Halfway into the first month of the new year. Hope it’s been happy enough. As for me, I have been exploring Amadine, an art app for doodling around on my iPad, and reading e-books. (Love the George Cross mystery series by Tim Sullivan.) I rarely read a paperback anymore, as that world is fading away. For better or worse, this is the digital age.
It’s for the better as far as teaching vocabulary goes, because with the internet, pictures are more readily available than ever before, greatly expanding the teacher’s toolbox. Never before has it been so easy to find the perfect picture to convey a concept and build vocabulary. It takes only seconds to search! Granted, some images in cyberspace are AI slop, but that can be interesting, too, and we can use AI-based programs to modify any image as needed for the lesson.
Pictures are a great word-learning resource for all students. This also applies to learning a second language (posted here by Cárdenas-Hagan). Keep in mind, pictures are not only for children. Studies with older students show that learning, memory, and attention/ interest are boosted by illustrations, with some caveats (James & Son, 2020; Khafidhoh & Carolina, 2019).
There are many ways to use pictures for teaching vocabulary. Learners can sort pictures, find their own illustrations to match a given prompt, generate images with Ai apps, create their own illustrations “ from scratch” in layers, or generate a picture dictionary. Create images with crayons, even! Results of a recent study suggest that drawing images that convey emotional words such as despair, relief, and frustration might promote memory of such abstract words (Tran & Fernandes, 2023). Is there a learning difference when drawing pictures by hand versus drawing on the computer, with an art program?
This mountain goat caught my eye. I purchased this photograph at a Big Sky art fair from a local artist (Brooke Kapalka at K3 Photography). The image is intriguing and could illustrate various concepts: A new beginning for this frolicsome fellow — maybe a happy new year. Off with the old, on with the new. It looks like the fur is about to fly. Nothing like a picture to teach concepts. One relevant word is molting, defined as shedding fur, feathers, scales, or skin. A kind of transformation, almost a metamorphosis. Other words come to mind also: frolic, leap, gambol. More scientifically, mammal, bovidae, nanny goat, billy goat, ruminant. Chew on that.
References:
Bates, J. & Son, J. (2020). English vocabulary learning with simplified pictures. TESL-EJ, 24(3), 1-20. https://tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume24/ej95/ej95a12/
Khafidhoh, K., & Carolina, A. (2019). Using pictures for teaching vocabulary to the junior high school students. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 2(1), 32–38.
Tran, S. H. N., & Fernandes, M. A. (2023). Drawing enhances memory for emotional words. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 77(4), 296–307. https://doi.org/10.1037/cep0000319
