[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-490653-105":59,"doc-detail-490653-en":124},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":117,"head_meta":119,"extra_data":121,"updated_unix":123},105,"en","use-pictures-and-realia-use-collaborative-activities","Use pictures and realia - Use collaborative activities","","Practical guidance on teaching new vocabulary uses concrete visual support and structured learner interaction. It explains why pictures and realia (actual objects) can be more motivating than explanations alone, how they help learners remember both concrete and abstract meanings, and how ambiguity can be reduced with quick L1 translation. The text then sets principles for collaborative activities, emphasizing benefits only when clearly advantageous, distinguishing between pair/group information-gap tasks and other recall or idea-gathering activities, and offering workable classroom sequences and procedures such as pass-it-round and mingling.",{"@graph":69,"@context":116},[70,84,99],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":53,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/lifestyle/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/use-pictures-and-realia-use-collaborative-activities/490653/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"author":86,"headline":65,"publisher":89,"fileFormat":92,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":93,"datePublished":93,"encodingFormat":92,"isAccessibleForFree":94,"interactionStatistic":95},"DigitalDocument",{"name":87,"@type":88},"Emma Wilson","Person",{"url":74,"name":90,"@type":91},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-01",true,{"@type":96,"interactionType":97,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":98},"ViewAction",{"@type":100,"mainEntity":101},"FAQPage",[102,108,112],{"name":103,"@type":104,"acceptedAnswer":105},"Why are pictures and realia effective for teaching new vocabulary?","Question",{"text":106,"@type":107},"They create stronger impact and motivation than dry explanations or translations, and learners can more easily connect words to visible or tangible meaning. Realia can be especially effective when objects are easy to obtain.","Answer",{"name":109,"@type":104,"acceptedAnswer":110},"How can ambiguity from pictures be reduced?",{"text":111,"@type":107},"Pictures sometimes lead to multiple interpretations. Adding a quick L1 translation alongside the target-language word provides clarity while preserving impact.",{"name":113,"@type":104,"acceptedAnswer":114},"When should teachers use collaborative activities?",{"text":115,"@type":107},"Collaboration should not be used merely for its own sake. It should be chosen only when it is clearly beneficial to all participants, such as for information-gap tasks or activities that increase recall and idea generation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":118,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":90,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":120,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":122,"site_id":62},490653,1790841113,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":125},{"doc_id":122,"user_id":126,"nickname":87,"user_avatar":127,"doc_module":4,"category_id":52,"category_name":53,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":128,"file_id":129,"file_url":130,"file_type":131,"file_size":132,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":14,"language":133,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":134,"faqs":135,"seo_title":136,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":123,"read_time":81},3848291630094,"https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","28  Use pictures and realia  \nThe value of the use of pictures and realia (actual objects) to explain the meanings of new words lies mainly in the fact that such illustrations make more impact and are more motivating than dry explanations or translations.  \nPictures and realia are traditionally used a lot in classes of (beginner) young learners: partly because it is assumed that young learners respond better to pictures than do older ones, and partly because the vocabulary taught atthe elementary levels tends to be more concrete and easier to depict.  \nHowever, older learners also like and benefit from looking at pictures (otherwise, why would newspapers include illustrations?). And thereis some evidence that pictures can help learners retain the meanings of abstract, as well as concrete words: for example, a picture of someone looking frightened can help a learner remember the word for ‘fear’(seethe reference below) .  \nIn my experience, realia make more impact than pictures, so use them whenever you can. There is no good reason for a teacher to explain, for example, what an apple is by showing a picture of it, when it is fairly easy to get hold of the object itself. Teachers who have small children can borrow their toys to teach things like vehicles, animals and so on.  \nThe advantages of pictures and realia in providing interesting and motivating illustrations of the meanings of new vocabulary are undoubted. The only problem is that they are sometimes ambiguous: a picture of someone laughing to indicate ‘happy’ for example, might be interpreted as ‘smile’ or ‘laugh’ or even ‘face’. However, if you back it up with a quick L1 translation to accompany the target-language word, you will achieve both clarity and impact.  \nFarley, A. P., Ramonda, K. and Liu, X. (2012) .‘The concreteness effect and the bilingual lexicon: The impact of visual stimuli attachment on meaning recall of abstract L2 words.’Language Teaching Research, 16(4), 449–466.  \n32  \n 41  Use collaborative activities  \nCollaborative activities are ones where learners work together to get better results than they could have done on their own, and where there are opportunities for peer-teaching.  \nCollaboration is not, in my view, a value in itself: you should not ask students to work together just for the sake of the collaboration – only if it is clear that such work will be beneficial to all participants. If you ask learners to write a sentence in collaboration using a new word, for example, it is very likely that one of them will do all the work and the others will be relatively inactive; in such a case you will get far more participation – and learning – if they work individually.  \n‘Information gap’ tasks – where one participant needs to convey information to another – clearly have to be done in pairs or groups. Other than these, the main types of tasks appropriate for collaborative work are those where the task is based either on recall or on gathering ideas (brainstorming, for example) . A larger number of participants will always recall or think of more ideas than will a single individual. So tasks like ‘see how much of the vocabulary we learnt last week you can remember’ – are best done collaboratively.  \nA useful sequence is to ask students to do a vocabulary task on their own, and then join with other students to add to, or improve or correct it (see an example in Tip 58) .  \nNote that collaboration does not necessitate pair or group work. It is also involved in procedures like ‘Pass it round’, where vocabularybased worksheets move from one student to another to be added to or changed (see Tip 60), or ‘mingling’, where students meet partners briefly to exchange ideas and then move on to meet someone else (see Tip 61), or even full-class pooling of ideas or ‘brainstorming’(see Tip 64) .  \n46","cbCailo0s3JBm624","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailo0s3JBm624","pdf",617203,"English","# Use pictures and realia\n## Value and motivation of visual stimuli\n## Handling ambiguity with quick L1 support\n# Use collaborative activities\n## When collaboration benefits learners\n## Task types: information gap, recall, and brainstorming\n## Classroom procedures and sequencing","[{\"question\":\"Why are pictures and realia effective for teaching new vocabulary?\",\"answer\":\"They create stronger impact and motivation than dry explanations or translations, and learners can more easily connect words to visible or tangible meaning. Realia can be especially effective when objects are easy to obtain.\"},{\"question\":\"How can ambiguity from pictures be reduced?\",\"answer\":\"Pictures sometimes lead to multiple interpretations. Adding a quick L1 translation alongside the target-language word provides clarity while preserving impact.\"},{\"question\":\"When should teachers use collaborative activities?\",\"answer\":\"Collaboration should not be used merely for its own sake. It should be chosen only when it is clearly beneficial to all participants, such as for information-gap tasks or activities that increase recall and idea generation.\"}]","Use pictures and realia - Use collaborative activities | PDF"]