This book is intended for English language teachers who would like to reap the benefits that the visual arts provide, but are unsure of where or how to begin. By providing language objectives matched with art ideas and guidelines, this book seeks to use the arts as a tool to build and strengthen English reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills and develop the confidence students need to take risks and explore within a new language. Designed to supplement regular coursework, the purpose of this book is not to provide art lessons, but rather to provide ideas of how to incorporate the arts into the language classroom to make English accessible and understandable to students. This book is ideal for Access English Microscholarship Teachers, primary and secondary school EFL teachers worldwide, American Spaces, English language tutors, and English Teaching Assistants (Fulbright).
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The possibilities for drawing activities with English language learners are endless. Drawing can be done with very few materials and can be used to enhance a wide range of classroom topics, themes, or subjects. Drawing can reinforce vocabulary, provide practice for grammatical structures, and can offer a creative impetus for meaningful language use in oral conversation practice.
This section contains six lesson plans focusing on the simple present, simple past, information questions, imperatives, and prepositions of location focusing on beginner to intermediate proficiency levels.
Collage is a great tactile alternative to drawing and painting. When paired with a language focus, collage can generate enthusiasm and motivation for language use, engage students with English, and aid in the understanding of the target structure, vocabulary, or grammatical forms. This section contains five lesson plans focusing on imperatives, present continuous, wh-questions, contrastive nouns, and future aspect using will focusing on high beginner to advanced proficiency levels.
Sculptures can be created from a variety of different materials. They can be big, small, abstract, or representational. Sculpture provides students with a great tactile alternative to drawing or painting. Kinesthetic learners particularly benefit from the process of working with their hands. Similar to all art media, sculpture can help students make associations and deepened connections between any topic and the target language, English. In addition, the sculptures students create in the language classroom can be used as a platform for conversation, comparison, and meaningful language use. This section contains six lesson plans focusing on yes/no questions, comparatives and superlatives, past and present progressive, and adverbs of frequency focusing on beginner to advanced proficiency levels.
Mixed media, an art technique that combines two or more art media, can provide students with many avenues for expression, exploration, and experimentation while using English. This section contains five lesson plans focusing on past and present comparisons, imperatives, descriptive adjectives, personal and possessive pronouns, and linking adverbials for high beginner to high intermediate proficiency levels.