MEDIA AS TEACHING MATERIAL

Contributed by Blesilda A. Tamoro, Teacher III, Sta. Rosa Elementary School, Pilar

In order to help pupils want to learn, teaching must be more interesting and exciting. To help them understand, teaching must be clear and accurate. To help pupils retain and ponder what they learn, teaching must be memorable.

These are the common reasons for selecting subject matter carefully and discussing them effectively to make the lessons interesting, clear and memorable.

Teachers should have media examples to illustrate how language and sentence structures can alter the meaning of the sentence. How they are able to influence or create biases about persons or events in the minds of the readers.

There are three ways through which the media do this: slanting, emphasis and choice of words. The choice of words can influence the public’s perception of the controversial event.

The media have a tremendous potential as a reference and teaching for teachers. The media reflect the language situation in the Philippines, they can make teachers more aware of the dynamism of language and the sheer folly of trying to insist on teaching rigidly. The media can be a source of insights into the development of language-the uses of language for specific purposes. They can also raise one’s level of awareness of the use of words and structures to convey meaning or distort it.

Teachers could draw numerous examples from media to show how language works and fails to communicate meaning. Teachers, therefore, should be sensitive to the implication of the language situation in the media on their teaching. They should learn how to use the media for the purposes of teaching for a more realistic and practical perspective. Rather than stick to traditional methods of language teaching and insist on rules of grammar, they could use the media.

At any situation, the teachers should use a variety of methods in teaching the English language. If possible, the teacher should choose methods that support and reinforce the main purpose of the lesson.

References:

Hilgard, Ernest R. Introduction to Psychology. 3^rd ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World Inc. 1962. Chapter 5.

Hilgard, Ernest R. Introduction to Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company 1953. Chapter 5, 6, 7.