Art an experience, as is learning. And teaching. To me, a picture, a work of art, is in essence the experience it makes me live. I might not remember the exact colors, the features of its brushstrokes, its details in terms of depth or light or style, or the interpretations made by expert voices. But I'll remember what it made me feel, if it did make me feel something. And isn't that the ultimate goal of art, to make us feel, to leave some imprint on us, to give us a moment of emotion to remember? When that happens, that art piece finds its way into our beings, into the shaping of our life experience. And when something gets so deeply rooted in us, we'll always remember it, because the intensity of feeling truly connected to something is too special to forget. I believe that's the way learning should work, and therefore that's the goal teaching should pursue. Make the learning experience personal and shared at the same time, make it meaningful, make it creative, and the learning will happen -more importantly: it will endure. Give your students a chance to take creative action in their process of learning so that some of it (maybe most of it!) will stick in their minds.
So why not bringing art and language teaching together? Students might have no interest in becoming knowledgeable about art, and that's fine, but that does not mean art has no place in the classroom. Art is everywhere, it can be found in the most unexpected places, so why not in a language class? Here's a suggestion you may want to use in your classes to give your students a chance to put their imagination at work, to disguise the art experience as language learning (or vice versa?), and who knows, you could even be awakening something in some of them...
So why not bringing art and language teaching together? Students might have no interest in becoming knowledgeable about art, and that's fine, but that does not mean art has no place in the classroom. Art is everywhere, it can be found in the most unexpected places, so why not in a language class? Here's a suggestion you may want to use in your classes to give your students a chance to put their imagination at work, to disguise the art experience as language learning (or vice versa?), and who knows, you could even be awakening something in some of them...
TESOL_B2_The_Story_Behind_the_Picture.pdf |