chose the most proficiency members of each group, and conducted one-on one

interviews with the selected participants.

Lin (2010) concludes that vocabulary learning is not word by word, but rather

to learn words in context, so of this way students learn not only linguistics

characteristics of one word as: phonetic, semantic, and syntactic aspect, also to know

how to build the appropriate contexts from the words.

The last study is cited by Williams & Lutes (1960) who state that the purpose

of this study is know if the use of video in ESL classroom can affect the motivation

and interest of the students, so the researcher raised the following questions: “Are

students affected positively for the use of video in classrooms?; Do students perceive

21

these classes to be more interesting and as such are they more motivated when video

is a major component of the lesson curriculum.

The methodology used for Williams & Lutes consisted on analyzing two

groups for this study: a control group and a test group. For both groups the materials

were designed but the test group had an additional material – video-. The test group

utilized for its classes a video component in 8 periods containing the same 8 comedic

sketches based on grammar points and functions; the two groups had in common:

instructor, curriculum, and evaluation throughout tests and assignments with the only

difference of supplemental video component. Finally, a questionnaire was given to

all students with questions that covered students’ attitudes to the class using the

video, and were required to answer according the level of agreement or disagreement

by choosing one response of five options, these options were: strongly agree, agree,

neither agree nor disagree, disagree, strongly disagree. Besides, students have the

opportunity to write their own comment according the class.

As a final conclusion Willams & Lutes (1960) state that the use of video in

EFL classroom it is an important and attractive tool that helps in the learning process.

The use of video can be a useful strategy that motivates to the students’ interests for

reading and active learning; therefore, students can acquire new skills and to build

their own experiences.

22

Results

Chart One: Type of Supplementary material used to teach children

Variable Indicators Yes No Visual

flash cards � power point presentations x Maps x Pictures � Charts � Handouts � x Posters � word cards � white/black board � Others

Audio

Songs � Dialogues � Stories � Tales x

Audio-Visual

Videos x

Movies x

Documentaries x

Realia objects (toys, plants, fruits) �

Online Websites x

Author: Cecilia Astudillo S. /María Eulalia Peralta A.

Source: 4th (8 years old approx.) 5th (9 years old approx.) 6th (10 years old approx.)

23

Chart two: Pertinence and Appropriateness of the supplementary material used to teach children

Vari

able

Indicators

1st

cla

ss

2nd c

lass

3rd

cla

ss

4th

cla

ss

5th

cla

ss

6th

cla

ss

7th

cla

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8th

cla

ss

9th

cla

ss

10th

cla

ss

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

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Per

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Appro

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Per

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Per

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Appro

p.

Per

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Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Visual

flash cards √ √ √ √

powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures √ √ √ √

charts √ √

handouts

posters √ √

wordcards √ √

white/blackboard

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

cutouts

Audio

songs

dialogues

stories

tales

chants

Audio

visual

videos

movies

documentaries

Rea

lia objects

(toys) √ √

Online websites

Author: Cecilia Astudillo S. / María Eulalia Peralta A.

Source: 4th (8 years old approx.) grade

24

Chart three: Pertinence and Appropriateness of the supplementary material used to teach children

Vari

able

Indicators

1st

cla

ss

2nd c

lass

3rd

cla

ss

4th

cla

ss

5th

cla

ss

6th

cla

ss

7th

cla

ss

8th

cla

ss

9th

cla

ss

10th

cla

ss

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

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Per

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Appro

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Per

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Appro

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Appro

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Per

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Appro

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Per

t.

Appro

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Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Visual

flash cards

powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures √ √

charts

handouts √ √ √ √

posters

wordcards

white/blackboard

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Audio

songs √ √ √ √

dialogues

stories √ √

tales

Audio

visua

l

videos

movies

documentaries

Rea

lia objects

(toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

Author: Cecilia Astudillo S. / María Eulalia Peralta A.

Source: 5th (9 years old approx.) grade

25

Chart four: Pertinence and Appropriateness of the supplementary material used to teach children

Vari

able

Indicators

1st

cla

ss

2nd c

lass

3rd

cla

ss

4th

cla

ss

5th

cla

ss

6th

cla

ss

7th

cla

ss

8th

cla

ss

9th

cla

ss

10th

cla

ss

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

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Per

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Appro

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Per

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Per

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Per

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Appro

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Per

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Appro

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Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Visual

flash cards

powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures √ √ √ √

charts

handouts

posters √ √

wordcards

white/blackboard

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Audio

songs √ √

dialogues √ √

stories

tales

numbersrepetition

Audio

visual videos

movies

documentaries

Rea

lia objects

(toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

Author: Cecilia Astudillo S. / María Eulalia Peralta A.

Source: 6th (10 years old approx.) grade

26

Chart Five: Type of Supplementary material used to teach children

Variable Indicators 4th grade (8 years old approx.)

5th grade (9 years old approx.)

6th grade (10 years old approx.)

Total

%

Visual

flash cards 2 2 4.44 power point presentations

0 0

maps 0 0 pictures 2 1 2 5 11.11 charts 1 1 2.23 handouts 2 2 4.44 posters 1 1 2 4.44 word cards 1 1 2.23 white/black board 9

10 7 26 57.78

others Audio

songs 2 1 3 6.67 dialogues 1 1 2.22 stories 1 1 2.22 tales 0 0 0 0

Audio-Visual

videos 0 0 movies 0 0 documentaries 0 0 0 0

Realia objects (toys) 1 1 2.22 Online Websites 0 0 TOTAL: 17 16 12 45 % 100

Author: Cecilia Astudillo S./María Eulalia Peralta A.

Source: 4th (8 years old approx.) 5th (9 years old approx.) 6th (10 years old approx.)

27

Description, Analysis, and Interpretation of Results

This section contains a Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the obtained

Results. The Qualitative Analysis is focused on aspects of pertinence,

appropriateness, and quality of each one of supplementary materials that were

utilized by teachers to support their classes; on the other hand, the Quantitative

Analysis is based on the register, tabulation and frequency with which the

supplementary materials were used into the classrooms.

Qualitative Analysis

4th Grade/8 Years old

Whiteboard

In this first class the teacher used the whiteboard as a supplementary material

to develop the topic “Simple Present”. The objective of this class was to work with

the students to learn about the use of verbs in third person.

Considering that the topic of the class was “Simple Present”, the teacher took

into account the students’ age to develop creative exercises which consisted in

correcting sentences using the correct form of the verb in third person. For this

activity, the teacher organized teams to perform a contest in which the teacher wrote

a sentence on the board with mistakes; then, children ran to the whiteboard to correct

the sentences. This contest motivated the participation and interaction of the students.

Considering the student’s level of knowledge the teacher used appropriate

vocabulary, grammar, and suitable activities that facilitated the learning of the new

theme.

The teacher used the whiteboard in an organized way what allowed children to

be attentive and interested in the new lesson; besides, the exercises were written

using different colors of markers to emphasize the form of the verbs in third person,

28

the handwriting was clear and the size of the letter was adequate to a correct

visibility of the activities.

To introduce and present the topic of the second class, “Our Hobbies”, the

teacher used the white board. The main objective of this lesson was to learn about

daily routines. Therefore, to engage the students into the learning process, the teacher

used guessing games.

Regarding the students’ age, the teacher design a creative and interesting class

based on several drawings related with the common expressions: get up, wake up,

take a shower, have a breakfast, brush the teeth, which were made on the board.

These activities woke in children the interest in the new class because they had that

to represent the diverse drawings using their body language; as a result, the class was

active, funny and interesting. According to the level of knowledge of children the

teacher used the board to write next to the drawings the new vocabulary which was

easy to them because it was related to common and basic expressions of daily

routines; consequently, students were able to associate drawings with words.

