VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES DƯƠNG TRÀ MI THE USE OF PICTURES IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING IN AN ENGLISH CENTER (Ứng dụng của tranh ảnh trong dạy nói tiếng Anh tại một trung tâm Anh ngữ) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI–2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES DƯƠNG TRÀ MI THE USE OF PICTURES IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING IN AN ENGLISH CENTER (Ứng dụng của tranh ảnh trong dạy nói tiếng Anh tại một trung tâm Anh ngữ) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: VŨ MAI TRANG, M.A. HANOI –2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENT Chapter I: Introduction ……………………………………1 1. Rationale for the study ……………………………………1 2. Research aims and objectives ……………………………………2 3. Research questions ……………………………………2 4. Research site and subjects ……………………………………2 5. Research methodology ……………………………………2 6. Significance of the study ……………………………………2 Chapter II: Literature review ……………………………………3 1. Background of the study ……………………………………3 2. Teaching English speaking ……………………………………3 2.1. The notion of speaking ……………………………………3 2.2. The notion of teaching speaking ……………………………………3 2.3. The components of speaking skill ……………………………………4 2.4. The activities to promote speaking skill ……………………………………5 3. Definition of action research ……………………………………8 4. Picture processing and memory models ……………………………………9 Chapter III: Research methodology ……………………………………12 1. Participants ……………………………………12 2. Method of research ……………………………………12 3. Analysis of the research ……………………………………13 3.1. The questionnaire ……………………………………13 3.2. Class observations ……………………………………25 Chapter IV: Conclusion ……………………………………27 1. Conclusion ……………………………………27 2. Limitations and suggestions for future research ……………………………………31 Chapter V: References ……………………………………32 Appendix ……………………………………I 1 Chapter I Introduction 1. Rationale for the study The support of pictures in teaching English is pervasive owning to their proliferation in instructional materials. They penetrate into every way of our life and are even included in textbooks. Thus, it would be a big mistake if teachers do not find ways to investigate their effects on student learning. However, the question arises as to the contribution of pictures make in assisting learning, which seems to be taken for granted by those who produce the resources and triggers studies implemented with increasing frequency in recent years about this issue. Students in the investigated English center enjoy many benefits regarding the learning environment, which profits this study a lot. First, class size is small with only 10-15 students. Manageable class size saves teachers a lot of time in organizing extra educational activities to discover the lessons in depth. Second, students are not randomly put in a class or grouped according to age but they have to do a placement test before their enrollment. Students in a class are always of the same level, depriving teachers of pains and exhaustion when scouring the Internet and other sources for various materials fitting various levels or for the best ones among thousands. Another advantage is that classes are well-equipped with computers and projectors that teachers, who have certain computer techniques, can organize any kind of activities using pictures as they wish. This benefit also erases the problems pertaining picture sizes and colors, as teachers manage to make them clear and large enough for students to look at, and teachers‟ effort in searching and cutting tasks from old newspapers and magazines. Pictures, when used, are included in PowerPoint slideshow. Among four practical English skills, speaking makes use of pictures the most. They are both found in textbooks and other resources. Teachers also use additional pictures to complement their teaching. This reliance on pictures reflects an implicit assumption by practitioners that these visual representations are intrinsically effective in supporting learning English speaking. However, as the nature of an English center, students go to class in the evening and often feel unmotivated or too tired to learn; this raises questions of the usefulness and the applications of pictures in teaching English speaking. 2 2. Research aims and objectives As pictures are considered as something indispensable in teaching speaking by most instructors, how to use them effectively is a worth answering question whose answer is of great importance to teachers. The major purpose of the study is to find out ways to use pictures in teaching English speaking. It also seeks to discover their impacts on speaking lessons and consider factors that can influence their effectiveness. 3. Research questions The study revolves around the following guide questions: 3.1. What are the functions of pictures in teaching English speaking? 3.2. Which activities using pictures can be organized in teaching students of the center? 3.3. Pictures with or without text materials, which is more facilitative? 3.4. Which issues need to be addressed in using pictures in the center? 4. Research site and subjects The research was conducted in an English center in Hanoi, Vietnam. The subjects were drawn from beginning to proficient levels of learners as well as EFL teachers with at least 1 year's teaching experience, specifically 5 classes consisting of totally 68 students and 20 teachers. Among these 20 teachers, 3 of them are highly experienced with more than 5 years teaching English speaking. (See Chapter III for more details.) 5. Research methodology This research was carried out in qualitative way, which involved a teacher survey questionnaire designed to get both quantitative and qualitative information and class observation sessions accompanied by records of students‟ responses. It also made use of lesson plans for various lessons of different English levels that were provided by the teachers participating in this study. 