The function of visual aids in foreign language textbooks using examples from Czech as a foreign language textbooks
Abstract
The methodological study uses specific examples from Czech as a foreign language textbook to describe the various functions that can be realized by visual means. Attention is paid to the relationship between visual elements and verbal text, their mutual complementarity and usefulness for understanding the information conveyed and its retention in memory.
Furthermore, the article points out the necessity of training textbook authors, teachers and students in the field of visual literacy, so that they can most effectively didacticize and use visual means, or create them themselves. The text itself contributes to this by analyzing the functions of visual elements in textbooks of Czech as a foreign language, focusing on selected pedagogical, didactic and psychological functions, and describing or demonstrating their manifestations on various levels of language teaching, from speech skills to pronunciation to grammar or realia.
It also draws attention to the didactic risks that accompany the use of visual elements. The text thus provides teachers with a basic overview of the ways in which visual elements can be used in textbooks so that they can get the most out of them, while at the same time being able to identify those that are in some way problematic, dysfunctional or displaying signs of one of the didactic risks.