The quality of this supplementary material was excellent, the drawings and the

size of the letters displayed on the board were adequate to attract the students’

attention. The teacher organized the whiteboard, distributing the space correctly;

thus, she achieved to explain the new lesson with clarity.

The theme of the third class was “Our Hobbies” the teacher used the

whiteboard as a supplementary material; the objective of this class was to explain

students how to structure affirmative and negative sentences using the auxiliary

Do/Does. The use of this visual aid helped students to understand the lesson in a

productive and successful way.

29

The teacher used the whiteboard because the theme of this class needed to be

taught through examples which were properly organized. The use of this

supplementary material was according to the age of students because the teacher

used the whiteboard to write examples that contained vocabulary related with the

objects into the classroom in which children had to complete these sentences using

the correct auxiliary, the reward offered by their teacher were candies for those who

participated in the board activities; as a result, the class was funny and interactive.

Another important aspect to mention is that the teacher took into account the

students’ level because used the whiteboard to explain grammar points and new

vocabulary that was assimilated by students due to the fact the tasks designed

contained basic and easy vocabulary such as: bag, pencil, eraser, notebook, etc.

Taking into account the topic of this class, this supplementary material was used

in organized manner what allowed children to develop the board activities and to

thave enough space to complete the task. The size of letters and the use of the

different colors of markers allowed children a good visibility of all activities;

consequently, students had a total interaction in the process of the class.

To present the theme “A day in my Life”, the teacher used the whiteboard to

explain the class. In this lesson the purpose was to recognize adverbs of frequency,

this visual aid helped the teacher to explain the topic in a clear way using exercises

that students had to complete with adverbs of frequency; thus, students participated

in the development of this class using the white board to write their answers.

To use this supplementary material the teacher considered first the student’s

age designing examples or activities that were attractive to them. These activities

were focused on their daily activities and Holydays, the teacher organized two teams

boys and girls, the same time the teacher drew on the board two charts in which the

30

children had to complete them with adverbs of frequency according their activities or

preferences, the winner team got extra points. Taking into account the level of the

students, the teacher used the whiteboard to draw small charts which contained easy

vocabulary related with daily activities and Holydays that were completed

successfully by children.

The teacher utilized a well organized whiteboard because the space was

adequately distributed; thus, students could develop these activities, the charts were

made with red and black markers and the size of the letters were adequate allowing

students an excellent view, a correct interpretation of the exercises, and an active

participation.

“A day in my life”, was the topic of the sixth class. The whiteboard was one

of the tool utilized by teacher to explain the theme. The objective of this class was to

teach students the correct use of Present Progressive for which the teacher designed

exercises related to the topic, these exercises were completed on the board by

students in a sequential way.

The use of the whiteboard was appropriate to the students’ age due to the fact

that the teacher wrote sentences that contained actions such as: She is cooking, she is

playing video games, they are dancing. Teacher asks her students to give ideas to

form another sentences taking into account their hobbies; this activity motivated the

students’ participation because they had the opportunity to express their preferences

completing the exercise on the board; regarding the level of knowledge of students

the teacher wrote on the board an set of exercises using easy vocabulary and

grammar points which helped students to learn the new lesson.

The activities set out in the whiteboard were clearly written, the size of letter

were visible and clear, the spaces were distributed in a correct way allowing students

31

to assimilate the explanations given by the teacher.

To the seventh class the theme was “Big and Small”, whose objective was to

recognize the parts of the body. Using this visual aid, the teacher wrote on the left

side of the whiteboard a list with the names of the body’s parts and on the right side

the teacher made drawings related to the list, but in different order. This exercise

allowed students to apply their knowledge about the topic.

Taking into account the student’s age the activities showed on the board were

appropriate because these contained striking drawings of body’s parts that were

especially designed to children, which motivated the interaction of students into the

classroom. According to students’ level, the activities designed by the teacher

contained basic and common vocabulary and drawings that were comprehensible to

all children; as a result, they were able to participate and develop the class work.

Both the list of the words and the drawings were placed on the board to allow

students could visualize them completely; therefore, students performed the exercises

in a correct way. The drawings were designed with varied colors of markers and

these were sufficiently clear for students can guess their meaning.

In this eight class, the topic was “Big and Small”, the teacher used the

whiteboard to achieve the objective of this lesson that was to distinguish the use of

Have and Has, and to differentiate the verb form in third person. This supplementary

material was used by the teacher to explain her class preparing exercises related to

the content of the topic and encouraging students to develop the same.

The exercises shown on the board were made taking into account the age of

students because the teacher designed creative drawings related with common

animals that encouraged children to form sentences using the verb have and has, for

32

example the cat has a tail, birds have wings. These drawings on the board motivated

children to participate because they related these with their preferred pets.

The teacher considered the students’ level developing examples that contained

vocabulary and grammar points easy to understand; therefore, the lesson was quickly

assimilated.

The teacher organized the information on the board in such way that all

children could participate and interact developing the exercises. The letter size , the

use of varied colors of markers to design drawings and the correct use of the space

on the board allowed children a good visibility and understanding of the lesson.

In the ninth class the topic was “Big and small”, whose objective was focused

on to recognize and structure Yes/No Questions, for this class the teacher used the

whiteboard to explain and make exercises related with affirmative and negative

sentences. The use of this supplementary material allowed children to understand the

lesson and to perform subsequent exercises with the help of their teacher.

The exercises exposed on whiteboard were according the age of students

because the questions were short and clear for example: Do you have a cat?

Yes, I do. / No, I don’t. The teacher organized to children to work in pairs one of

them had to write the sentence on the board and his partner write the answer , if the

exercise was made without mistakes the students could get 1 extra point, this reward

motivated students to go to the whiteboard to participate. Taking into account the

students’ level the examples were structured based on common vocabulary and topic

preferred by them; as a consequence, all students participated actively showing

interest and understanding of the class.

The exercises exposed on the board were legible and clear to children. The size

of the letter and colors of markers used by the teacher to emphasize the grammatical

33

rules attracted students’ attention what allowed children to learn the new lesson in a

better way.

In the tenth class, the teacher used the whiteboard as a visual aid to explain the

theme “Big and Small”, the purpose of this class was to teach about comparative

forms. To explain the class the teacher used the whiteboard adequately, designing

activities in which students had to complete the exercises with the correct form of

adjectives.

Taking into account the age of students, the teacher used the whiteboard to

elaborate activities based on preferences and likes of children for example: Selena

Gómez is taller than Hanna Montana. Appointing famous people encouraged

students to interact during the lesson and allowed the teacher to achieve the adequate

environment into the classroom. The teacher planned the class considering the level

of students for this reason she used adjectives related with famous people taller,

thinner, prettier, uglier, more beautiful, which facilitated understanding of the new

lesson. As a result, children were willing to work when teacher named their

preferred famous people.

To achieve a productive class, the teacher organized the whiteboard in such

way that children were able to visualize, to understand, and to develop the exercises

adequately because the space was correctly distributed, the size of the letters were

appropriate and the use of varied colors of markers highlighted the comparative

forms; consequently, children assimilated the topic and were able to develop the

class work for themselves.

34

Word cards

In the third observed class the teacher continued with the topic “Our Hobbies”

the objective of this class was to recognize affirmative and negative sentences using

the auxiliaries Do/Does; besides, the teacher presented new vocabulary using word

cards with words related to sports.

It was observed that the teacher, to explain the class, did consider the students’

age. It was also seen that the activity, word cards, was created according to their age.

