Jane Arnold is Professor of Language Teaching Methodology at the University of Seville. Among her publications are Affect in Language Learning (CUP), Meaningful Action, Earl Stevick’s Influence on Language Teaching (CUP) and Imagine That! Mental Imagery in the EFL Classroom (Helbling Languages). Jane will be speaking about the use of mental imagery in the language classroom at The Image Conference in Munich on Saturday 5th December. Here Jane answers The Image Conference Questionnaire.
Useful film / video / image / game -related teaching tool (choose one or two options):
ELTpics for still images and YouTube for moving images.
Why are you interested in using film / video / images / games in your classes?
All of these help to make the classroom more alive for my students but I am especially interested in using mental images. These “inner” resources can contribute to more personal meaning and motivation and thus more effective language learning. More than a century ago John Dewey affirmed that “The image is the great instrument of instruction” and this is still true today even when its effectiveness can be enhanced by using imagery together with film / video / images / games.
What should your audience expect to learn?
We’ll see why mental imagery is so important for learning, including reasons from neuroscience, and we’ll explore many ways that the use of mental images can help our learners learn the language more effectively.
What are three words that sum up your session?
Visual, creative, practical