OHP AS INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA IN TEACHING ENGLISH

1.     INTRODUCTION

A.    Background of Study

In Indonesia, teaching English to young learners is a part of curriculum. It is based on Ministerial Decree No.22 Year 2006, dated May 23^rd 2006, which states that English subject can be given to elementary students as a local content. This decree results in the existence of English in elementary schools which is taught starting from the fourth grade for two credit hours every week.

In teaching English, teachers deal with young learners whose characteristics are different from adult learners‘. Several children characteristics are regarding their cognitive development and attention span. The cognitive development stage is stated by Piaget (1972) as cited in Pinter (2011, p.9). He believes that in each stage children have quality of thinking which “is relatively consistent across different tasks.” Nevertheless, they are only able to solve problem which “are applied to concrete examples and objects in real life.” (Pinter, 2011, p. 12). Another characteristic is attention span.

Knowing those characteristics of children is an essential requirement for the teacher in creating effective instruction (Musthafa, 2010). Effective instruction is “an instruction that enables students to acquire specified skills, knowledge, and attitudes.” (Reiser & Dick, 1996, p.3). In relation to this, Curtain and Dahlberg (2000) as cited in Musthafa (2010) argue that the instruction should be built “on topics and contexts that are relevant to the young learners,” Besides, students‘ experience should also be considered in choosing teaching method, media and assessment (Barratt-Pugh and Rohl, 2000, cited in Musthafa, 2010) in order to conduct effective instruction.

Besides knowing children characteristics, using appropriate instructional media is one of the key principles in creating effective instruction (Reiser & Dick, 1996). Instructional media itself is defined by Scanlan as all materials that can be used by the teachers to conduct teaching learning activities and support students in reaching instructional objectives.

Various kind of media used. In general medium of language teaching ccan be divided into three types, namely the media view (visual aids), hearing the media (audio aids) and the media  heard-of (audio-visul aids). The media view may include natural objects, people and events; imitation of natural objects, people and events, and pictures of natural objects, people and events. (Effendi, 1984).

2.     DISCUSSION

2.1  Instructional Media

The word media comes from the Latin "medius" which means "middle". In general, all forms of media is the intermediary for the spread, carry or convey something to the recipient of messages and ideas. Teaching media can be broadly defined as follows: Any person, materials, equipment or events that establish the condition of the students acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes (Achsin, 1986). In this sense, teachers, books, computers, image and environment is the media.
According Berlach and Ely (1971) suggested that the media in the learning process tends to mean the tools graphic, photographic or in electronically to capture, process and reconstruct the visual or verbal information.

Heinich, et. al (1985) Learning Media is themedia that carry messages or information contained learning or teaching purposes.

According to (Malik H, 1994)  instructional media is anything that can be used to transmit messages (study materials), so that it can stimulate, interests, thoughts and feelings in the learning and learning activities to achieve certain learning goals.
Historically, the first time the media called a visual teaching-education (teaching aids of view), then became an audio-visual aids (teaching materials), further developed into an audio-visual communication (communication of view heard), and subsequently transformed into educational technology (educational technology ) or teaching technology (Arsyad, 2004)

According to Sukartiwi (1996) as cited in Ruis, et. al (2009) , there are some advantages of using media in teaching-learning process. Those are;

1. To increase the learners’ motivation.

2. To avoid the learners bored.

3. To make the learners easy to understand the instructional material.

4. To make the teaching learning process more systematic

                       

2.2  Definition of Overhead Projector (OHP)

The overhead projector is probably one of the most versatile and useful visual aids that has been made available to the modern-day lecturer.

The overhead projector has long since replaced the traditional chalkboard as one of the main teaching aids and is used in lecture theaters and classrooms all over the world. Even though computer-based data projectors are increasing in popularity, they are indeed very expensive, and this means that they are in no way a match for the overhead projector. Therefore, it is very important for

2.3 Beneficial Strengths

a.       Teacher-Student Communication

This projector definitely has a number of advantages that would outdo most other visual teaching aids. For instance, a lecturer can use it in just the same way that he or she would use a chalkboard, but the biggest advantage would be that with the projector, lecturers all over the world now get to face the whole class and maintain eye contact all times with their students instead of having to turn around and write. As a teacher, you would know that this eye contact plays a very big role in both facilitative as well as expository teaching, and serves both as a means of receiving feedback from the class on how good or bad the session is and as an outward non- verbal communication medium for the teacher.

b.      Multiple Tool

Another very important benefit that the projector has over the chalkboard is that it is multipurpose and can be used to present prior prepared material, which enables lecturers to build notes, tables, diagrams, and so on; and these can be used anytime, repeatedly. If designed well and planned well, these overhead transparencies will provide all the aides and cues that are needed during a lecture, so that you don't have to resort to the conventional note taking. These overhead transparencies are fairly compact when you compare them with some of the other types of visual aids, like charts and can easily be stored in boxes, folders, files, or large envelopes.

c.       User-Friendly

As compared to most other projected visual aids, the projector also has another big advantage, as it does not require a room to be darkened, so it allows students to take notes easily. It can also be used in any kind of room, except ones with extreme bright lights or in the direct sunlight. The projector is quiet, 'user-friendly', and clean and requires no technical knowledge or skill on the part of the person operating it, apart, of course , from the ability to change the lamps occasionally.

