Does the presentation with Powerpoint help language learning

<b> Forum for the discussion on how to use computers and technology in the ESL/EFL classroom </b>

Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2

vcautin
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:16 am

Post by vcautin » Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:36 pm

What about sending the ppt to your student's email one or two days before the class and spending time in class practicing the use of the vocabulary?
Another thing, you can try projecting only the pictures and writing down the terms on the board.
Definitely cover the lamp when you want your students to pay attention to what you are saying.
I personally do not think it's a good idea to have students copying, if anything, they should be taking notes.
Maybe you may teach your students some note taking strategies...
Another thing, do not use power point every class. You need to surprise your students by presenting the contents in different ways.
Yesterday I watched a video from the IATEFL online conference about "effective intercultural presentations" I think, it was really good. You may get some ideas from there.
Good luck!!!!
http://violetacautin.blogspot.com
http://eh050.blogspot.com

Any other question, suggestion or corrections pm me please!! :lol:

Yu-Ping Liao
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:14 am

this benefits their future job performance

Post by Yu-Ping Liao » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:11 pm

Using PowerPoint to assist presenters' presentation is common for students. Also, this could be a good start for students in order to succeed in their future jobs becuase they may have many opportunties to do presentations in their fields.

Therefore, as being teachers, what we need to help students are more than language learning from doing PowerPoint. Things, such as visual aids and stratagies for a successful presentation can be taught at the same time.

itingting
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 5:20 am

Post by itingting » Wed May 30, 2007 2:10 am

I am a senior student in university and major in English Education. In September, I will have my education practise and by that time I will use it .Recently we have learned how to use powerpoint properly. After reading those teachers' experiences and comments, I have learned a lot and they will help me in my future teaching. Thanks a lot!

kisi
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:31 pm
Location: China
Contact:

Using PowerPoint Presentations in ESL Classrooms

Post by kisi » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:17 pm

What is PowerPoint?
Powerpoint presentations are excellent for teaching large ESL classes of students. Powerpoint helps concentration and guarantees effective learning if everything goes according to plan.PowerPoint is software bundled in MS office and used for creating presentations usually in the form of slideshows. Over the years Microsoft has been updating the software, each time making it even better. Your computer might already have PowerPoint installed.

Why use PowerPoint presentations in ESL Classrooms?

My experience

Teaching English or any other language especially to large classes of kindergarten, primary schools and absolute beginner students can prove to be a nightmare at times. As a teacher of large classes especially, I found the use of PowerPoint presentations a great aid in my teaching (by large classes I mean classes of 40-80 students). In China where I teach, large classes are not uncommon.)
So how do you teach a class of 50-60 students staring at you, hungry for knowledge?
Luckily, most classrooms in China are well equipped with overhead projectors and in some cases they have school computer networks and classrooms P.A Systems.
Being a novice in using the computer, I always did not know how to get started. However, when I eventually began using MS PowerPoint to create classroom presentations, I soon realized the similarities it shares with MS word, which I was vaguely familiar with at the time. In a few weeks of using PowerPoint presentations, I was amazed by the results. All of a sudden my students could concentrate long enough for me to drive home new language points. With new language points well into their brains, classroom games followed with ease. This was when I understood why some of my brilliant games had failed in the past.
At the end of the semester, my class of 50 students all passed their English exams, with 10 students scoring 100% in the final test and the least score being a 66% pass. Note that test papers of final exams in most schools in China are usually corrected by a teacher who does not know the students. Not surprisingly my class’ English test average surprised the other Chinese teachers.
It would not be an overstatement to say that if well planned, PowerPoint presentations can take away 50-70% of the burden of presenting new vocabulary to large classes.

So what about small classes? Needless to say that most often it is easier to teach smaller language classes than large ones. I have only focused on large classes because that is the area where using PowerPoint has solved a great deal of problems for teachers. Well, let me sum it up this way. If PowerPoint presentations are great for large classes, then they make teaching smaller classes seem too easy.

How can I obtain PowerPoint presentations?

