La enseñanza del inglés en la era de la imagen

Lesson 1: The world in images

 “A picture is worth a thousand words"

Frederick R. Barnard 

Welcome everyone!
We are about to start our third module, but before doing this, we invite you to get to know each
other and introduce ourselves. Please, follow this link and take part in our forum.

Let’s introduce ourselves!!

Welcome to this forum! The main idea of this activity is to introduce ourselves and share
our expectations about this module.

Let’s write something about you, and upload an image that represents your expectations
for this course. We, as authors of this course, will do the same:

Hi everyone! My name is Cecilia Belén Gonzalez, I have been an EFL teacher for more than
20 years. I have experience teaching children, teenagers, and adults at private and public
institutions of secondary and superior levels. I am currently interested in developing and
applying new strategies and resources to help students develop competencies to
participate in the world they are living in. I’m happy to have the opportunity to share with
all of you this space of growth and debate. I hope you enjoy the proposal and have the
opportunity to apply everything we share with you in your classes.

Hello, everyone! I’m Nora Lía Cortés, but people call me Noralí. I’ve been an English
teacher for almost 30 years now and I love teaching teenagers and teacher-trainees. I
teach teenagers in a high-school and I also teach Language and Methodology at an English
teacher-training college.

I’m excited and eager to start this course since I’m anxious to get to know other committed
colleagues and share knowledge and experiences in relation to the students we encounter

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 in our classrooms today, students who are extremely different from the students we once
were. I hope we all have a great experience together.

As you have read, this module is called La enseñanza del inglés en la era de la imagen and we are
going to learn about the importance of the image in English classes and more creative ways to
introduce them and work with them.

By the end of this module you will be able to:

● Know about image makers and their functions.

● Develop basic activities to mediate images in the classroom.

● Insert images properly in each step of the lesson.

● Value different subjectivities in the classroom through the correct use of image makers.

The image in the 21st century

It is widely known that people generate concepts through different senses. You may have noticed
that in the current times the visual sense is the one that is preferred for adolescents to transmit and
acquire different ideas. The popularity gained by social media put images in the spotlight, giving
them the responsibility of expressing feelings, ideas and conveying messages. Videos, pictures, and

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emojis, among others, are the way most people convey meaning. We are used to sharing videos
with recipes, healthy life tips, songs, and even fashion advice. Our adolescents are constantly
sharing their everyday life through the media. There is a vast range of streaming platforms from
which we can choose any kind of TV programmes, movies, or documentaries to watch whenever we
want. Young people talk about what they see or what they are going to see in the media, they
belong to communities like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest in which they create
and consume visual meaning. Considering that what surrounds us may motivate our students in the
classroom, we decide to share with you the relevant concepts or ideas connected to images that
may help you to innovate in your classes.

Visual Literacy
We perceive the world through our five senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste), but not very
frequently we think about the function of each of them at the moment of receiving information. In
certain contexts taste is more important than hearing, in some others touch is more important than
taste, but in most cases our sight is involved. Much of the time we are perceiving the world through
our sight, even involuntarily, and that is why becoming aware of this act may guarantee clear
communication. Visual literacy is a term that depicts the deliberate intention of communicating
through images.

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To understand this concept we invite you to watch a video. Here you will discover the relevance of
analysing and developing visual literacy in our students. decoding and encoding messages through
images.

Before watching the video, we invite you to think about these questions:

● Have you ever thought about the way we communicate using images?

● Is it common for you as a teacher to state your ideas with the help of images?

● Do you consider we should be more creative at the moment of working with images?

While you watch the video, please take notes on the following aspects:

● Connection between visual literacy and critical thinking.

● Relevance of visual literacy.

● Reasons for becoming visual literate.

Visual Literacy and Critical Thinking

https://youtu.be/2jR8zWqyHBY

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After watching the video, we invite you to reflect upon your classes and detect if you were aware of
the importance of visual literacy or if this idea is completely new to you.

Now it is time to go deeper on this topic…

Over the last decade, visual literacy has become a trending topic for teachers all over the world.
This term makes reference not only to the ability of reading and writing, but also to the ability of
creating images that convey meanings.

