Jade Blue

Jade Blue

Sundays with BELTA Webinar Series 2019 - 2020

Conceptualising Language: Learner Generated Visuals

Jade Blue

29 September 2019

Description:

‘We draw not to transcribe ideas from our heads but to generate them in search of greater understanding’ (Sousanis, 2015).

What colour is the second conditional? What shape is the future continuous? One of the most powerful ways to explore and evaluate language is to create visual representations. This session will offer a variety of practical classroom activities to help learners conceptualise language and aid comprehension, processing and retention.

We’ll discuss the benefits of using visuals as an aid to learning and consider how the act of drawing differs from merely looking at someone else’s image. Artistic skill is not a prerequisite for exploring the non-verbal background of language; there is no such thing as a bad drawing. The workshop will help participants understand this by demonstrating a simple drawing task. This will be followed by an explanation of a series of practical tasks which can be applied in the classroom, and finally, we’ll share other forms of learner-generated visuals, including mind maps, comic strips, and infographics.

‘Concepts can never be presented to me merely, they must be knitted into the structure of my being, and this can only be done through my own activity’ (Follett, 1930).

Jade's Bio:

Jade Blue is an English language teacher and trainer based in the UK. She teaches in the UK, Germany, and Japan, delivers workshops and seminars in Europe, and is a member of The Visual Arts Circle. Her primary research interests focus on learner-generated visuals in ELT and learner autonomy. Jade works as a research consultant and editor for Cambridge University Press and writes teacher training blog posts and training sessions for Macmillan Education. Jade also writes her own reflective ELT blog, has been published in Voices and English Teaching Professional, and has contributed to a Routledge publication on Reflective Practice in ELT.