If you are worried that your computer skills are not yet ripe for you to make great presentations, then try downloading ready-made PowerPoint lessons which you can just modify and use. These are among the best presentations:
- [url]http://www.esl-galaxy.com/powerpoint.htm[/url] (free sample downloads of powerpoint with excellent audio and animation)
- [url]http://www.englishmedialab.com [/url](powerpoint video slides for self-tutoring)
- www.english-4kids.com/powerpoint.html (sample downloads teachers)
- www.download-esl.com/ppt.html

PowerPoint that talks? Video Slides from Powerpoint

Although this can be time-consuming, you can convert PowerPoint presentations to videos. One website which has done great work in this area is my www.englishmedialab.com. There are over sixty PowerPoint video lessons, with pictures and sounds well done with the student in mind. Thousands of visitors use this website to study using a self-access method.
There are also ESL lessons for Ipod users created using converted PowerPoint here: www.download-esl.com/videos.htmlThis website www.english-4kids.com specifically for teachers of kids and young learners also has a good number of ESL Video slides and free downloads for teachers. There are PowerPoint presentations that talk on this site, opening a new perspective on teaching with computer-assisted technology. With these resources, my students always seem one step ahead of other classes of their level.

Problems involved with using PowerPoint lesson plans

PowerPoint presentation for teaching large classes relies heavily on projectors which can be quite expensive to acquire. When schools manage to spend a fortune on these gadgets, there isn’t always a guarantee they will work round the clock. Hardware failure is not an uncommon problem in the world of technology.
You might have planned that demo lesson of yours all around PowerPoint and it is that day that something goes wrong with the projector. Maybe the teacher whose lessons just ended set the projector differently. You may need to reset things to suit your lesson. You can’t do this without wasting some time. Even your little flash drive might not work properly.
The solution is always to carry a back up in the form of a non-PowerPoint lesson plan or a device. Usually this would be the same lesson plan without PowerPoint.Remember you can print your presentations and easily turn them into flashcards.
Don’t always rely on PowerPoint presentations for lesson planning. Use PowerPoint and other methods interchangeably. Check hardware prior to your lesson.
Written by
Futonge Kisito
Webmaster/TEFL teacher/trainer
www.englishmedialab.com
www.english-4kids.com
www.esl-galaxy.com
www.download-esl.com

yanyin
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:45 am

Post by yanyin » Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:09 am

I think that powerpoint is a tool for us to teach english. If we use them in a correctly and propriately. It can help us in our class. for example, if the topic is about culture.we can show the students some pictures and let the enjoy some music about the country. It is easy for the students to sense the culture. Also we don't depand on the powerpoint ,we have to spare some time for the studnets to think and to study. Or the class will because a show of powerpoint.

Wanyu
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:06 am

Re: Using PowerPoint Presentations in ESL Classrooms

Post by Wanyu » Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:06 pm

kisi wrote:
What is PowerPoint?
Powerpoint presentations are excellent for teaching large ESL classes of students. Powerpoint helps concentration and guarantees effective learning if everything goes according to plan.PowerPoint is software bundled in MS office and used for creating presentations usually in the form of slideshows. Over the years Microsoft has been updating the software, each time making it even better. Your computer might already have PowerPoint installed.

Why use PowerPoint presentations in ESL Classrooms?

My experience

Teaching English or any other language especially to large classes of kindergarten, primary schools and absolute beginner students can prove to be a nightmare at times. As a teacher of large classes especially, I found the use of PowerPoint presentations a great aid in my teaching (by large classes I mean classes of 40-80 students). In China where I teach, large classes are not uncommon.)
So how do you teach a class of 50-60 students staring at you, hungry for knowledge?
Hi there,
I've seen two of posts from you, one here and another similar one in other forum about PowerPoint in EFL classroom. I am appreciated that you shared your experience with us. But I have some questions that would give me more clear ideas to use PowerPoint in teaching English.

First, can you tell me how long do you usaually use PowerPoint in a period of class? for the whole class time or 15 ~ 25 mins as example? (How long does your class time take place?)

What do you usually use PowerPoint to teach for? Which language points?
Teach grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, or reading?

Where do you teach? Which sector?

Can you share your lesson plan with us as a example to clearly illustrate how you use PowerPoint to faciliate your teaching?