Historically, teachers have been using images as a way of supporting their teaching, but it is
inevitable to think of the way these elements have gained importance in our everyday life as well as
on the consequence their role plays in the classroom.

The core aspect to be analysed in this class, is the way images have been included and how this has
changed, through the last years, to meet nowadays students’ necessities. We all know that,
traditionally, the images that books contain are part of teachers’ routine to arise motivation in
students, but are there other sources to take advantage from? Today’s world is surrounded by all
kinds of visual inputs (photographs, videos, memes, flashcards, films, etc.) that can be part of
classroom activities to make them more significant for 21st century students. However, this insertion
should not be done without a deep analysis of the material and a clear objective in mind. Teachers
should be conscious whether to use images as a supporting element or as a real component to
convey meaning.

Now, we invite you to read page 5 from The Image in English Language Teaching to
read what visual literacy is.

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 It is time for you to think and reflect about your classes:

● Have we included images in most of our classes?

● Have our students reacted the way we expected?
● Were the images taken from different sources? Which ones?
● Have we used images as a supporting element or to convey meaning?

All the previous questions may help you discover the key aspects in the way teachers should
organise their classes and activities. Pit Corder in 1966 stated a clear distinction between the ideas
of talking about images and talking with images and this was the starting point to see them as
mere resources or as meaning creators.

The whole system of education should aim at developing in the students the capacity to interpret
and communicate by using images. This ability can be reached by stating clear terms such as
“viewing” and “representing”. 

Now, we invite you to read pages 6 and 7 from The Image in English Language
Teaching to understand these two concepts.

  

Different images, different activities

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When speaking about images we should consider still images as well as moving images, videos are
just as important as any other kind of images to be used in the classroom. These moving images
contain extra and extremely valuable information to reinforce what has been said, these non-verbal
elements such as gestures, facial expressions, or movements can add specific or additional meaning
different from the still images. The use of videos should consider exploring what they offer to the
fullest considering the three basic stages (pre, while, and post watching) and leading the activities
so as to avoid the mere exposition of students to the material. Before watching, prediction is a
major factor, it can create expectations and engage the viewers to participate in the following steps.
This step is as important as the others, we can use still images to predict or talk about certain
aspects that may appear on the video later. All the contributions from our students should be
welcome and appreciated so as to create a safe atmosphere to continue participating during the
rest of the lesson. After the first time the video is shown, confirming expectations is what helps our
students to feel motivated since they find the purpose of the previous activity, and they are able to
discover the main aim of the video. If we underestimate this step, our students may feel that some
of the activities proposed do not have a specific purpose, so whenever we face our students with a
new proposal we have to state clearly the aim and the connection of this to the rest of the lesson.
Finally, comprehension activities will help to go over the main aspect of what was shown and to
provide tools to keep on working. Be sure you provide comprehension activities that really become
a challenge for the students, that means they are not expected to be obvious to answer, otherwise
instead of making them feel confident about the topic, they may feel undervalued. Our students'
active participation in classes implies activities in which they create, interact and manipulate the
images to interact with others and communicate, but these activities should always be guided by
the teacher in the classroom in order to avoid losing focus.

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 For example once they have watched the video, you can use the information
provided to work with different activities like:

● Use the information provided on the video to create a similar situation in

your life. After deciding on the material (structures, language, and
vocabulary) to be included, record your own video. Share the video with your
mates and analyse possible variables (new endings, other characters, etc.)

● Choose one scene from the video and describe it fully. Act it out and take a
picture of it so as to provide others students to retell what they see on it.

● Freeze the last scene on the video and let your students some minutes to
imagine a possible ending. Ask the students to act it out and record it. After
that, watch the ending of the video and compare the two endings.

Even though the majority of coursebooks still use a wide percentage of their images for support or
decoration, the art of using images is mainly the use of them to trigger discussions, stimulate ideas
and establish the topic to be learned. If you pay attention, most coursebooks provide a large image
at the beginning of each unit, this can be used at any point of the lesson in which we should support
what is being said. In order to use them properly, we should not forget that they are helpers at the
moment of creating communication situations in the classroom. It is essential to prepare in advance
the questions or activities to obtain a major benefit from the pictures. It is advisable to focus on
different aspects like the communicative function we aim at developing at that moment, the
vocabulary we are intending to present, the new grammatical form, etc.