The vocabulary shown on the cards had topics like soccer, basketball, swimming,

table tennis, among others. This activity was very funny because teacher showed her

students the word cards; after that, children had to guess the word and the teacher

had to use mimic and her body language to encourage her students to participate, the

reward was one chocolate to children that guess the word. This exercise contained

common vocabulary, and the exposure of easy grammar structures which were

understood by everyone; therefore, it is clearly seen that the level of knowledge of

students was taken into account.

These word cards were elaborated with the correct size. The letters had

appropriate size and vibrant colors what attracted attention of children to learn

vocabulary in an easy way. The word cards were perfectly visible for all children; as

a consequence, the learning was better and faster.

Objects (toys)

To teach the fourth class teacher used objects for supporting her lesson. In this

opportunity the theme of the class was “How much is…/” related with the main

objective that was to identify prices. The children brought to class different kinds of

toys, such as: balls, cars, dolls, make up kit to work in groups, after the explanation

35

of their teacher; they were able to put prices to every object, to say the prices aloud,

and to show them to the whole class.

Taking into account students’ age the teacher used toys, because children

learn better by playing and interacting with their peers; moreover, the use of these

supplementary materials motivated children to participate actively into the

classroom, involving their senses in the process of learning, for example: the sense of

sight and touch. Taking into account the students’ level and the previous knowledge

acquired about the spelling and pronunciation of numbers the teacher planned the

lesson to explain through toys the new theme; as a consequence, they were able to

assimilate the new class and to develop the activities exposed by their teacher

without any problem.

Regarding that toys were brought by children, these were according to their

likes and preferences. Every toy was different in colors, forms, texture, and size;

thus, the teacher used this material to get a successful class.

Charts

In the fifth class the teacher used charts as a visual aid to support her class, the

topic was “A day in my Life” and the objective was to recognize the use of adverbs

of frequency. These charts contained the vocabulary related to adverbs of frequency

and their respective translation into Spanish which allowed students to visualize the

charts and to understand the theme of the class in a clear way.

The teacher used charts taking into account the students’ age because the use

of these visual aids contained adverbs of frequency and vocabulary related with

Holydays that woke in children the emotion for these dates; next, the teacher showed

students the charts and encourages them to make sentences using the adverbs of

frequency for example: I always gift chocolates at Christmas, Laura sometimes goes

36

to the beach at Carnival. Considering the student’s level the teacher used simple

vocabulary to get that students understand the explanation displayed on the charts.

These charts were elaborated with vibrant colors and striking forms, the size

letter was adequate to visualize in a perfect way the information; therefore, the

teacher got an interesting class.

Pictures

Continuing with the topic “A day in my Life” for the sixth class the teacher

used pictures to explain the theme, whose objective was to teach the use of Present

Progressive. The pictures used in this class were very interesting because these

helped to get student’s attention; as a result, children were able to participate in the

class relating the pictures with its meaning.

Taking account student´s age the teacher used pictures, because their striking

colors and forms allowed students to focus their attention in the content of these tools

that were cartoon characters of the Simpsons performing activities such as: playing,

cooking, watching TV, and swimming. The teacher showed her students the different

pictures and encourages children to make sentences using the present progressive

according to the content of the pictures. Considering the level of knowledge of

students the teacher used appropriate pictures related with easy vocabulary and

grammar points to allow them to develop the tasks successfully.

The pictures chosen by the teacher contained images with striking colors, the

size of these visual aids were appropriate to attract the attention of students and to

achieve the comprehension of the topic.

To introduce the theme of the ninth class “Big and small”. The main purpose

of this class was to recognize and to structure Yes/No Questions. The teacher used

37

pictures that contained images of people and animals, to awake in the students the

attention and the interaction into the classroom.

Considering the age of children the teacher used pictures that contained

fashion characters such as: Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Puss in boots, what motivated

students to participate and develop the activities in a funny manner. The teacher

asked her students work in groups to make a contest that consisted on to form

Yes/No questions according to the pictures; the winner group will get an extra point.

Regarding the children’s’ level of knowledge the vocabulary and the explanation of

grammar points were explained by means of contest which facilitated the

understanding of the new lesson.

The quality of these supporting materials was excellent; they were chosen

according likes and preferences of children, the pictures were striking due to the fact

that the images had alive colors and the adequate size to allow the whole class to see

clearly and to understand the teacher’s explanation.

Poster

In the seventh observation the topic was “Big and Small”. The main purpose of

this lesson was to teach students to recognize the parts of the body by means of a

poster containing them for example big eyes, small ears, big nose, small mouth. The

use of this supplementary material had an important role because the students had the

opportunity to learn new vocabulary and to identify the parts of the body that the

teacher mentioned.

Taking into account the age of students, this visual aid was an excellent tool to

get better retention and assimilation of the theme, because it contained the parts of

the body that could easily stick and unstick in the poster, with this material the

teacher was able to conduct an participatory class asking children to stick the parts of

38

the body in the correct place. Considering the level of knowledge of the students, the

use of poster was adequate because students were able to recognize the parts of the

body and to associate them with the new vocabulary.

This supplementary material was correctly used according to the objective of

the class. The pieces of the poster had the size, color, and shape appropriate to allow

students an adequate visibility motivating to children to participate and distinguish

correctly the parts of the body.

Flashcards

In this eighth class the teacher used flashcards to expose the theme “Big and

small”. The objective was to teach to students the use of have / has. The content of

these flashcard were funny and interesting to children because these contained

animal figures; as a result, these visual aids encouraged children to participate in the

process of the class.

The teacher used flashcards because these supporting materials were

appropriate for this age because those contained animal figures with striking details

especially for children: cat, dog, bird, bear, lion, and tiger. Based on these flashcards,

the teacher asked her students to make sentences using have and has according to the

flashcards, for example: My cat has a small ears, the lion and tiger have big eyes.

According to the level of knowledge of children, the flashcards were adequate to

explain the new lesson; because, the use of basic and common vocabulary allowed

students to relate the knowledge previously learned with the new topic.

The teacher elaborated these flashcards choosing appropriate colors and sizes

to facilitate the visibility and the comprehension of the new class. In this way, the

teacher got that students developed the task relating the vocabulary with the

flashcards.

39

In the tenth class in the fourth grade, the teacher used flashcards to introduce

the theme “Big and Small”, whose objective was to learn about comparative forms.

These visual aids helped the teacher to explain in an interesting way the grammar

points. The teacher elaborated the flashcards based on current preferences of their

students for example: famous people.

Students’ interests and preferences were took into account by teacher to use

flashcards, regarding the age of students, the teacher chose famous people like

Selena Gómez, Justin Bieber, and Victorious to make the comparisons. The teacher

asked her students to make the task orally showing her students these flashcards and

encouraging them to develop the task using the comparative form, for example:

Justin Bieber is taller than Selena Gómez. This activity was according to the

childrens’ level because the teacher was careful to use common adjectives that were

easy to understand and easy to apply; consequently the class was participatory and

interesting.

The teacher elaborated the flashcards using her creativity to call the attention

of children, the size of the images, the alive colors, and striking letters motivated

children to understand the grammatical rules related with the comparative forms;

consequently, the class was funny and easy for children to participate and interact.

Learning styles

According to Colburn (2003) it is necessary that teachers know that in the

learning process it is important to be intuitive to understand that every learner has

different ways to learn.

In fourth grade (8 years old), most of the time the teacher used visual aids as

flashcard, pictures, posters, whiteboard, word cards, charts and realia; which were

used to their fullest, due to the fact that children learn best when they are exposed to

40

visuals. However, the use of visual aids did not diminish the ability to assimilate the

topics by those children whose learning styles are not visual.

Finally, the use of flashcards, pictures, posters, whiteboard, word cards, charts,

and realia, helped the teacher to accomplish her teaching goals. Therefore, kids had a

better understanding of the class, thanks to visual.

