Using Visuals for Variety and Clarity in Commercial German.

Visual aids can provide a visual context for the mastery of new terminology, helping to make the abstract appear concrete and introducing new approaches to material that can easily become dull and routine. Visual aids can be easy to make, by the instructor alone or with the help of the class, and they can be designed to illustrate concepts introduced in the principal text. The simplest is the transparency, which is useful for projecting charts or diagrams of complex decision ramifications. Paper charts can also be made for posting in the classroom, to remind students of lesson context and reinforce new vocabulary. Videotapes using student actors are easy to make, and these can immediately bring humor to the classroom. Transparency masters, charts, and a videotape script in German are appended. (MSE)