3. The Advantages of Picture
Picture is one of visual and printed media and it is widely used for educational purposes. Picture as one of media can be used by teacher in teaching
learning process has some advantages. Based on Gerlach and Ely, restated in research by Dwi Nur Indah, the advantages of picture are
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: a Picture is inexpensive and widely available.
b Provide common experiences for an entire group. c Visual details make it possible to study subject that would otherwise be
impossible. d Picture after stimulus to further study reading and research.
e Pictures help to focus attention and develop critical judgment. f Pictures are easily to manipulate.
In Wright’s book, Pictures for Language Learning, he wrote some advantages of pictures:
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a Easy to prepare. b Easy to organize.
c Interesting. d Meaningful and authentic.
e Sufficient amount of language. Besides the five advantages above, Wright also said that picture can be used
for teachers and students in whatever syllabus they are following. There are some suggestions for general strategies for teachers using any
picture in a classroom
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: a Whole-class discussion – it can lead to writing by giving any type of pictures.
b Changing information – it can lead to speaking by dividing 2 groups in a class. One group one picture, then they share and exchange their information about
the picture.
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Dwi Nur Indah, Improving Writing Recount Text by Using Photographs, Semarang: IKIP PGRI Semarang, 2010, p. 10.
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Andrew Wright, Op.cit., p. 3.
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Ann Raimes, Op.cit., p. 28.
c Working in pairs or small groups – the teacher gives each student of the pair or give each group different picture to work with.
d Real communicative tasks – students provide themselves their own pictures. It has advantage that teacher is relieved of the task of finding a picture and
students can share their personal moments.
D. Teaching Writing by Using Picture
Teaching writing by using picture can lead to interesting learning for students.
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As the writer’s experience when she was in school, her friends were more interested in book which has so many pictures. Here are some ways to teach
writing by using picture.
1. Picture Sets for Writing
Picture sets is pair of pictures or pictures in sequence provide variety of guided and free writing. It provides the subject matter about the story in the
picture.
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It is usually used for narrative writing but it can be flexible for any kinds of text. For recount writing, these pictures can be sequenced photographs from
students itself. This can help students in offering vocabulary, sentence structure and organization about new subject matter.
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By using picture sets, students are hoped to produce more words and various vocabularies which can be put in their writings.
2. Picture for Whole-class Discussion of Writing
Teacher can provide two pictures while heshe is teaching in the classroom if some pictures are not possible. Give a half class one picture and the other half
another.
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The teacher can give a task to write all the information about the picture, then, each group will share or exchange the information about their own
picture.
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Dwi Nur Indah, Improving Writing Recount Text by Using Photographs, Semarang: IKIP PGRI Semarang, 2010, p .9.
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Ann Raimes, Op.cit, p. 36.
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Ibid., p. 36.
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Ibid., p. 28.
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