5th Grade/ 9 Years old

Whiteboard

In this opportunity the teacher used the whiteboard to explain the theme

“Simple Past”, whose objective was to explain the use of auxiliary did. To teach this

topic the teacher planned her class with activities to be showed on the board allowing

students to recognize and to use the auxiliary did in the different examples

illustrated.

Exercises exposed in the whiteboard were according to the age of children,

because contained examples related with their preferred movies, in this case the

teacher chose the Shrek’s movie to develop activities in which children had to work

in two teams girls and boys, the teacher wrote the sentence on the board and asked

one representative of each team to run the whiteboard and write the answer for

example: What did Shrek do last night?. Taking into account the level of knowledge

of children the teacher chose basic vocabulary and easy grammatical structures to

write on the whiteboard the sentences to be completed by students; as a consequence,

children were able to develop the tasks without any problem.

The whiteboard was distributed in an adequate way allowing children do the

tasks orderly. The appropriate size of the letter and the use of varied colors of

markers helped children to have a perfect visibility of the exercises exposed on the

board.

41

The theme of the second class was “There was/there were” whose objective

was to distinguish between singular and plural. This supplementary material was

used by the teacher to explain the topic in a better way allowing students to

participate and develop the tasks successfully.

Taking into account the age of students the teacher used the whiteboard to

design one activity in which the children had to match the expression There

was/There were with their respective singular and plural, for example: There was one

cat on the chair/There were five bananas on the table. The use of this supplementary

material was according to children’s age because the exercises exposed on it allowed

students to compete among them and to win chocolates. Taking into account the

students’ level the teacher used the whiteboard to write exercises that contained easy

vocabulary and simple grammatical expressions according to the topic of the class;

as a result, students were able to develop the task efficiently.

The spaces on the board were organized and distributed in a correct way to

allow students to work easily. The appropriate size of the letter and the varied colors

used by the teacher attracted the students’ attention who understood the topic easily;

therefore, they were able to develop the activities asked by their teacher.

The topic of the third class was “Vacation Time” which was focused on the

use of expressions about activities such as: go fishing, go swimming, go shopping.

The use of the whiteboard in this class was adequate because supported the teacher to

explain the new lesson in an interesting way, which motivated students to participate

into the classroom.

The use of the whiteboard was according the age of children because the

teacher designed examples which contained activities based on their likes and

preferences related to vacation time. The teacher wrote some expressions on the

42

board and asked her students to participate acting out every activity with mime. This

activity motivated students to interact into the classroom. Considering the level of

knowledge of children the examples or expressions displayed on the board were

easily understood because the teacher used basic and common vocabulary as well as

grammatical points according to the topic.

To develop this class the teacher used her creativity to organize and to

distribute the whiteboard appropriately; thus, the size of letter, the space used to

write the examples, and the use of different colors of markers were adequate to

children; consequently, children were willingly to participate.

In the fourth class the topic was “Vacation time”. The objective was to teach

about the Simple Past. Once students have learned the present tense of some verbs,

the teacher used the whiteboard to explain how to form the past simple, emphasizing

the difference between the past tense of regular and irregular verbs.

The whiteboard was used to create activities that were adequate to children’s

age because these contained drawings of places related with their vacation time for

example: beaches, mountains, camping trip, forest, among others. According to the

drawings children had to complete the sentences on the board using the correct tense

of the verb. Regarding the level of knowledge of students the teacher wrote the

exercises using easy and accessible vocabulary and after a clear explanation by the

teacher about the verbs, children participated actively in the class.

The size of letter, the different colors of makers used by the teacher to make

the drawings and the distribution of the space on the board were appropriate to allow

children a correct visibility and understanding of the theme.

In the fifth observed class, the teacher used the whiteboard to explain the topic

“Vacation Time”, the objective of this lesson was to teach the use of “going to” for

43

future plans. This supplementary material helped the teacher to explain the new

lesson with activities and tasks that encouraged the participation of children.

The teacher took into account the students’ age to design activities which

consisted in forming sentences using the expression “going to” some examples were

written by the teacher on the board which contained activities related with plans for

their vacation time, then students had to go to the whiteboard and to perform the task

requested by the teacher, for example: I am going to go camping on the mountain.

The use of the white board was adequate to children because the exercises were

written using different colors of markers and the new vocabulary and expressions

were enclosed in circles to attract the attention of children. Taking into account the

level of knowledge of children the teacher used the whiteboard to write sentences

with easy vocabulary and expressions according to the topic of the class; as a result,

the tasks asked by teacher were performed in excellent way. The use of this visual

aid motivated the interaction of students - students and students-teacher.

The activities displayed on the whiteboard were distributed adequately, the

size of letter was appropriate allowing students have a correct view and legibility of

the tasks, the use of varied colors of markers emphasized the importance of the new

vocabulary and the correct use of the expression “going to”.

The theme of the sixth class was “Vacation time” the objective was “To build

Yes/No Questions”. For this purpose the teacher used the whiteboard to explain the

class in an interesting way allowing students to understand the new topic.

The teacher used this supplementary material adequately taking into account

the age of students because the exercises exposed on the board were developed

according to their interests and preferences for places to go on vacations. The use of

the board was appropriate to children because the teacher divided the board on four

44

segments one for each line, in each one the teacher wrote one question and one

answer as example; next, attentive to the teacher’s signal children had to go to the

board and write quickly their own example using the vocabulary and grammar

learned. Considering the level of knowledge of students the teacher used the

whiteboard to design activities applying easy vocabulary and common grammatical

rules to achieve students learn the new lesson.

The teacher used the total surface of the whiteboard to develop exercises in an

organized and clear way encouraging children to participate and interact during the

class. The teacher used different colors of markers to call the attention of the students

and to avoid distractions and boredom.

To develop the seventh class the teacher used the whiteboard to present the

theme that was “Vacation time”. In this class the objective was to learn about

Possessive Pronouns. Using this supplementary material the teacher explained the

topic in an attractive and interesting way, motivating students to pay attention and to

work in class.

Regarding the age of students the teacher divided the whiteboard in three

parts to place in each part exercises to be completed by them. These exercises

attracted the attention of children because they were designed using drawings to

represent some Personal Pronouns such as: He, she, they; thus, children had to

replace them with the respective possessive pronoun (his, her, their). Taking into

account the level of knowledge of students the teacher designed the examples on the

board using vocabulary and grammar related with Personal and Possessive Pronouns

that were easy to them because they were illustrated through drawings.

The teacher used the whiteboard in appropriate way; the examples written on it

were organized correctly allowing children to complete the task neatly. The drawings

45

were simple and easy to understand, the size of letter was according to the space on

the board; as a result, they were able to perform the tasks without any problem.

In the eighth class the topic was “Very Special Times” the objective was to

teach children to recognize the time, for this purpose the teacher used the whiteboard

to illustrate with drawings (watches) the times of day.

This activity was excellent according to the students’ age, because the teacher

explained this topic drawing clocks on the whiteboard, in which the children had to

complete the drawings with the time of day dictated by their teacher. Regarding the

level of knowledge children were able to recognize the different times of day and to

place them correctly in clocks because the vocabulary used by the teacher was easy

to understand.

The teacher drew three clocks perfectly distributed on the whiteboard, which

were visible for all children. The sizes of clocks were appropriate; thus, the students

made the tasks asked by their teacher without any problem.

The theme of the ninth class was “Very Special Time”. The objective was

focused on the use of “ordinal numbers” to indicate the order or position in a

sequence. The use of the whiteboard allowed the teacher to expose her class in an

interesting and entertaining way encouraging the participation of students.

