Using visual pedagogy to help adult immigrant in Australia

【Abstract】This essay aims to analyze one Australia English class that is designed to aged immigrate people. The target learners are aged people and this lesson aims to help learners engaged into Australia society. At the beginning， four investigators of how to teach effectively will be analyzed. Then the class will be elaborated and explained.

【Key words】immigration； visual pedagogy； Non-verbal aspect； EAL immigrant adult program； dual coding theory； photo-novel approach； comic strips/cartoon； advertisement； calendars and informational picture books

【作者簡介】杜红亚，商丘师范学院外语学院。

Introduction

As the development of globalization， an increasing number of people immigrate to other language speaking countries due to different reasons. After people immigrate because they are the first one in their family move to the new country， they will be called “first generation immigrant” in this essay. Most of them are willing to take their parents or partner to immigrate to the new countries with them. This is understandable， whereas， the language obstacle occurs in their parents or partner （mostly） after they move to the new countries. Considering the second-generation immigrant， whose are the offspring of the first generation immigrants， is another issue， this article will exclude them. However， most of the first generation immigrants will meet some problems of their parents or partners. Learning the language not only can increase the economy but also can contribute the society （Soto Huerta and Pérez， 2014）. This essay aims to explore the how to use visual pedagogy to help adult immigrant learn English in Australia. The visual pedagogy includes photo-novel， comic strips/cartoon， advertisement， calendars and informational picture books.

Literature review

The first article is that Nimmon （2007） aims to use photo-novels to help immigrants and using photo-novels as a tool to educate immigrants. Photo-novels resemble like a comic books except they can tell readers something more specific. Moreover， photo-novel gives the readers the opportunities to create their own photo-novels. Thus， using photo-novel is more creative and making learners engage with the learning than traditional approach. Learners are not considered as a “message receiver” but a “creator and receiver” in photo-novels approach. Through the research， Nimmon （2007） used a few steps to ask immigrants （they are acting as students/ learners） accomplish this photo-novel. The first step is that using possible methods to make sure students understand the content. The second step is that asking students to analyze the data under teachers observation. The third step is that students create their own characters and script. The last step is that teacher judge students work and make comments. One additional profit of photo-novel is that the whole group unit together to complete the photo-novel increases the relationships among students. Students need to partake in the work and be familiar with others. One problem of some immigrants cannot involve in the new country or culture due to students lack of social activities. Accomplish the photo-novel in-group can do some benefit of this problem. However， instead of having a job， they have to stay home and take care of their home， due to these students followed their children or partner immigrant to other country and some of them even cannot speak the new countrys language. It is extremely hard to make them feel confidence or important. Implementing the photo-novel project in-group will increase their self-esteem and confidence. Moreover， immigrants will have more positive consciousness through photo-novel project. In conclusion， Nimmon （2007） suggested more funds need to be used on helping immigrant， whose are speaking English as second language， to improve their new language proficiency levels. Through the investigation， asking students to do group work of making photo-novels can be used as an assignment after class.

The second article named “Picture your students talking： using pictures in the language classroom” will be analyzed. According to Curtis and Bailey （2001）， there are three ways to represent pictures in language study， which is advertisement， calendars and cartoons respectively. Firstly， advertisement requires using catchy pictures or words to represent the main point. Therefore， the advertisement can make students having a wordplay activity in class so that students can be more familiar with various kinds of vocabularies. Some of the advertisements are extremely interesting so that it can increase the motivation of students study. Using advertisement as visual supporting to hold a debate is another pedagogy （Curtis and Bailey， 2001）. Furthermore， a role-play of sell products also can be used and the feedback of other students need to be collected. Secondly， students watch hanging calendars on the wall after a few days can have visual language input. Thirdly， cartoon can increase students motivation of learning language. The listening skills of students will have dramatically improvement by using cartoons. Then Curtis and Bailey （2001） give ten reasons of using picture to learn language. Firstly， picture gives students the opportunity to talk what they saw in the picture. Secondly， pictures give students more opportunity to analyze the topic they interested in. Thirdly， the visual supporting is provided through pictures. Fourthly， pictures are more convincible. Besides， pictures will not cost too much. Furthermore， pictures can be used in various schools， classes and levels. The other reason is its convenient feature. Pictures can be easily adapted by technology equipment either. And using picture in class increases the interest， motivation and critical thinking of students. At last， picture has less limitation. At end of the article， a few recommendations of making language-teaching pictures are given. However， these recommendations are useless for my research. The three ways to represent picture in language teaching are the main point need to be focused.