6. Significance of the study This study will be of considerable interest to teachers and students in this language center and others because it opens the door to initiatives as well as to students' attitude and perceptions of language learning. This investigation of the influential factors that concern picture uses while learning to speak will hopefully broaden the insight into the issue and will help language teachers avoid problems and make classroom environment less stressful. Chapter II 3 Literature Review 1. Background of the study There has been a lot of research on the use of the pictures in language teaching, specially speaking skill. It is proven that the use of picture enhances the quality of language lesson, and the interaction among students, as well as between students and teachers. As Hill (1990) points out, the conventional classroom may not be the best or suitable environment for language teaching. That is why teachers search for various aids and stimuli to improve this situation. Pictures are one of the most valuable aids for a teacher. They bring “images of reality into the unnatural world of the language classroom.” (Hill 1990) Pictures bring not only images of reality, but can also function as a fun element in the class. Even if only employed in additional exercises or just to create the atmosphere, sometimes it is surprising how pictures can change a lesson. Wright (1990), through examples, shows that pictures have great effect in teaching structure, vocabulary and all four basic skills. Several advantages of pictures include availability (one can access to pictures through any magazine, internet an etc), they are cheap, often free; they are personal (teacher selects them), they come in different formats and styles, and they can raise learners‟ curiosity. 2. Teaching Speaking 2.1. The notion of speaking According to Nunan (1991), speaking is the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, which involves the process of producing, receiving, and processing information. English speaking classes are used to provide students with chances of learning English speaking through interaction with other students or native speaking. 2.2. The notion of teaching speaking The main objective of a language course is to enable students to communicate in foreign language; speaking, therefore, needs a special attention. This is due to the fact that in daily life, most of us communicate by speaking more than writing. Many language learners and teachers regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language. To them, fluency is the ability to communicate with others much more than the ability to read and write. Speaking is the most important skill that a student can acquire, 4 and is the benchmark to assess one‟s progress or accomplishments in spoken communication In general, students need to recognize that speaking involves three areas (Burnkart 1998). a. Mechanics: Using the right words with correct pronunciation in the right order b. Functions: Knowing when the clarity of messages is essential, and when exact understanding is not required. c. Social and cultural norms: Understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason. In language teaching, the teachers help to develop students‟ knowledge by providing genuine or authentic practices and prepare them for realistic communication circumstances. In other words, they help students acquire the ability to produce logically connected sentences which are relevant to specific contexts, and use accurate pronunciation and grammar. 2.3. The components of speaking skill Speaking is very complex, and it is the language art that is most frequently used by people in the world. It often requires the simultaneous use of number of abilities/components developed at different rates and level. Syakur (1987) established 5 components of speaking skill, consists of comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency. In short, mastering these components will allow speaker to perform effectively and comfortably in actual communication. a. Comprehension Oral communication certainly requires a subject to respond to speech and to initiate a dialogue. b. Grammar It is essential that students are able to arrange a sentence in correct grammar structure. They need to be able to differentiate appropriate grammatical form in specific contexts. Mastering grammar is to gain the expertise in a language both in oral or written form. Grammar is the foundation for students to be able to communicate effectively and accurately. Using incorrect grammar often obscures the meaning that the speaker wants to convey. On the other hand, good grammar can make the speech more intelligent. c. Vocabulary 5 Without grammar very little information can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (Wilkins, 1974). If one does not have sufficient vocabulary, he/she can not communicative effectively or express their ideas both oral and written form Hence, vocabulary means the appropriate diction which is used in communication. Usually, although a student has good knowledge of grammar, he/she will not be able to communicate effectively with limited vocabulary. The lack of vocabulary might hinder the speaker's ability to understand a conversation, which in turn leads to a misunderstanding and does not allow he/she to respond correctly. d. Pronunciation Pronunciation is more important than it may seem, but students often neglect this part, and some of them even underestimate it. Your pronunciation is the first and most important thing native speakers notice during a conversation. It deals with the phonological process that refers to the component of a grammar made up of the elements and principles that determine how sound vary and pattern in a language. A speaker who constantly mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand. e. Fluency Fluency is the ability of speaker to speak fluently and accurately. Fluency in speaking is the aim of language learners. Fluency can be measured by the extent to which speaker use the target language quickly and confidently with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts. These signs indicate that the speaker does not have to stop to search for words or items during his/her speech. 