According to the age of students the teacher used the whiteboard to design

creative tasks using ordinal numbers. The teacher wrote on the board the months of

the year in disorder and asked any students to go to the board and to write the ordinal

number corresponding each month. The children were willing to develop this activity

because their teacher motivated them giving stickers of their favorites characters.

The contents on the whiteboard were placed in an organized way. The size of

letter was adequate and the varied colors of makers used to emphasize the ordinal

46

numbers allowed students to understand perfectly and develop the task asked by their

teacher.

The topic in the tenth class was “Camping trip”, the objective of this subject

was to learn new vocabulary related with the theme. The teacher utilized the

whiteboard to write a list of new words the same that were illustrated with drawings.

The teacher used the whiteboard to design tasks or activities that were

according the age of children. The teacher made drawings related with camping trip

next to the list of words for children join them to their respective meaning, for

example: boots, tent, flashlight, matches, and sleep bag. The use of whiteboard

helped teacher to explain the lesson in an interesting manner involving the students

in the learning process.

This visual aid was well organized and distributed what allowed students had a

good view of all vocabulary and drawings made by the teacher. The size of letters

and drawings made with varied colors allowed children to learn the new vocabulary

and relate them with the respective drawings.

Song

In the first class observed in fifth grade, the teacher used a song to introduce

the topic “Simple Past”, the objective was to encourage to children to participate and

to learn the correct use of regular and irregular verbs. This audio aid allowed to

students to learn the new topic in an easy and funny manner for them; thus, the

teacher ensured the understanding and a good perception of the lesson.

The teacher chose a song known by all children “I am believer” of Shrek’s

movie, in which students had to change the verbs in present tense to past tense, it was

according to the age of students because the use of this audio aid encouraged them to

sing and to act; consequently, they were able to work in the tasks willingly. The

47

teacher considered the level of knowledge of students using the whiteboard to

explain how to form the regular and irregular verbs based on common vocabulary

and easy grammar points.

The content of the song for this class was chosen by the teacher, regarding

preferences and interests of children, the audio quality was good what allowed

children to listen, to understand, and sing the song creating a funny environment that

helped children to develop the tasks with confidence.

In the eighth class the subject was “Very Special Time”, the main purpose was

to teach students about to recognize the time. To expose this class the teacher used

audio aid to encourage students to learn time expressions, and to apply these in their

daily activities.

The song that teacher chose was according to the students’ age, because this

audio aid contained expressions known by them as: What time is it? Hurry up! Late

for school! Let’s go! Consequently, children could engage actively in the process of

the class singing, making mime and using every expression. Taking into account the

students’ level the teacher chose this song which contained vocabulary easy and

understandable to children because through it the teacher could encourage students to

participate during the lesson.

Using this audio aid in a correct way; is to say, with good sound and volume,

the teacher created the proper environment to develop her class; as a result, children

were attentive to carefully monitor the song.

Handouts

In the second class, the teacher used cut outs to support the topic “There was/

There were” the objective of this class was to teach to identify between singular and

plural form. This supplementary material was used according to the topic of the

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class; students had to cut the pictures and to paste them on a card according to the

directions of their teacher.

Regarding appropriateness this visual aid was adequate to students’ age

because these activities motivated them to use their motor skills and to enjoy of the

class making a different activity. For Example: cut out were related the sports: There

was games of soccer at school/There were several races in the morning. According to

the level of knowledge this activity helped children to relate pictures with the correct

use of singular and plural, allowing students to understand the lesson successfully.

These cut outs were chosen by the teacher taking into account their content

what allowed children to develop their own learning. These cut outs contained

attractive pictures and vibrant colors to attract the students’ attention and to

encourage them to participate during the class.

The topic of the seventh class was “Vacation Time”, whose main purpose was

to learn about the Possessive Pronouns. The use of cut outs by the teacher,

encouraged students to participate and interact between them to relate the

explanation given by their teacher with the diverse images illustrated on the cut outs.

The teacher used cut outs in this class to create an amusing environment and to

motivate children to participate actively. These supporting materials contained

images of characters of Hi 5 TV-show that were appropriate to children’s age

encouraging them to relate the images with their respective Possessive pronoun.

Regarding the level of knowledge of children the teacher used cut outs with images

that were easy to recognize; therefore, they were able to use correctly the Possessive

pronouns.

These cut outs were selected by the teacher taking into account the connection

with the theme and the usefulness that these materials had to help children to

49

understand the explanation of the teacher; besides, the striking colors, the variety of

characters allowed students to understand and participate in the class.

Stories

The topic of the third class was “Vacation Time”, whose objective was to

teach about activities to make in vacation “go fishing, go swimming, go shopping”.

The use of this audio aid awakes the interest of students relating the story to their

own vacation time.

The story chosen by the teacher was about of “The Pooh Bear’s Adventures”

The children had to heard this story at least three times; next, children underlined the

new vocabulary on their books: for example: go fishing, go swimming, go shopping

that allowed children to engage in the learning process because the story contained a

famous character known by everybody. Regarding the level of knowledge of children

the teacher used stories that contained expressions and vocabulary easy to

understand; also, the teacher used this supplementary material what allowed students

to develop the task which was selected taking into account activities for vacation

time and considering their opinions and interests.

The audio was in perfect conditions helping students to perceive in a good way

the story; consequently, students developed the task correctly.

Pictures

In the fifth class the topic was “Vacation Time”, whose objective was to learn

about the expression “going to” to future plans. The teacher used pictures to illustrate

the lesson; thus, students perceive the main ideas and then apply them in their tasks.

Regarding the student’s age, the teacher used pictures which contained images

with characters of Disney World for example: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto,

and Donald duck. The teacher showed her students each picture; children had to raise

50

her/his hand and to make a sentence using the expression “going to” with the

information illustrated on the pictures: Mickey Mouse is going to go to the beach in

vacation. Regarding the level of knowledge of children; the use of pictures illustrated

with their favorites characters encouraged them to form sentences using the

expression “going to”; as a consequence, they were able to learn in a better way the

grammatical rules about the future plans.

To choose the pictures the teacher took into account likes and preferences of

children. The size, color, and materials used in these visual aids were appropriate to

motivate in children the participation in the process of the class.

Learning styles

According to the observations made in fifth grade (9 years old), the teacher

used a wide range of supplementary materials such as: songs, whiteboard, handouts,

and pictures to help her classes be more interactive and participatory.

The objective of most of the activities proposed by the teacher and the use of

these supplementary materials were directed toward the diverse skills and abilities

that every child has to learn. For example: the use of songs encourages children to

improve his/her auditory and musical skill. Thus, Takahashi (2008) mentions that

there are seven different ways for learning: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,

musical, body kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal that allowed teachers to

direct her teaching taking into account the capacity of each learner.

In summary, it is important to mention that the teacher used the diverse

supplementary materials to encourage children to demonstrate their different styles

and abilities to learn.

51

6th Grade/10 Years old

Whiteboard

In the first class, the teacher used whiteboard to speak about of the topic

“Incredible body” whose objective was to teach new vocabulary related with the

parts of the body. The use of the whiteboard supported teacher to impart the class in

a productive way encouraging students to work hard and to develop the task by

themselves.

The teacher considered the age of children to use the whiteboard making

creative and interesting drawings (eye, nose, arm, hand, leg) in which kids had to

label them sticking on the board cards with the names of each body part.

This activity helped children to learn new vocabulary and to participate actively in

the class. Taking into account the level of knowledge of children the teacher used the

whiteboard to introduce appropriate vocabulary related with the parts of the body,

which motivated students to develop the tasks easily allowing them to guess the

meaning of the different drawings.