The third article is about Childrens informational picture books， it is written by Hadaway and Mundy （1999）. This article aims to find out the process of interpreting and shifting informational pictures to practice. At the beginning， the authors aim to figure out the best way to apply literature-based instruction into high school English language learning classroom. The authors selected whether as the topic of this unit after they considering the background information and possible themes students might interested. Firstly， students are required to brainstorm what will the book express through its name. Then students are expected using visual verbal connection to guess the meaning of the new vocabulary and using graphs as a tool to memorize meanings of new vocabulary. One useful technique， which is graphic organizer， is mentioned to detect the new vocabulary. It turns out that with the assistance of this technique， students are willing to using the new vocabulary more frequently and actively. The found of people have an unexplainable impulsion on cutting and pasting gives teacher a opportunity to encourage students using pictures or text to explain the whether. In this way， the informational books can be interpreted easily and students are become good at observation and analysis. Reading the information books aloud is another methods to help students understand the context of the unit. Students will discuss the text they read and turn it into practice. Then the information picture books will be used to explore different whether in four seasons. At last， the author assumed using informational books still could be improved. However， using informational picture books to accomplish literature-based instruction can be considered in three ways. Firstly， informational picture books used as a way to connect the boring textbook. Secondly， the selections materials used in informational picture books attract students attentions. Thirdly， in some occasion， the colorful and attractive pictures make students ignore other crucial information in the textbook. In this essay， the benefits of informational picture books are useful to my research， whereas， caution is required about the disadvantage of informational picture books.

The fourth article aims to evaluate the significant of apply comics strips to second language class in order to improve students reading skill. （Liu， 2004）. Moreover， Liu attend to explore to what extent of using visual pedagogy in reading comprehension text is acceptable. Liu gives the functions of effective visual pedagogy， which is representation， organization， interpretation， transformation and decoration respectively （Liu， 2004）. Liu claims that the dual coding theory gives a basic framework for different theories. According to Liu （2004）， dual coding theory is represented in two systems independently and interconnected. Two systems are imagery system （it processes non-verbal information） and verbal system （it processes linguistic information）. Moreover， dual coding theory illustrates the processes of bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up theory in reading includes the process of word encoding and meaning making. Top-down theory in reading provides a converse view of reading comprehension in relation to bottom-down theory. Top-down theory in reading is considered as an active process when interpreting the role of reading in high-order cognitive structure. Through the investigation of first language research， Liu （2004） find out using visual illustrating and text together can benefit students study the most. Through the investigation of second language research， using graphs in reading is obviously better than not using graph in reading comprehension study. Vocabulary and picture are two major ways in comic strip to express opinions. Moreover， there is another pedagogy is that requiring students using combine vocabulary and pictures to create comic strip should be recommended either. Then， Liu （2004） using a method to evaluate the significant of comic strip in reading and the result is shown at the end.

Pedagogy

In this section， the pedagogies will facilitate second language teaching to adult immigrants will be listed and evaluated. Firstly， picture is considered as effective visual pedagogy to teach language. There are three forms to apply pictures to teaching， which is role-play， cartoon and hanging up pictures respectively （Curtis and Bailey， 2001）. However， Nummins （2007） gives another way （phote-novel） to use picture in second language teaching class. Nummins （2007） believes asking students to do photo-novel in group will not only increases students self-esteem but also gives students more opportunities to communicate with other. Students need to totally engage in the group work and it can increase the learning effectiveness. Communicating with other students give more opportunity to practice listening and speaking skills. At the meantime， the storage of students vocabulary will also enlarge. However， using picture is not effectively enough. According to Liu （2004）， combine visual illustrating with text benefit students study the most. The dual coding theory is used as an explanation of how to combine visual illustrating with text to improve students second language reading proficiency level. Emphasizing on imagery system and verbal system makes dual coding theory different with other pedagogies. Using mental imagery and manipulating language acted as an important role when student learning second language. Non-verbal （the imagery system） aspect should be pay attention either due to interpreting the main point of text. What is more important， helping students to form mental images when students reading will increase students comprehensibility （Sadoski and Paivio， 2012）. Using imagery not only increases students motivation but also achieves reading competence as quickly as possible. Nevertheless， using imagery also be neglected by students. Imagery system and verbal system should be used in second language learning equally so that imagery system can be active maximize. Sadoski and Paivio （2012） give the way to implement theory to practice. Making students engage in expressing the point and content， brainstorm the topic and using metaphor to explain abstract and unfamiliar vocabularies are considered as the approach to product imagery and mental images in mind. Using the processes of bottom-up and top-down can contribute second language teaching further. The process of word encoding and meaning making in bottom-up process and a converse view of reading comprehension in relation to bottom-down theory provided by top-down process are more useful to improve students reading skill （Liu， 2004）.

Hadaway and Mundy （1999） illustrate the way of using informational picture books to apply literature-based instruction into high school English language learning classroom. According to Hadaway and Mundy （1999）， the merits are that informational picture books used as a way to connect the boring textbook and the selections materials used in informational picture books attract students attentions. However， students pay too many attentions on the colorful and attractive pictures so students may ignore other crucial information in the textbook.

