The Power of Points

Recently I have used and created PowerPoints in my languages class for both micro-lessons and teachings on particular readings that we were required to do for the class. I enjoy using PowerPoints as they are reasonably straight forward to create and can be effective in getting a point across (no pun intended). When learning a second language, I find it effective to have written and visual cues to establish communication and learning. In my PowerPoints for my micro lessons, I often wrote the headings in French with no English translation, but had images to help the class identify what the headings or words meant. For example, when talking about the French culture I referred to its formality and politeness and put this sentence in the slide: "Le mythe que les français sont impolis". I followed this with this image -

I had the class pick out what they could understand from the sentence (myth, French, impolite) and then combine this with the image to gain an understanding. I found this was an effective way to engage the class and help establish understanding in the target language.

Using PowerPoints are an effective way of incorporating both written and visual language and a way of helping the lesson flow (just go to the next slide!). It does take a little bit of extra time, especially if you want to add transitions for effect so that can be an issue when there are a lot of lessons to plan but otherwise I see them as a great piece of technology to use in teaching. 

Plus, using them means I don't have to expose my terrible board writing skills...