For me, I've been teaching English both as foreign language and academic subject in a secondary school in Taiwan. English we teach in Taiwan is a national cirrculum and test-preparation basis, so that means we use tailored English textbooks of English which based on the national cirrculum. Government highly encourages secondary teachers of any subjects to integrate IT to the teaching as well. The class size is similiar to yours, there are at least 40 to 55 students in one class. The screen is fixed in front of the classroom, projectors are available upon request from the school resource centre.
However, most of teachers around me and in my school are reluctant to use PowerPoint as a teaching tool. They think it's time-consuming, they don't know how and when to start/ use even though publishers do often supply different kinds of PowerPoint documents as teaching resources for free use.

So, can you share with us more specific how you use it?

Any opinions are highly welcomed. I indeed hope to learn more about how other fellows use PowerPoint to teach English, especially you are the one share the similar teaching context( national cirrculum and test-preparation based) with me.

All the best,

Wanyu
Last edited by Wanyu on Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wanyu
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:06 am

In national cirrculum + test prepartion basis how to use PP?

Post by Wanyu » Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:10 pm

Hi there,
I've seen two of posts from you, one here and another similar one in other forum about PowerPoint in EFL classroom. I am appreciated that you shared your experience with us. But I have some questions that would give me more clear ideas to use PowerPoint in teaching English.

First, can you tell me how long do you usaually use PowerPoint in a period of class? for the whole class time or 15 ~ 25 mins as example? (How long does your class time take place?)

What do you usually use PowerPoint to teach for? Which language points?
Teach grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, or reading?

Where do you teach? Which sector?

Can you share your lesson plan with us as a example to clearly illustrate how you use PowerPoint to faciliate your teaching?

For me, I've been teaching English both as foreign language and academic subject in a secondary school in Taiwan. English we teach in Taiwan is a national cirrculum and test-preparation basis, so that means we use tailored English textbooks of English which based on the national cirrculum. Government highly encourages secondary teachers of any subjects to integrate IT to the teaching as well. The class size is similiar to yours, there are at least 40 to 55 students in one class. The screen is fixed in front of the classroom, projectors are available upon request from the school resource centre.
However, most of teachers around me and in my school are reluctant to use PowerPoint as a teaching tool. They think it's time-consuming, they don't know how and when to start/ use even though publishers do often supply different kinds of PowerPoint documents as teaching resources for free use.

So, can you share with us more specific how you use it?

Any opinions are highly welcomed. I indeed hope to learn more about how other fellows use PowerPoint to teach English, especially you are the one share the similar teaching context( national cirrculum and test-preparation based) with me.

All the best,

Wanyu

abimosk
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:30 pm

Post by abimosk » Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:57 am

Anything that changes a lesson from the norm will create excitement and generate response from students. If the only method you are using to teach vocabulary is with a PowerPoint presentation, I don't see how it differs from traditional blackboard lessons. Variety is the spice of education. One of the benefits of PowerPoint is that you can, simultaneously, show how a word is spelled, show a picture of that word and allow yourstudents to hear the proper pronunciation of the word. The fact that all of this is prepared before the class frees you up to answer more questions that might arise because you will be tied to the blackboard.

I think PP is a great way to learn vocabulary, but it can't be overused or else it loses its edge.

Abi

Wanyu
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:06 am

Besides teaching vocab, What PPT can do for?

Post by Wanyu » Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:10 pm

Hey there, I do agree with you, PPT cannot take place the role of blackboard in the classroom. But PPT cannot just be used to teach vocabulary but also used to teach writing, speaking, ie. storytelling, listening, or grammar, such as sentence structures, patterns, compound sentences like relative clause as example. With its feature of time delaying and flashing, though there are still some constrains, one can still do a lot to teach English as EFL/ESL. But my point is that what worries a teacher of English to use PPT to give a PPT-aided English lesson, in the national curriculum in particular? I would indeed like to learn more about teachers who have similiar teaching context as I have (working in a fixed national curriculum and using the textbooks designed by the national curriculum guidelines).

Any comments are absolutely welcomed.

Best,

Wanyu

Post Reply