The use of visuals in the classroom improves EAL/D students’ understanding of curriculum content and aids English language learning.
The research of Pauline Gibbons and Jenny Hammond emphasises the strategic use of visuals as part of a high challenge/high support learning program for EAL/D students.
Visual support can frontload students with background knowledge and assist EAL/D learners in understanding key ideas, unfamiliar vocabulary and curriculum concepts.
So how can we best use visuals to support EAL/D learners in a high challenge/high support learning environment?
There is an enormous range of visuals that can be used to support EAL/D learners. Key examples include:
images and whiteboard use
concrete materials
annotations and text layout
videos
Images are a quick way to support EAL/D learners’ understanding of vocabulary and concepts. Vocabulary can be developed through scribing key words and concepts onto the board during a discussion, and reinforcing these with simple drawings or images where appropriate. This links the oral and written forms of targeted terms, and EAL/D students can use it as a reference point, decreasing their cognitive load.
Concrete materials build experiential knowledge of the topic. Students could be given physical cubes, cylinders and other prisms, for example. They could then identify examples of these in the room, or in a picture before constructing their own 3D shapes.
Colour coding and annotations help EAL/D learners understand the key vocabulary and ideas in texts, as well as how text structure contributes to meaning. Spacing and chunking text where possible likewise draws focus to targeted ideas, visually supporting EAL/D learners and decreasing cognitive load.
Annotating and enhancing text layout facilitates understanding by connecting visual and written information.
The use of video can also assist EAL/D learners to understand curriculum concepts. Building the field with key vocabulary, giving the students a summary prior to viewing, stopping to discuss ideas and language during the viewing, and an after-viewing cloze are some strategies to support the use of video as an effective teaching strategy.
Teachers can also easily create short videos for their classes using their phones. These can be very beneficial for EAL/D students to consolidate understanding and refer back to as needed.
Targeted and frequent use of visuals provides significant support for EAL/D learners, building background and vocabulary knowledge while providing message abundancy.
The significant use of visuals forms part of a high support model that enables high-challenge teaching and learning for EAL/D learners across the curriculum.