2.4. The activities to promote speaking skill In traditional classrooms, speaking practice normally involves one person asking the question and another giving answer. The process of question and answer are often predictable and there is only one correct answer. In contrary, in real communication speakers normally have to deal with uncertainty of what the other person will say. The objective of communication is to complete a task, such as expressing one‟s opinion, obtaining information; and in order to do so, speakers may have to clarify their meaning or clarify confirmation by different ways. 6 Therefore, to develop communicative competences, teachers need to incorporate classrooms activities with a purpose and an information gap, and at the same time allow multiple forms of expressions. (Burkart, 1998) a. Structured output activities The two most common types of structured output activities are information gap and jigsaw activities. * Information gap activities According to Rapton (2001), in information gap activities students usually work in pairs or groups, whereby one person has information that must be shared with the others in order to solve a problem, gather information and make decision. The activity could be filling the gaps in a schedule or timetable. For example person A holds a timetable of delivery schedule of a restaurant with some of arrival and departure times missing, while person B has the same timetable but with different blank spaces. The two persons are not allowed to see each other‟s timetables and must fill in the blanks by asking each other relevant questions. Completing a picture is another common practice of this type of activity, where two students have similar pictures with different missing details and coordinate to find the all the blanks. This type of activity gives every student the opportunity to speak in the target language for an extended period of time and they normally produce more speech. Furthermore, speaking with peers is less intimidating than presenting in front of the entire class. In teaching speaking with pictures, information gap activities are of great help and are commonly used. One example is teachers give two students two different handouts. One has the picture of a place with many people; however, some of them do not have their names included. The other student has the same picture but the people who do not have names are different while this handout contains information that the previous handout does not have. Then students will have to take turn to ask and answer questions of describing the people in the pictures to fill all the missing names. * Jigsaw activities Jigsaw activities are more sophisticated than the common information gap activities that can be done with several partners in different groups. In a group, each member has one or few pieces of one whole puzzle and must cooperate with each other to fit all the pieces into a whole picture. These puzzle pieces might take different form such as photos from a set 7 that tells a story. It can be a conversation record, and each member of a group only hears pieces of the conversation. In a more elaborate way, jigsaw activities can proceed in two stages. First, students are organized in groups and each group receives a different part of the whole information. Second, students then reorganize into different groups with each student has different information, and they have to work together in order to make sense of the whole picture. One example of this activity that I have done in my English class is a story-telling session. Students are divided into three groups of 5 students; each of the groups receives a big picture consisting of 5 smaller ones about a person‟s life. The pictures then are cut into pieces given to each of the students in the groups. The students have to ask group members about the pictures that their friends have and arrange the pieces in the correct order to complete the picture of a person‟s life. b. Communicative output activities This type of activity allows students to practice using the target language in situations that resembles real setting. Students must work together to solve a problem, complete a task or develop a plan, the most common communicative output activities are discussion and role play. * Discussion According to Kayi (2006), in a discussion students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event or find solutions in their discussion groups. There are some criteria to group discussions: - It is essential that the purpose of discussion is set by the teacher. This is to ensure students do not spend their time discussing about irrelevant topics. - The chosen topic is not necessarily a serious one in order to create a more open and interesting environment for students to interact. - Each group then works on their topic in a given period of time and presents it to the class. - At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way. This kind of activity encourages students to learn how to express themselves as well as how to justify their ideas. 