2.4 Possible Weakness

a.       The drawbacks of this projector include the basic fact that it requires a constant power supply and also requires a white flat surface on which its image can be projected.

b.      Another disadvantage is that if the surface is not suitable inclined at the correct angle, the image will suffer from a phenomenon called 'key stoning'.

c.       Unlike marker boards and chalkboards, these projectors require a small amount of maintenance. They are more likely to crack or break, so you must be very careful and always keep a spare bulb close at hand.

d.      Another disadvantage is that some teachers find the glare that is emitted from the projector quite bothersome, even though this can be overcome by attaching a shade to the device.

e.       Besides these hardware 'glitches', the basic problems that are associated with the projectors arise from the fact that most users do not really provide enough thought or consideration to the production of their display material. The writing is generally too untidy or too small and can't be read easily, and apart from this, it could also extend beyond the area of transparency.

f.       Lecturers and teachers always forget that this illuminated projection area in the projector is not the same exact size as the acetate sheets that produce the transparencies. However, most projectors are still of the older 'square' variety.

g.      Lastly, lecturers and teachers tend to overuse these projectors only because they are so convenient. They employ it in situations where, on other occasions, other visual aids would have been more effective.

2.5  Techniques

a.       Use progressive disclosure technique: mask what the students don’t need to see, in order to focus and control their attention and get them to speculate on what they can see or predict the content of the parts they can’t. Adapt your course book in this way to make it more interesting.

b.      Alternatively use silhouetted pictures or show them out of focus, or even small pictures of items in one vocabulary field (e.g. clothes) which can be thrown casually on top of each other and ask the students to call out what they can see. Memory activities can also be employed if you show them a picture and then ask them to describe what they saw or what was happening, or show them another which is similar but ask them to describe the changes.

c.       Use the tip of the pen to isolate or emphasise points, as well as to draw or write on the transparency. You can also cut the transparencies into strips to produce movable pictures. In other words the strips can be put together to form a story, or moved around to change the sequence and your students discuss the order.

d.      Additionally, the teacher can use overlays or different OHTs to build up a text or an image. Each part of a diagram or chart can also be ‘hinged’ with tape to others, like a book. If you do this the transparencies have to be presented in the same order. However, if they are ‘hinged’ alternately on either side you can change the sequence.

2.6  The Use of Overhead Projectors

Most lecture theatres and seminar rooms have an overhead projector (OHP) and you will certainly have seen them in use. There are however some “Do’s” and “Don’ts” when preparing overhead transparencies (OHPs).

a.       Do use permanent (waterproof) pens if you intend to re-use the OHP (water soluble inks smudge very easily and detract from your presentation).

b.      Do leave space to add to the transparency as the lecture develops; do this on an overlay or with water-soluble inks.

c.       Do use large fonts; it will depend on the size of the lecture theatre but don’t use anything smaller than 24 point.

d.      Do use color for emphasis – for instance for a heading or key words, but..

e.       Don’t use colors that are difficult to read when projected – red, yellow and orange are particularly unsuitable.

f.       Don’t fill the area available with text. Restrict yourself to key words.

g.      Don’t photocopy text or diagrams from a book straight on to an OHP. The font size will be too small. Enlarge the original first.

h.      Don’t put complex diagrams on OHPs that the audience has to copy – supplement the OHP by giving out printed copies

For some further tips see Hayes and Campbell (1998). There are also some basic points to remember when you come to use the OHP in a lecture. These are presentational matters, but can make all the difference to how the audience responds to your talk. These ideas are explored in more detail by Race (1999).

a.       Make sure you know how to turn the OHP on/off. Most projectors have a switch that activates a spare bulb in event of failure. Find it.

b.      Before you start, check that the OHP is correctly aligned and positioned for the screen and that the image is in focus.

c.       Face the audience – use a pointer or pen on the OHP to draw attention to a particular point (rather than turn away and point to the projected image)

d.      Try to keep the text relating to the point under discussion at the top of the screen – it is the part most visible to the audience.

e.       Be careful not to remove the OHP before members of the audience have had time to make notes.

f.       Cover part of the OHP if you want to deliver a key point with maximum impact, but….

g.      Don’t make a habit out of revealing text line-by-line (it can be very irritating)

3.     CONCLUSION

The OHP is extremely practical and versatile as every classroom activity can be adapted for the OHP and even the worst technophobe can use it with confidence. Allowing the teacher to have complete control of the class and holding students’ attention, it is a useful tool for any teacher or indeed worthwhile purchase for any school which doesn’t have one. Finally, as global warming threatens to devastate our world, using the OHP can play more than a small part in saving paper, therefore trees, and the environment. by using overhead projectors, the students can see in front of the class the material which is writer or drawn in a transparent. The transparent will be projected by using projectors.

References

Effendy, A. Fuad. (1984)

Hayes T and Campbell J (1998). Educational Technology. In: Teaching and training

techniques for hospital doctors. .Bayley T and Drury M (editors) Radcliffe

Medical Press. ISBN 1-85775-173-6.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-ohp

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-an-overhead-projector.html

Musthafa, Bachrudin. (2010). Teaching English to Young Learners in

Indonesia:Essential Requirements. In Educationist Journal. Vol. 4, (2), 120-125.

Pinter, A. (2011). Children Learning Second Languages. Hampshire: Palgrave

MacMillan.

Race P (1999). 2000 Tips for Lecturers. Kogan Page. ISBN 0-7494- 3046-X

Reiser, R.A. & Dick, W. (1996). Instructional Planning: A Guide for Teachers (2nd ed.).

Boston: Allyn & Bacon

            Soekartiwi (1996).Rancangan Instruksional. Jakarta: PT. RajaGrafindo Persada