The inclusion of presentations in the EFL classroom
One of the things a 21th-century EFL teacher has to be acquainted with is the inclusion of visual presentation in the English lessons. Why? Because they easily get the students' attention and they help teachers, in different ways, to innovate their repertoire of activities. Within the software world, teachers are able to choose from a big number of programmes that had been specifically developed to create visual presentations. Undoubtedly, it is up to you whether you can fully exploit them. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that teachers are well-acquainted and keep themselves up-to-date in the topic. Two of the most popular software that can greatly help teachers create presentations are Microsoft PowerPoint and Prezi. After having been checking them both, I can fully recommend them to be used in class. Personally, I think that the differences between them lies in the time available to develop a presentation. Prezi is more complicated, yet outstanding, as it requires a great amount of time to get used to its tools. Nevertheless, the final product is really eye-catching for both you and students! As regards PowerPoint, it is not difficult to get used to its using. The possible problem I found is that many regard its final outcomes as following a linear structuring. This is not the case as you can guide the presentation to your liking with certain tools that the programme proposes. The good thing of PP is that, sometimes, presentation can be 'changed' by students and that is where one can develop an activity that includes them. To sum up, in either of the choices, teachers count with fantastic presentation software to be included into the English lessons. Again, the choice depends on the amount of time you have and on the type of lesson and activities that you want your students to engage in. Here I post a Prezi Presentation we have developed together with two of my classmates. The imaginary topic was 'Night Out'. This an example of how teachers can create a 'guidance' presentation that would help students warm-up with the new topic.
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| Prezi Presentation |
I think that Prezi and PowerPoint Presentations have helped us a lot in our teaching!!!! As you say in this post, they easily get the students' attention and they help us to innovate in our repertoire of activities. That might be one of the most important benefits of using these tools. But as I was reflecting these days and planning some tasks and activities for my students, I came to the conclusion that they are Digital Natives, so why can't they also use Prezi and PowerPoint Presentations as a way of practising what they have been learning?
ReplyDeleteSo, thanks for sharing your presentation, it was really interesting!
Thumb up to Prezi and PowerPoint Presentations!!!
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ReplyDeleteGreat reflections Renzo! I really enjoyed reading your post because your words are so crystal clear that it is very easy for me to follow your ideas. I also liked your Prezi presentation. It was an enthralling task which, undoubtedly, will catch your “imaginary learners’ attention”. I read you mentioned using Power Point and Prezi presentations so as to include visual resources in the classroom to involve and catch students’ attention. I just want to add that this not only benefits visual learners, but also auditory ones since we can also include videos and audio files! Therefore, using presentations in the EFL classroom also caters for various types of learning styles!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what Belen said about using presentations for number classroom objectives. I think teachers can use them for introducing a new topic in their initial teaching, or for students to practice or create their own tasks. This is why Prezi and Power Point presentations are considered one of the most effective pedagogical tools to learn a foreign language.
Really valuable comments, guys! I share your opinions that these kinds of software presentations appeals to different learners´ styles and also engage them, facilitating their learning process.
ReplyDeleteMoroever, You have a wonderful way simplifying so complex terms, Renzo! Your post really helped me to clarify certain concepts and to learn that Prezi and PowerPoint presentations are called "Presentation Softwares." Apart from that, I want to publicly thank you for teaching and helping me to use these software presentations!! You are a genious!! :)