In this class the whiteboard was completely clear; the teacher organized the

space on the board to place the drawings according to the activity allowing children

to work in orderly way. The colors of markers and the size of drawings attracted the

students’ attention and helped teacher to expose her class efficiently.

In the third class, the teacher used whiteboard to expose the theme “The

Movies” whose objective was to develop speaking skills between students. The

teacher wrote on the board the title of the some movies preferred by children, after

that, children had to create their own dialogues and to write the main ideas on the

board.

52

The teacher used the whiteboard taking into account the age of students to

choose movies according to their likes and preferences. First, the teacher wrote on

the board three titles of movies; after that, teacher asked her students to work in three

groups. The teacher gave each group one title of movies Shrek, Río, Cinderella;

students had to speak between them about the movie and to think about the main

ideas of it. Next, one representative of each group had to give a short summary in

front of the class and to write on the board the main ideas of each film. The use of

the whiteboard was according to the level of knowledge of children because the

teacher wrote in this the main arguments using easy and understandable vocabulary

encouraging her students to write their own ideas.

The whiteboard was completely clean allowing the students to write the main

ideas of each movie neatly, the use of markers of various colors to express the main

ideas helped students to understand and participate in the class actively.

The topic of the fourth class was “The Movies”. This topic was appropriate to

develop the main objective that was to learn about Phrasal verbs. The teacher used

the whiteboard to explain the class in a demonstrative manner.

The teacher used the whiteboard taking into account of students’ age to write

tasks which contained a list of basic Phrasal verbs taken from the movie Shrek, for

example call back, calm down, cheer up, do over, and clean up, motivating students

to guess and write on the board the respective meaning according to the context of

the movie. Regarding the level of knowledge of students, the teacher used the board

to write easy phrasal verbs which allowed children to guess quickly the meaning and

to participate in the class.

The use of the spaces on the board was correct; therefore, students could make

the task orderly. The correct sizes of the letters and the diverse colors or markers

53

were used to highlight the phrasal verbs making the topic be perceived and

understood by students in a successful way.

In the fifth observed class, the teacher used whiteboard to expose the topic

“The Movies” the objective was to learn about the use of Indefinite pronouns, with

the use of this visual aid the professor achieved to complete the explanation of the

topic which was initiated with pictures, which helped students to make the exercises

with confidence and knowledge of the topic.

The instructor used the whiteboard taking into account the age of students to

write a short summary about Cinderella movie which contained indefinite pronouns

(someone, everybody, everyone, etc.). The teacher asked some students to go to the

board and to underline the indefinite pronouns that are within the summary.

Considering the level of knowledge of students the teacher wrote the summary using

basic vocabulary to allow children to understand the class and develop the task

required.

The teacher used the space correctly on the board to write the summary which

allowed children a good view of it; the size of letter used was appropriate to children

to read correctly the text and the use of varied colors of markers to highlight the

indefinite pronouns helped children to understand the lesson productively.

The topic of the sixth observed class was “Let’s go shopping” its objective

was to learn new vocabulary related to personal care items as: hairbrush, towel,

comb, dental floss; for this purpose the teacher used the whiteboard to write list of

new vocabulary and encourage her students to make the respective drawings.

The whiteboard was used by the teacher to make activities that were according

to the age of students. The list of personal care items written by the teacher was

related with objects that they use daily in their personal care. The teacher asked her

54

students to make the respective drawings on the board next to each word allowing

children relate the drawing with the new vocabulary. Taking into account the level of

knowledge of students the activity exposed on the board was easy to develop for

them because the vocabulary used by the teacher was easy and known by children.

Contents on the whiteboard were organized in such a way that students could

see and understand clearly the examples displayed on it. The appropriate size of

letter and the use of varied colors attracted the attention of students; thus, they were

able to guess and to create the respective drawings.

The topic of the seventh class was “Let’s go shopping” whose objective was to

use new vocabulary using practical exercises. To develop her class the teacher used

the whiteboard to make tasks focused on activities as: Filling the blanks, that allowed

students to put into practice the new vocabulary learned (brush, comb, mirror, and

towel).

According to the age of children the teacher designed activities on the board to

get students participate in an interactive manner considering that children like to go

shopping. The teacher wrote on the board a short dialogue in which children had to

go to the board and to fill the blanks using the personal care items places on the cue

box. The use of this supplementary material was adequate to children because the

dialogue written on the board was based on a conversation between Shrek and Fiona.

The teacher used the whiteboard taking into account the level of knowledge of

children to develop the task using common vocabulary related with the topic.

The short dialogue written by the teacher was placed in the middle of the board

allowing students to see with clarity the content of it. The letter size was large

enough helping children to visualize the text perfectly and develop the activity

successfully.

55

In the ninth observed class the teacher used the whiteboard to introduce the

theme “A Time Spaceship”. The objective of this lesson was to learn Tag questions.

To explain this class the teacher used this visual aid in an objective way helping

students to perceive the class and put into practice the new knowledge.

The use of the whiteboard was according students’ age because the activities

were written on the board by the teacher using easy examples to explain how to form

tag questions, for example the moon is beautiful. Isn’t it? This activity consisted in

linking the sentence with its correct Tag question encouraging children to go to the

board and complete the task. The teacher took into account the level of knowledge of

students to design the exercises displayed on the whiteboard using easy vocabulary

and structures considering that children were ready to learn the new lesson based on

previous knowledge; consequently, the activities were developed by students lively

achieving a successful class.

The whiteboard was organized correctly using the appropriate spaces. The size

of the letter was appropriate allowing children a good understanding of the task and

the use of the various colors of markers helped teacher to emphasize the structure of

Tag Questions. At the end of the class the students were able to work by themselves

applying the lesson learned.

Poster

In the first observation of 6th grade, the teacher used poster to expose the

theme “Incredible body”, the purpose was to teach new vocabulary related to the

topic. The use of this visual aid was adequate because it awoke in children the

interest to know the new words.

According to the age of students, the teacher used poster to develop activities

that consisted on paste on this visual material the different parts of the body named

56

by the teacher such as (nose, ears, hand, arm). This activity motivated children to

participate actively and to enjoy the class because the poster was related with a

famous children’s character Bart Simpsons. The teacher considered the level of

knowledge of students to use poster because it encouraged students to listen to their

teacher and to place correctly the parts of the body, this activity was easy to develop

because the vocabulary was common and basic for them.

To choose this visual aid, the teacher took into account the preferences of

children. The size of this poster was appropriate to allow children to develop the

task, the striking colors of the poster encouraged kids to participate willingly in the

class.

Dialogues

The topic of the second class was “The passive voice” and its purpose was to

understand the use of the verb to be in its singular and plural form. In this

opportunity the teacher used Audio aid to expose the new lesson in a better way and

to make that students are motivated and interested in the class.

The dialogues were chosen according to the age of students. These dialogues

contained a conversation among their favorite famous people Selena Gómez and

Justin Bieber. The teacher played the conversation two times; after that, she asked

her students to follow the dialogues on their books and to underline the verbs in

passive voice identifying the plural and singular form. The teacher took into account

the level of knowledge of students to choose the dialogues which contained a

conversation in passive voice with vocabulary and grammatical rules easy to

understand for them.

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The clarity of the sound and the appropriate volume allowed children to

follow the dialogue in correct way and to develop easily the task asked by their

teacher.

Pictures

In the fifth observed class the topic was “The Movies”. The objective was to

learn about the use of Indefinite Pronoun. In this occasion the teacher used pictures

to teach the new class about Indefinite pronoun, these pictures contained images or

characters related to their favorite movies, it encouraged them to interact actively

into the classroom.