8 In speaking lessons, teachers often bring out a picture of a specific issue like global warming, pollution, or festivals to set a context for lessons or to raise a task. Students may be arranged into groups and discuss the picture under teachers‟ requirements. They may have to discuss causes of an issue, the conditions of a problem, or just any thing they know about events like time, date, and activities. * Role Play In role plays, students pretend they are in various social situations that they may encounter in real life. Teachers will assign the students‟ role in different contexts, so that the range of language functions might be extended considerably. Students need to use language that is appropriate to the situation and characters they are pretending to be. Prior to role play, teacher should allow students to discuss and brainstorm of ideas and sentences that they should use. Also, it is imperative that teacher stays in a communicative mode rather than monitoring the situation, and answer students‟ questions. Students might not be familiar with the given situation or role. Communicative output activities allow students to be innovative and creative in their languages usage. And at the same time, these activities create supportive atmosphere in which students can experiment and make mistakes without the fear of embarrassment. This kind of activity also makes the lessons more interesting and fun compared to traditional classroom. 3. Definition of action research Action research is known by many other names including collaborative research, participatory research, contextual research and etc. Typically, action research is “learning by doing”, which is a reflective process that allows for inquiry and discussion as components of the research (Ferrance, 2000). Put simply, action research involves a group of people in real setting to identify the problem, and try to resolve it, observe the progress and come to conclusion of whether the problem is successfully resolved. If not, the whole process is repeated again. According to O‟Brien (1998) a simple process of action research involves continuous cycles. Each cycle has four steps: plan, action, observe, reflect, then the next cycle repeats again from revised plan to action, observe and reflect. 4. Picture processing and memory models 9 Pictures are inevitably remembered better than words on tasks of recall and recognition (Park and Gabrieli, 1995:1593). This finding is referred to as the “picture superiority effect” in which “memory for pictorial stimuli is extremely accurate, durable, and extensive compared to that for verbal stimuli” (Noldy, Stelmack, and Campbell, 1990:417). Scholars point out three significant theoretical perspectives that have been used to explain the “picture superiority effect,” including (1) the dual-code model, (2) the single- code model, (3) the sensory-semantic model. According to Paivio (1971, 1978, 1990, 1991), the dual-coding theory argue that there are two interdependent types of memory codes, verbal and nonverbal, for processing and storing information. The verbal code takes charge of processing and storing verbal information such as words and sentences. The other system consists of memory for all nonverbal phenomenon, which is mostly thought as a code for images and other pictorial representations. Pavio assumes that the dual coding of pictures in verbal and nonverbal memory is more likely to occur for pictures than words, then the “picture superiority effect” could be explained using dual-coding theory. Single-code model argues that visual information is transformed into abstract propositions stored in semantic memory. Pictures trigger a single semantic memory system differently than words. Individuals provided with pictures spend more times looking at pictures before naming them, so they remember the pictures better. Pictures are also more distinctive and more unique than the words that label them, which further make pictures more memorable. Picture superiority can also be explained using a sensory-semantic model (Nelson, 1979). There may be a more distinctive sensory code for pictures, or the probability that pictures will be processed semantically is greater than that for words. 10 Verbal memory Concept Graphemic WORD analysis Nonverbal PICTURE memory Concept Picture analysis Figure 1: Dual-Code Model Semantic memory Abstract proposition Picture Graphemic analysis analysis PICTURE WORD Figure 2: Single-Code Model 11 Meaning features Phonemic features Visual features Visual features PICTURE WORD Figure 3: Sensory-Semantic Model According to Walter Klinger (2009), we learn from experience what things belong together in categories. In picture and word experiments, this effect of being able to quickly spot the relationships between pieces of information is known as the context effect, or the “expectancy mechanism” (Borowsky&Besner, 1993:813). Words, as well as pictures, are read or understood faster when preceded by a related context. Long-term memory stores information in “schema,” which is a “cognitive construct that permits one to treat multiple elements of information as a single element categorized according to the manner in which it will be used (Marcus, Cooper, & Sweller, 1996:49). For instance, learners can develop a schema for cats, and recognize a single instance of a cat as belonging to the category of “cats” although each cat is different from one another in many ways. Saunders, Wise, and Golden (1995:42) says knowledge is more memorable when presented in webs of schemata; the more information is interconnected, the more it is readily recalled. A multimodal theory of learning, like the Dual Coding theory, says learning is more effective when the learner uses more than one sense modality, for instance, verbal and visual processing, and when connections are clearly made between the information contained in each modality (Mayer & Sims, 1994:390). 