Teach English in Yitang Zhen - Yongzhou Shi

Flashcards are a simple, versatile, yet often underexploited resource and they are very useful to elicit more obscure words. They are a great way to present, practise and recycle vocabulary and some grammar structures. Flashcards can also be bright and colourful and make a real impact on visual learners. It is particularly important to appeal to visual learners, as a very high proportion of learners have this type of intelligence. When putting together flashcard sets, teachers should use the clearest, simplest images they can find. The cards can be either double-sided or single sided according to the purpose of the activity. Creating multiple sets of cards is also a good idea. The focus of the lesson plan can be on just about anything from vocabulary to grammar points. Having the students work in groups with the flashcards is an excellent way to enhance problem-solving and get them practicing using English. Supplementing with flashcards to use in activities will definitely help freshen up any stale or dull lessons. They can be used during every phase of teaching like engage, study or activate, but mostly they are prefered to help engage the students and to elicit or explain meaning of a word in the engage phase of teaching. During this phase, they can also be used to present and practice grammar structures. Whereas they are mostly used in the classes with young learners, they can also be used with fun-loving teenager and adult classes. However, because they are a really handy resource to have, they can be useful at every stage of the class and in the classes with different levels and ages. There are various ideas how to use flashcards during the classes with teenegers and adults. What the teacher needs to do first is simply flash cards in front of students. One important condition is to make sure they are watching. Their full attention is needed since the teacher will flash a card in front of them very quickly. The teacher shows the card, and the students have to name what’s on it. He or she slowly speeds it up, and starts adding more cards. Flashcards are always a great way to boost students’ vocabulary. For example, one way to teach vocabulary is to have the students pair up and give each pair a stack of vocabulary cards. Depending on how many cards the teacher has for each group, he or she sets the time to about one or two minutes. He or she can have the students write the names of the image or concept on the back of each card, but the teacher should make sure the word is not visible from the front. Then, the teacher, as quickly as they can, has the students work together showing the image while their partner is trying to guess the word in English. When the timer is up, the teacher stops everyone, has them count how many cards they guess correctly, then has the teams switch. He or she can give this activity a competitive edge by offering prizes for the team with the greatest amount of correct cards at the end of the time. Another way using flashcards is pairing. The teacher decides on the number of the cards depending on the abilities of his or her students. He or she has for example 6 pairs of 2 cards with the same image spread on the floor facing up. The teacher can line them up in rows of 3 or 4. He or she has the students look carefully at the card for about 20 seconds and memorize the places of the cards. Students, then, take turns to flip the cards in pairs. The one who flips all the pairs first wins. Finding the card is an alternative idea to use flashcards. The teacher takes about 20 cards with recently learnt vocabulary. He or she spreads them around the classroom and has a student name a card he or she sees. The other students need to find the card. The student with most cards at the end wins. Matching with word is very similar to finding the card activity. This time students should match card images with cards where the words are written. In order to use flashcards in the classes with beginner level teenager and adults, the teacher can divide the students in two groups. He or she can choose to drill vocabulary of phrases students have just learnt. For example, a picture of a girl. The student who is first in line asks: “What is John wearing?” Student behind answers: “John is wearing a red hat, a blue jacket, and brown shoes”, then turns back and asks the same question to the student behind. The team that finishes first, wins. Besides, guessing the word is a really efficient way while using flashcards. One example way to apply it starts with dividing the students into teams. One student of each team can see the card. He or she needs to explain to the rest what the word is. The team that guesses most words, wins. Alternative way also includes dividing the students into teams. One student of each team sees the card. This time, the rest of the students are asking questions in order to guess it. With teenagers and adults, sometimes getting them active and talking can be a challenge. Another activity teachers can have with adults is to print out two of each flashcard, then to give each student one card. The teacher should make sure there is an even number of students. Students must then describe the image or concept on their card and find their mate while walking around the classroom. Flashcards can be used to teach more intricate grammar concepts, too. One such activity revolves around teaching count and non-count nouns. The teacher breaks the students into groups and give each a stack of flashcards with various objects on them. The students must correctly categorize the images into count and non-count nouns. To extend the lesson, the teacher can have students write sentences using the nouns or even perform a brief skit using the objects available to them on their flashcards. In the classes with teenaners or adults, flashcard activities are a great way to get a good discussion going between the students. One activity the teacher can try on his or her class is recipe building. The teacher divides the students into small groups and gives them each a stack of flashcards with images of food on them. These images will be the ingredients. The students should work together to come up with a recipe using the images provided. This can be a good activity for when the teacher is working on imperatives (cut the onion, peel the tomatoes, etc.), connectors of sequence (first, next, then, last, etc.) or simply following directions. At the final phase, the students must present their recipes to the class, working on the proper pronunciation of the images shown on their flashcards. In conclusion, according to the activities in which flashcards used for teenager and adult classes, it can be said that the use of flashcards are extremely beneficial and they can be used with many different levels and ages depending on the purpose of the lesson.