Considering the students’ age the teacher used pictures that were related to

Movies that were in trend such as Cinderella, Río, Shrek; which were appropriate to

highlight indefinite pronoun such as: everyone, no one, someone, everybody,

nobody, and somebody. The teacher showed her children one picture; next, students

had to form a sentence using indefinite pronouns, for example: Everybody likes

Cinderella movie. This activity allowed children put into practice the new vocabulary

and to understand the new lesson perfectly. Concerning the level of knowledge of

students the teacher chose pictures which contained images of movies known for

them that facilitated the understanding of the topic.

The pictures used in this class, were chosen together with her students

regarding likes, preferences, and relation with the topic; an important factor to

consider in the selection of pictures was the size, color, and materials that motivated

students to participate, interact, and develop the tasks asked by their teacher.

In the last observed class in sixth grade (10 years old) the theme was

“Communication” whose objective was to learn about the five senses: Smell,

hearing, sight, touch, taste. In this opportunity the teacher used pictures to support

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her teaching considering that these visual aids are an excellent tool to motivate

children to participate, to interact, and to enjoy the class.

These pictures were used in this class taking into account that children in this

age learn and understand better by seeing, playing, and interacting. These pictures

contained images related with sensory organs. The teacher showed her students the

picture and children had to say aloud the respective name. The instructor took into

account the level of knowledge of students to choose the appropriate pictures what

motivated them to learn the vocabulary related with the five senses.

These visual aids were selected by the teacher considering the striking images

and vibrant colors that were appropriate to help children to learn the new vocabulary

based on pictures.

Songs

In the tenth observed class, the topic was “Communication” its purpose was to

teach about of five senses smell, hearing, sight, touch, and taste. To explain this class

the teacher used songs to reach a better retention and learning of the topic.

The use of one song to expose the class considering the students’ age allowed

the teacher to explain the lesson in a relaxed and interesting way given that the song

had a catchy rhythm; thus, children learned about the five senses in a funny manner.

Taking into account the level of knowledge of students the teacher chose songs that

contained easy and understandable vocabulary related with the topic; consequently,

the class works were made by students without any problem but always under

guidance of their teacher.

The sound and the clarity of this song were excellent to children perceive and

understand the new vocabulary successfully.

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Learning styles

In the observations made in 6th grade with children of 10 years old, it is

important to express that the teacher taught her classes considering the different

needs, abilities, and skills of her students, allowing every child to learn and to

understand the lessons in their own style and rhythm.

To achieve this purpose the teacher used the following supplementary

materials posters, songs, pictures, dialogues, and whiteboard that helped students to

demonstrate their capabilities, intelligences, and skills to be involved in the learning

process. Thus, Dun & Dun (1978) suggest that there are more than twenty aspects

that help students to develop the process to learn, the same that are into five

categories: sociological, emotional, environmental, physical, and psychological

factor.

It is important to highlight that teachers should know their own learning style

and to realize that every child has her or his own style too; therefore, the teacher

must design the lesson taking into account that into the classroom are immersed

some factors such as: physical, environmental and emotional which influence

directly in the learning process of each child.

Finally, it is primordial that teacher design the activities into the classroom

focusing on the different skills, styles, and abilities that each child has; as a results,

childrens learn and apply their knowledge successfully.

Quantitative Analysis

The quantitative analysis is based on the results of observations in different

classrooms. For this research study eighteen supplementary materials have been

proposed to be analyzed taking into account the frequency of use in the classroom.

Chart No. 1 shows that teacher used 11 supplementary materials out of the 1, such as

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flashcards, pictures, charts, handouts, posters, word cards, whiteboard, songs,

dialogues, stories, and objects (toys).

On the other hand, in fourth grade (8 Years old), the teacher used 7

supplementary materials in the 10 observed classes. The whiteboard was used 9

times, it is to say, its frequency of use was of 52.94% which means that this visual

aid was the most used in this grade, because this supplementary material is easy to

use and it is always available in the classroom.

According to frequency of use, the second supporting material was flashcards,

which was used 2 times what corresponds to 11.76% according to the graph shown

above. The teacher considered appropriate to use these visual aids because flashcards

helped children to visualize and understand new vocabulary.

Pictures were used 2 times, corresponding to frequency of use 11.76%. These

visual aids were used by the teacher to motivate and encourage children to participate

and interact in the classroom.

52.94%

11.76%

11.76%

5.89%

5.89%

5.89%

5.89%

4th Grade

whiteboard

flash cards

pictures

charts

posters

word cards

objects (toys)

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Charts were used in this grade 1 time, corresponding to 5.89%, the teacher

utilized this visual aid because its use supported her to organize and develop the

lesson easily and adequately into the established time.

In this grade the teacher used poster 1 time with a frequency of use 5.89%. The

use of this supplementary material helped the teacher to explain the new class in a

interesting manner.

The teacher used word cards 1 time corresponding to 5.89% of frequency of

use.

Charts, posters, and word cards were use only 1 time in this grade because not

all subjects are suitable for the use of these materials; therefore, the teacher is who

must choose the appropriate material to teach her/his class.

In the observations made in 5th grade, the teacher used the whiteboard 10 times.

According to the graph above the frequency of use of this supplementary materials

was of 62.50% which means that this visual aid was the most used into classroom,

62,50%12,50%

12,50%

6,25%

6,25%

5th Grade

whiteboard

handouts

songs

stories

pictures

62

the main reason is that this material is the most common and it remains all the time in

the classroom; moreover, the teacher can make use of this supporting material at any

time in the teaching process.

Songs in the 5th grade (9 Years old) were twice used which means a 12.50%.

The low use of this supplementary material into the classroom is due to the fact that

the class time was short; therefore, the song needed to be heard by children up to 3

times to understand it.

Referring to the data displayed in the graph above, handouts were used 2 times

by the teacher, and its frequency of use was of 12.50%. The teacher worked with

handouts because the topic of the class was appropriate to work with this material.

According to the teacher’s opinion, the material should be picked considering the

topic to be taught.

In 5th grade the teacher used pictures only 1 time with a frequency of use of

6.25% which means that this supplementary material was used rarely by the teacher,

because not all topics were appropriated to develop them through pictures.

Stories were used 1 time corresponding to 6.25% of frequency of use. It is

important to mention that the teacher made little use of this supplementary material

because this aid had to be related to the content and objective of the theme, which

means that not all lessons can use stories.

63

In the observations made in 6th grade, the use of the whiteboard was of 7

times, with a frequency of use of 58.34%. The teacher used this supporting material

in the most of her classes because it is a useful tool that remains in the classroom all

the time, and it facilitates the explanation of almost all the subjects.

The use of pictures in this grade was of 2 times, whose frequency of use was of

16.67%. According to the opinion of the teacher the use of pictures helps children to

assimilate the new lessons better through visualization.

The teacher used poster 1 time, with a frequency of 8.33%. The limited use of

this visual aid was due to the fact that the teacher had to choose the appropriate

supplementary materials according the content of the class.

Taking into account the data exposed on the graph, songs were used in this

grade only once, equivalent to 8.33%. The low percentage of songs use in the

classroom, according to the teacher’s opinion, is because the class hour is short and

there is not enough time to play songs and to do other activities such as check home

and class work.

16,67%

8,33%

58,34%

8,33%

8,33%

6th Grade

pictures

posters

whiteboard

songs

dialogues

64

Dialogues were listened 1 time; its frequency of use was of 8.33%. The teacher

used dialogues only one time because this material had to be chosen appropriately

according to the topic to be taught.

65

Conclusions

• To teach English as a Foreign Language to 4th grade (8 years old), 5th grade (9

years old), 6th grade (10 years old), teacher used eleven of the eighteen

proposed supplementary materials.

• Based on the results of the observations, it is important to state that teachers

used visual, audio, and realia as supplementary materials to support their

teaching, due to the fact that its use encourage children to participate actively

and to demonstrate their skills and abilities in the learning process.

