The Importance of Using Posters in the Language Classroom

The Importance of Using Posters in the Language Classroom 

   Are you a teacher or a student? Are you both? Have you ever wondered what tool you can use in order to teach or learn better? Well, let us tell you something: Posters are your answer. According to the popular website TeachStarter, Educational posters are an excellent source for students to read and learn from. Because posters should be appealing to the eye, motivate and inspire students to learn, effectively illustrate a concept or skill and give the teacher guidance to teach, they are an effective teaching and learning aid. Posters are used to teach and learn many subjects such as math, science, etc. and when talking about teaching and learning another language, they are not left behind. Here are some reasons why you should use them. 

    Learning another language is a process that requires a lot of time and constant practice. By using posters you can teach or learn vocabulary, grammar, writing, reading, pronunciation, etc. because they can have any kind of information. For example, if you are a teacher teaching the parts of the body, the present progressive tense, the format of writing an essay, or any reading strategy, why don’t you place a poster in the classroom that illustrates that information so students can look at it any time they want in order to remember it?. By doing this, they will learn and recall the information better.  This is because we humans are visual creatures. According to the Social Science Research Network, 65 percent of us are visual learners. This means that most of us process information based on what we see.

    Another reason to use posters in the language classroom is that they increase motivation. Ruth Herman Wells, author of The Best Answers for the Worst Kid Problems, say that teachers   tend to forget that young people may spend hours each day just staring at what surrounds them. If you surround them with nothing, they may get nothing, she says. Most students think about learning or studying as something boring. Also, they usually think the classroom is a very boring place. By placing some creative posters around the classroom, students will feel more motivated. The classroom will no more look as a plain four-wall place but as a very fun place where the students go to learn. As we said before, learning another language requires constant practice. With posters, teachers can create games that motivate students to participate actively making them improve their language skills.

   Furthermore, posters facilitate team work which leads to the improvement of oral communication skills, according to Professional Learning Board website. In the classroom, teachers are not necessarily the ones creating the posters. They can ask students to make them giving students the opportunity to express in the language they are learning. When making a poster, students need to speak in order to come up with creative ideas to design the poster. They also need to share the information they will place on it.  Also, since they are talking among them and not to the teacher, they feel more comfortable which help them communicate more naturally.

    As you see, using posters in the language classroom is very important. If you as a teacher or as a student, are having any problem teaching or learning any specific subject, you can try to solve it by using posters. Just give them a try! Make of your classroom a fun gallery of art for learning a language.