12 Chapter III Research methodology 1. Participants This study was carried out in a well-respected English center in Hanoi for approximately 3 months, where data was collected from teachers and students. 20 teachers with at least one year's experience participated in the study on voluntary basis, three out of whom are highly experienced, with more than 5 years teaching English speaking. 68 students, from 14 to 30 years old, of 5 classes were involved in this study. These five classes are chosen also on a voluntary procedure. To enroll in a class, they are required to take a placement test, which includes direct speaking assessment; therefore, classes are classified according to students‟ levels. Students belong to four levels of proficiency: low (beginner and elementary), mid (pre-intermediate and intermediate), high (upper intermediate and advanced), and super (proficient). The low and mid students are assigned in communicative classes; while students of the high and super levels mostly study in exam preparation classes like TOEFL iBT, IETLS, SAT, GRE and GMAT. 46 students are from 3 communicative classes, and 22 from 2 exam preparation classes. 2. Method of research The research makes use of qualitative method and utilizes survey questionnaire to get information from teachers. The questionnaire was written in English and required teachers to write English-only responses. It had both quantitative and qualitative components to increase richer data and expression of opinions. The quantitative section contained 14 opinion items based on a Likert scale from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree”. The qualitative section of the questionnaire contained 2 open-ended opinion items, which require teachers to share their opinions as well as to provide lesson plans. Besides, the questionnaire also contained 6 multiple-choice questions about teacher‟s professional information. An email was sent to each teacher informing them of the research project that would involve their help. The questionnaire was attached to the email so they could look it over in advance. A printout of the questionnaire was put on each teacher‟s desk to make it easily accessible as well as encourage a response. The teachers were free to choose the soft copy or the hard copy of the questionnaire. 7 days were allotted to fill out the 13 questionnaire. One more email was sent as a reminder and as an encouragement to participate in this project. The response rate was 100%. Another tool applied is class observation and lesson plan revision to enrich the perspectives. Class observation was carried out in all five chosen classes. While observing, recording and note-taking were made for later detailed analysis. As required by the questionnaire, teachers provided parts of their lesson plans to illustrate their opinions, which were analyzed later and served as a very necessary and convenient tool. 3. Analysis of the research 3.1. The questionnaire 3.1.1. The first six questions The first 6 questions of the questionnaire were to get professional information of teachers and the present of pictures in speaking lesson. The results are presented in the following table which shows teachers mostly teach beginning to intermediate levels. Even though 3 of them, who teach proficient level, do not have speaking lessons but they did teach speaking before. All of them have used pictures in teaching this skill. The only reason for not using pictures in teaching speaking is the unavailability of speaking lessons in these proficient classes. This proves the popularity of pictures in teaching English speaking and they seem to be an indispensable tool in speaking lessons. Upper- intermediate and advanced 15 25 Pre-intermediate and intermediate Beginning and elementary 40 20 Proficient Table 1: Teachers’ English teaching levels 14 100 100 100 90 80 70 Teachers who teach English speaking 60 Teachers who use pictures in 50 English speaking lessons 40 30 20 10 0 Table 2: Percentage of teachers involved in teaching English speaking and using pictures in English speaking lessons 3.1.2. Questions 7 and 8 Questions number 7 and 8 asked teachers to verify the purposes of using pictures and activities with pictures in teaching English speaking. They had to tick the squares that indicated their common purposes of picture uses, as well as activities applied, and then illustrated them with parts of their lesson plans. It is necessary to note that these purposes concern teaching targets solely. The questions also provided teachers with the option “Others” and blank for them to contribute their experience apart from the ideas suggested. Here is what the answers look like and how they are demonstrated in specific lessons. In each of the lesson plans below, three pictorial items are taken as examples. The following table shows common purposes of pictures and their popularity (how many teachers use them as the main purposes; teachers may choose more than one purpose). 