• The supplementary materials were selected taking into account the content

and objectives of the class; for this reason, children reacted favorably toward

the use of these supporting materials. These supplementary materials

complied with the relevant aspect of pertinence.

• Teachers used the diverse supplementary materials taking into account

important characteristics of children such as: age, needs, level of knowledge,

and learning styles; consequently, the use of these supplementary materials

allowed children to perceive and to learn the new topic in a fruitful way.

• The creativity, imagination, and experience of teachers to teach their classes

in an interesting and attractive way were reflected in the good quality of the

supplementary materials that were selected.

• The whiteboard was used with more frequency because of its accessibility

and availability into the classroom. The remaining supporting materials were

used less frequently, because not all the materials are appropriate for all the

lessons.

66

Recommendations

After having completed the descriptive analysis of the results about the use of

supplementary materials used to teach English to children, it is important to

recommend that besides the whiteboard other supporting materials should be used

more frequently to complement the teacher’s explanation. Thus, children will be able

to perceive and apply in an optimal way what they have learnt.

Moreover, it is important to recommend the use of videos and movies into the

classrooms which will help students to improve their listening and speaking skills.

It is important to mention the teacher must select the diverse supplementary

materials taking into account color, size, shape, and content related with each topic,

to attract students’ attention and to achieve a total understanding of the new topic to

be taught.

Finally, nowadays due to the technological avalanche we are going through, it

is advisable to google for learning virtual environments to help students learn a more

up-to-date language.

67

References

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Companies.Inc.

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Cheon, H. (2003). The viability of computer mediated communication in the Korean

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Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.

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Hodapp, T. (1978). Video as an instructional aid for English as a second language

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ANNEXES

OBSERVATION SHEET

TYPE OF INSTITUTION: PUBLIC ( ) PRIVATE ( ) DATE:__________________________ CLASS N

0 ___________

GRADE::_______________________

TOPIC OF THE LESSON:____________________________________________

OBJECTIVE (S):____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

SUPPLEMENTARYMATERIAL USEDTOTEACH THE LESSON: (Check √√√√the

ones that have been used)

Visual

flash cards

Powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures

charts

handouts

posters

wordcards

white/blackboard

Audio songs

dialogues

stories

tales

Audiovisual videos

movies

documentaries

Realia objects (toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

STUDENT’S SURVEY

TYPE OF INSTITUTION: PUBLIC ( ) PRIVATE ( )

DATE: ______________________________ CLASS Nº___ GRADE: ____________________________

PREGUNTAS SI NO

¿Te gusta el material utilizado por el profesor en las clases de Inglés?

¿Te ayudó a entender mejor el tema de la clase?

¿Crees que el material didáctico utilizado te ayuda a participar más en clase?

¿Con que materiales crees que aprenderías mejor el tema de clase?

VISUALES

• flash cards • diapositivas • mapas • gráficos o fotos • tablas u organizadores gráficos • hojas con actividades • posters • tarjetas con palabras • pizarrón blanco o negro

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

AUDIO

• canciones • diálogos • historias • cuentos AUDIOVISUALES

• videos • películas • documentales

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

OBJETOS REALES

• objetos: (juguetes, plantas, frutas, etc.) ONLINE

• websites

( ) ( )

¿Qué materiales adicionales te gustaría que utilice el profesor en la clase? __________________________________________________________________ ¿Con qué frecuencia te gustaría que se utilice material didáctico adicional? ( ) siempre ( ) de vez en cuando

DESCRIPTION OF THE USED MATERIAL:

______________________________ (NAME OF THE SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL) How was it used? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Was it used appropriately in relation to the topic of the class? yes____ no ____ Why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Was it used appropriately in relation to the objectives of the class? yes___ no ___ Why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Was it used appropriately in relation to the students’ age? yes___ no ___ Why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Was it used appropriately in relation to the students’ level? yes___ no ___ Why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Was it elaborated and applied with creativity and originality? yes___ no__ Why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Were students motivated with the presented material? yes___ no___ Why and How? (For example, activates participation, awakes students’ interest and curiosity) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How do you consider the quality of the used material? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TEACHER’S SURVEY

TYPE OF INSTITUTION: PUBLIC ( ) PRIVATE ( )

DATE: ______________________________ CLASS Nº___ GRADE: ____________________________ Do you think that the use of supplementary material motivates students to learn

English? Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

What type of supplementary material do you usually use? Why do you use them?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Do you take into consideration the different learning styles when designing and

elaborating the supplementary material for your students? Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

What type of supplementary material do your students prefer? Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

According to the following percentages, how important is the use of supplementary

material in the class?

25% ( ) 50% ( ) 75% ( ) 90% ( )

Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Chart one: Type of supplementary material used to teach children

Variable Indicators Yes No Visual flash cards

Powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures

charts

handouts

posters

wordcards

white/blackboard

cutouts

Audio

songs

dialogues

stories

tales

chants

numbersrepetition

Audiovisual videos

movies

documentaries

Realia objects (toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

Chart two: Pertinence and Appropriateness of the supplementary material used to teach

children V

ari

able

Indicators

1st

cla

ss

2nd c

lass

3rd

cla

ss

4th

cla

ss

5th

cla

ss

6th

cla

ss

7th

cla

ss

8th

cla

ss

9th

cla

ss

10th

cla

ss

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Visual

flash cards

Powerpointpresentations

Maps

Pictures

Charts

Handouts

Posters

Wordcards

white/blackboard

Cutouts

Audio

Songs

Dialogues

Stories

Tales

Chants

Audio

visual Videos

Movies

documentaries

Rea

lia objects

(toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

Author:

Source: 4th (8 years old approx.) grade

Chart three: Pertinence and Appropriateness of the supplementary material used to teach children

Vari

able

Indicators

1st

cla

ss

2nd c

lass

3rd

cla

ss

4th

cla

ss

5th

cla

ss

6th

cla

ss

7th

cla

ss

8th

cla

ss

9th

cla

ss

10th

cla

ss

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Visual

flash cards

powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures

charts

handouts

posters

wordcards

white/blackboard

Audio

songs

dialogues

stories

tales

Audio

visua

l

videos

movies

documentaries

Rea

lia objects

(toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

Author:

Source: 5th (9 years old approx.) grade

Chart four: Pertinence and Appropriateness of the supplementary material used to teach children

Vari

able

Indicators

1st

cla

ss

2nd c

lass

3rd

cla

ss

4th

cla

ss

5th

cla

ss

6th

cla

ss

7th

cla

ss

8th

cla

ss

9th

cla

ss

10th

cla

ss

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Per

t.

Appro

p.

Visual

flash cards

powerpointpresentations

maps

pictures

charts

handouts

posters

wordcards

white/blackboard

Audio

songs

dialogues

stories

tales

numbersrepetition

Audio

visual videos

movies

documentaries

Rea

lia objects

(toys, plants, fruits)

Online websites

Author:

Source: 6th (10 years old approx.) grade

Chart five: Frequency of use of supplementary material

Variable Indicators

4th

grade

(8 years

old

approx.)

5th

grade

(9 years

old

approx.)

6th grade

(10 years

old

approx.)

TOTAL PERCENTAGE

f f f f %

Visual

flash cards

power point presentations

maps

pictures

charts

handouts

posters

word cards

white/black board

cutouts

Audio

songs

dialogues

stories

tales

chants

number repetition

Audiovisual

videos

movies

documentaries

Realia

Objects (toys, plants, fruits)

Online

websites

TOTAL

Author:

Source: 4th (8 years old approx.) 5th (9 years old approx.) 6th (10 years old approx.)