Reflection and Evaluation

I attracted by this topic due to one class observation of EAL immigrant adult program， which holds in Swinburne University. Katrina Rojas， who is the teacher of this class and an English native speaker， introduced this language-teaching program first. Students in this class are around 65 years old and they come from different countries beyond Australia. The first language of students is various and most of them at the pre-level proficiency of English language. During my observation， I found the process of students acquiring English language is extremely difficult to them due to their ages. Their first language formed decades ago and have a significant influence on their study. For example， there have countable nouns and uncountable nouns in English， whereas， Chinese students cannot understand the differences between countable noun and uncountable noun owing to they do not have such differences in Chinese language. Moreover， shifting the singular noun to plural noun is extremely difficulty to students. However， when teacher using visual pedagogy， such as pictures， to explain the differences and the methods， students start to show comprehension. Asking students to do role-play activities showed on the picture contribute language teaching due to interesting pictures can increasing students motivation of language learning （Curtis and Bailey， 2001）.

Apply cartoons to teaching process can be another way to implement language teaching in this class. Cartoon is easily to comprehend by pre-level proficiency students. Moreover， cartoon can increasing listening and reading skills at the same time （Curtis and Bailey， 2001）. Instead of having financial problems， students attend this class based on the reasons of they desire to use English as a tool to seek social activities and increasing their self-esteem. Besides， some students age is too old to work again. Thus， students do not need to achieve high-level proficiency， such as understanding academic English. Furthermore， they are at pre-level proficiency. Using cartoon can satisfy their requirement and can meet their conditions.

There is another visual pedagogy neglected in this class. Hanging up some pictures on the wall will make student be familiar with the new vocabularies more quickly due to the hanging up picture could input language to students unconsciously （Curtis and Bailey， 2001）.

Besides， students still can engage with language learning after class. The photo-novel approach provided by Nimmon in 2007 can be used as assignment after class. Students can create their own photo-novel for different purposes. What is more， their creating photo-novel can help themselves or other people. For example， in Nimmons research （2007）， students create the photo-novel about healthy way to eat； students can show their photo-novel to whoever needs it.

Applying dual coding theory is another pedagogy. It requires combine imagery system and verbal system together. Imagery processes non-verbal information and verbal system processes linguistic information. Students using both language and pictures in their study can make their learning more effective.

Moreover， Harmer （1991） listed more visual pedagogies， such as real view teaching objectives， board card， Gattegno colorful stick and textbooks. Teacher could use blackboard， OHP， hanging up board and computer technology to represent the teaching activities. As the development of modern technology， more visual aids will be used in teaching languages. For instance， students can go to Internet to search the information they needed. However， teaching materials play a significant role of language study. Teachers should select useful reading materials either. The recommendation of Tomlinson （2012） is text- driven approach. Thus students mind can be activated to relate personal response when reading textbook.

Conclusion

In conclusion， I learned using different visual pedagogies to represent teaching activities. This essay aims to apply visual pedagogy to second language teaching. Photo-novel， comic strips/cartoon， advertisement， calendars and informational picture books are effective approach to represent the teaching activities and to increase students interest in second language learning. These visual pedagogies become popular throughout the world due to their features of more opportunities to express their opinions and to analyze the topic they interested， visual supporting， convincible to students cheaper， can be used in various schools， convenient to transfer， easily adapted by technology equipment， increasing the critical thinking of students and less limitation. The most valuable theory I learned is dual coding theory. Instructing dual coding approach could create imaginations and facilitate reading teaching. Reading can benefit the production of imagery and create mental images in mind. Moreover， it can help students using concrete vocabularies to explicate abstract words. Using multimedia to combine linguistic information with imagery information also can contribute language teaching. And dual coding theory can used to introduce background knowledge. The last one of dual coding theory is that using metaphorical vocabularies to make the topic more explicit. At the last， the two processes of bottom-up and up-down are important to second language teaching.

References：

[1]Curtis，A.，&Bailey;，K.M.（2001）.Picture Your Students Talking：Using Pictures in the Language Classroom.ESL Magazine，4（4），10-12.

[2]Hadaway，N.L.，&Mundy;，J.（1999）.Childrens informational picture books visit a secondary ESL classroom.Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy，464-475.

[3]Harmer，J.（1991）.The practice of English language teaching.London/New York.

[4]Liu，J.（2004）.Effects of comic strips on L2 learners reading comprehension.TESOL quarterly，38（2），225-243.

[5]Nimmon，L.E.（2007）.Within the eyes of the people：using a photonovel as a consciousness-raising health literacy tool with ESL-speaking immigrant women.Canadian Journal of Public Health/Revue Canadienne de Santee Publique，337-340.

[6]Sadoski，M.，& Paivio，A.（2012）.Imagery and text：A dual coding theory of reading and writing.Routledge.

[7]Soto Huerta，M.E.，&P;érez，B.（2014）.Second-language literacy， immigration，and globalization.International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism，（ahead-of-print），1-16.

[8]Tomlinson，B.（2012）.Materials development for language learning and teaching.Language Teaching，45（02），143-179.Materials development for language learning and teaching.Language Teaching， 45（02），143-1.