15 100 100 80 80 60 60 60 40 25 20 10 0 Teach Introduce Serve as Brainstorm Specify Teach vocabulary topics tasks ideas abstract grammar words Table 3: The main purposes of using pictures in English speaking lessons in the center As can be seen from this table, vocabulary is the most common target that picture activities aim at. Pictures are also frequently used to open the topic of speaking lessons, to brainstorm ideas and to serve as speaking tasks. On the other hand, pictures do not seem to be favored in teaching grammar and making abstract words concrete. a. Teaching purposes * Pictures are used to teach vocabulary. Pictures are always the first tools teachers think of when they need to provide students with vocabulary input because pictures are direct and eye-catching. Rather than giving long oral or textual definition, teachers just need to find a picture that best explains the word. This also prevents the problem of misunderstanding as students may comprehend oral and textual information in a different way if they do not have enough vocabulary or their reading and listening skills are not sufficient to understand the definition. Students are often asked to look at the pictures and say what they think of when seeing them. Then the teachers give the new words that need to be learned. The lesson plan for Unit 2 with the topic of Illnesses from a foundation academic English class is given as an example for this tool. 16 In this lesson plan, teachers show pictures of different illnesses and students guess the names. As most of the illnesses are quite common, students can generate ideas very quickly. For example, when they see a boy having a sad face while his hands put on his back, they think of the word “backache;” likewise, they utter the word “broken arm” when seeing a girl with an bandaged arm. Even if they do not know how to call the diseases in English, they still have some ideas about it, explain what they understand in their own way, or use their mother tongue. Like in the case of “fever” word, students do understand what is indicated; however, because of vocabulary limit, they respond to the teacher by giving the Vietnamese word. Learning vocabulary through pictures encourages students‟ visual thinking. Rather than forming verbal or textual memory, the students imagine the words through images. Therefore, regardless of spelling, the students still understand word meanings. In class, this showcase of pictures is accompanied with spelling, pronunciation of words, and even further explanation from teachers either in spoken or written form to reinforce memory. * Pictures are used to make abstract words concrete. This kind of purpose is quite similar to teaching vocabulary through pictures. However, it deals with more abstract things that are hard to comprehend through verbal explanation. It saves time as well since students may not get anything from the words unless they know them, but they can understand what the illustrating pictures say immediately. Though this technique is effective, in my opinion and I use it quite often as well, it is not really made used of by most teachers I surveyed. However, as can be seen from the following lesson plan, pictures work better than words in verifying the meanings of some abstract concepts. They may still understand what the words mean without reading the definition. The lesson plan for Unit 3 from a Pre-TOEFL iBT class shows that meanings of abstract words like “secure, suspicious, miserable” are made concrete with the images of a carefully locked house, a crafty-eyed person, and a sad-looking man. Specific images will help learners to find their own definition and understanding of abstract words or learners specify abstract words in their own ways. Meanwhile, words like “suspicious” are not easy to understand from textual definition at all and may cause misunderstanding from students. Actually, students, when given written definition of a word, even easy with no new vocabulary items, they have the tendency to read and translate word by word to understand 17 it. If asked what the word means, they read the definition or just repeat it. However, when shown pictures, they can call out the words; and if the student unfamiliar with them, they use their mother tongue to name the pictures. One reason that makes this application less popular than the others is the need for further explanation. As abstract words are hard to describe in nature, pictures just help a little in forming the visual image in students‟ minds, but again, still a little bit vague in some cases. That‟s why teachers often accompany these pictures with further oral or written definition to specify the words. * Pictures are used to teach grammar. Grammar is an indispensable part of teaching speaking in this English center. As required by the textbooks for in-house use, teachers have to teach vocabulary and grammar issues that later assist speaking topics in the lesson. Pictorial illustrations are also commonly used to support learning involving larger verbal units which contain other parts of speech in addition to nouns like verbs, adjectives, prepositions… A common application of this type of depiction involves the presentation of a sentence in which the preposition is blanked out and the student is required to produce or choose the correct preposition on the basis of information given in the illustration. This type of exercise relies on the fact that a number of prepositions could be used to complete the sentence on its own in a semantically and syntactically acceptable manner. An extract lesson plan for unit 6, “describing a place,” for a foundation academic English class in the English center can be used as an example. In this lesson plan, the students learn concepts of prepositions like “in, on, under” by looking at the positions between the ball and the box. They understand “in” which means the box contains the ball, “on” which means the ball sits on the upper horizontal surface of the box, and “under” means the box lies above the ball. In doing so, they can “transfer” the memory to positions of other things like “books, cat, dog” in the quiz and fill in the blanks with the correct prepositions. Another application of pictures is to teach verb tenses. Students can understand the nature and differences among tenses and remember them quickly with pictures representing both time and action. The lesson plan for unit 3, “Events in life,” for a Pre- TOELF iBT class may be used as a lead-in or a practice when teaching grammar. The pictures symbolizing important events in a person‟s life remind students of time – past,