Multiliteracies pedagogy
For years, the written word that books contained was the only way of transmitting knowledge in
education. As time has gone by and technology has evolved, this idea has started changing.
Technological improvements such as the movie industry or, more recently, the media have provided
the educational environment the possibility of taking advantage of different resources. By doing
this, we can offer our students the possibility of receiving inputs in a variety of ways that may cater
for multiple intelligences.

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The term multiliteracy makes reference to this idea of including different kinds of stimuli such as
images, movement, sounds among others to create and convey meaning. Bearing in mind all these
elements, is that we, as teachers, can reproduce a real life situation in our classrooms. If we present
our students with activities that challenge them to read the hidden message in the image we, will
help them to be critical, analytical and go beyond what is obvious. Apart from that, they will be able
to write or create new meanings from different kinds of images. The list of resources is enormous,
we can use Youtube, Netflix, Spotify, HBO+, Starplus, or even social media, among others, to include
images in the proposal. Do you dare to elaborate a list of ideas to have in hand at the moment of
planning your lessons? A good idea is to create a bank of activities that can be used in different
moments of the lesson and contain different kinds of images so, whenever you are running out of
ideas, you pay a look at it and use them effectively.

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 Some important tips at the moment of applying different resources in the classroom:

● Include visual inputs whenever you can, but bearing in mind that they need
to be worked properly and included in the correct moment with the correct
aim.

● Exploit images to the full. Create activities in which your students analyze the
images under different perspectives. Ask them questions so as to make them
think and connect what they see with real life.

● Spend some time before the activity to anticipate what is coming, ask your
students questions to help them predict the content of the proposal.

● During the activity, encourage your students to discover the real meaning of
the material presented.

● After the activities, do not forget to check they understand the purpose and
they can handle the topic to produce something on their own.

Images: An Invaluable Source of Meaningful Learning

As it has been discussed throughout this lesson, it is inevitable to see that the world has changed
and everything has evolved. Visual literacy is a crucial goal we should aim at if we want our 21st
century learners to communicate efficiently. It is our duty as teachers to generate situations in
which our students create and convey meaning the way they do in real life. Hard as it seems, using
images meaningfully might be difficult at the beginning. However, once we start using them,
effective communication becomes simple not only for the students, but also for the teachers.

As we will learn in our next lesson, still images are not the only resources that can be used to boost
visual literacy in our students. Videos represent a vast source of motivation, among other benefits,
to convey meaning through language, as well as images in motion do. Why don’t you go through
our next class and learn how you can make profit from this invaluable source?

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 Are you ready for the change? Are you willing to see the changes? We invite you to start
including some of the ideas proposed and get ready for the ones that are coming in next
lessons!

Activities

Let’s convey meaning through images

We invite you to participate in a collaborative Wall (Padlet) to show two different

segments of secondary school textbooks that contain images and to suggest activities in
which students are expected to use them to communicate. Please, contextualize the
activity by stating course, students’ age and objective of the activity.

This activity is compulsory and it will be available for two weeks for you to participate in it.

Reading Materials
Donaghy, K. & Xerri, D.l (2017) The Image in English Language Teaching. ELT COUNCIL.

References
Donaghy, K. & Xerri, D.l (2017) The Image in English Language Teaching. ELT COUNCIL.

Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). How to Teach English. Chapter 10. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Maggio, M. (2020). Enseñanza poderosa. Enriquecer la. Enseñanza. Buenos Aires: Paidos

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Robinson, K. (2018). "Enseñar es un arte". Entrevista en Ciclo "Aprendemos Juntos"
Valencia-Molina, T. y otros (2016). Competencias y estándares TIC desde la dimensión pedagógica:
una perspectiva desde los niveles de apropiación de las TIC en la práctica educativa docente.
Publicación de UNESCO y de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Call (Colombia).

Créditos 
Autoras: Cecilia Gonzalez y Nora Lía Cortés

Cómo citar este texto: 

Cortés, N. y Gonzalez, C. (2022). Clase Nro 1.: The World in Images. La enseñanza del inglés en la era de la
imagen. Buenos Aires: Ministerio de Educación de la Nación. 

Esta obra está bajo una licencia Creative Commons

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