Utilizing Ads as Teaching Materials

Advertisement or ad is a media to promote a product or service. Right now, in globalization and borderless era, a company can promote its product not only in where it operates. To make the purpose of promotion is successful; the ad should be interesting for audience or readers. One way that usually used to catch the reader’s attention is by using English. Many Ads in Indonesia uses English as a tool in promotion. However, English teachers can also exploit ads in language teaching in several ways. For example ads can be used in consolidating oral language skills, teaching vocabulary and reading comprehension, eliciting discussions in the class, supporting activities including writing and giving presentations, eliciting critical thinking, interpretation and association skills. Peter Sharma and Barney Barrett (2007) supported this strongly by saying: Pictures and photographs have many uses in the classroom; especially with lower levels you can use them to teach vocabulary, prompt discussions and support activities such as presentations. Like texts, images can be copied and pasted into word-processor documents or incorporated into presentation slides. They can be used to create flashcards and added to vocabulary exercises.

The following is an illustration of how printed ads, television ads, online ads can be exploited in classroom teaching.

Printed ads

Task 1 this task implies simple response plus critical thinking and association or interpretation:
Level     Pre Intermediate

Time    30-40 minutes

Preparation Teachers need about 4-5 advertisements.

Here are some activities that can be used by teachers in classroom.  

1    Teachers show one advertisement and demonstrate it to set as examples. Then they can show the class the four, five commercials they have chosen. The first time students just view them.

2     Give the ads to the students (work in pair or in group) and let each comes up with the answer to the following questions. Teachers can of course choose the questions that are proper for their objectives and the target students. For example if teachers wish their students to exercise their critical thinking skills or association and interpretation skills they may select questions type 4,5,6,8,9 rather than the general question types of who, what, where, why and how.

 1    What is this ad trying to do?
2    How is the ad trying to do this?
3    Who is the intended audience of this ad?/ Who are the potential customers?
4    What do you like about this ad?
5    What is the story behind these pictures?
6    What are you thinking about when you look at each picture?
7    What product or service do you think this ad is selling?
8    What do you think the creator of this ad is trying to make people think?
9    What message is the ad communicating?
10    Would this ad be more successful in the US,UK or in your country and why?

Task 2
This task is designed for intermediate level students.
Level     Intermediate
Time    30-50 minutes

Preparation you will need about 5 advertisements

1.      In classroom teachers show the class all advertisements the teachers have chosen. Then ask them to think about the advertisements in terms of the criteria in step 2.

2.       Ask students to work in pair or in small groups. Each person should describe the advertisement by analyzing it in terms of the following considerations:
1    Target group: who is expected to use the product or service?
2     Consider     1A     the consumer age (children/young people/ethnic groups/yuppie/culture) (yuppie means young born professionals, cultrate means a highly educated and affluent audience who develop lifestyles and consumption habits to distinguish themselves from the mass)
1B     National/global market segment (the product is intended for using in particular country or can be used internationally)
3    price
4    durability
5    utility
6    style
7    luxury/social appeal

Task 3 this task is designed for more advanced students.
Level Intermediate upwards
Time 30-50 minutes
Preparation:

1        Teachers will need to prepare some guidelines for analysis of printed advertisements like the list shown below, and have enough copies to give out to students working in pair or small groups.

2        Teachers will need 4 to 5 printed advertisements.
In class and ask the students, working in pair or in small groups, to look through “guidelines for analysis of advertisements” below. Note that there is no model answer for their decision. After that the students then view the 5 advertisements and decide on the following points:

A.      Which of the characteristics listed  are exemplified in each advertisement?

B.      Which two of these characteristics most contribute to making an advertisement effective?

C.      Which of the five advertisements is the most effective? (this can also be done on a whole class vote) Reasons to explain the choice must be given.

Task 4 Further exploitation of “Airline ads”

Teacher can lead class discussion on the similarities/ differences or generalizations of the message conveyed from all airline ads. The discussion can be taken a step further on their critical thinking and association skills for example if they could choose a country for vacation what country will they go? Which airline will they choose? Why? What will they do there?
Teachers can teach vocabulary used in travel context and reading skills from these same ads. Teachers can teach expressions like "in style, on board, breakaway, escape, fleet, route, destination, benefit, taking reservations, hot seats(not literal meaning), legroom, cabin crew, in-flight entertainment, fares” or “adjectives” such as “spacious, award-winning, domestic, exclusive, tiresome, impressive, cost-saving, wide (selection)” all of which are from these ads. Likewise, this ad activity can be a good warm-up activity for teaching about the travel content.
In addition, there are often good advertisements (both print and broadcasting) that highlights on cultural issues and teachers can make use of this featuring advertisements  to generate discussions of pertinent cultural issues shown in such advertisements. AT & T advertisements, for example, are a good example for this cultural purpose. By looking at each advertisement students can identify what countries each advertisement it represents, why they think so, any clear evidences etc. This is a good prompting activity for generating further discussion.
Television ad and Online Ads are easily accessible to students. Teachers can thus assign students to find television ad and /or online ads at home and report back to class after due date. This can also be done as a small project for individual students. It should be fun and meaningful to students because they can choose their own piece of ads to report to. Also online ads will match their interest of doing something online, as using this technology is so timely for the students. Teachers can harness technology to complement and enhance teaching and learning a language.

            Peter Sharma and Barney Barrett (2007:132) stated this clearly:
Nowadays our teaching role is far wider than inputting new knowledge. We also facilitate learning. While our learners study or communicate using technology, we monitor activities and ensure that learning opportunities are maximized. We run learner-training sessions, informing learners of the potential of technology, and encourage our learners to take an advantage of the many opportunities to practice away from the confines of the classroom. Technology will continue to play a part in our lives. The future will be exciting. If the new technologies lead to better learning outcomes, then that is a good thing for teachers and learners.
Online ads will enhance reading skills while television ads will enhance students ’listening skills. To ensure that students try listening and reading, teachers can assign 5 pieces for online reading ads and 5 for television’s listening ads. Teacher may design a work sheet for students to fill in each time they complete one piece of assignment. For instance to complete a project students need to do at least 10 pieces of ads either online or on television based on the features below. Such task can be assigned as homework or a small individual project. The student worksheet or report card should contain the following points.

1    Source (online /TV)
2    dates recorded
3     title of ad
4     reason why choosing
5    analysis of ad features based on the criteria shown in the previous task

Tasks from commercial spots and ads from the Internet Websites or ads in the internet which provide information of many kinds are now easily accessible for web surfers. In particular the travel websites are not only viewed by travelers but also are sources of information for general public seeking information about specific countries.

In conclusion, reading, interpreting from ads helps motivate students' ability to think, to associate, to interpret, and at the same time develop their spoken and written language through their visual perception and their ability to connect verbal and visual text. Roy Fox from the University of Missouri-Columbia reiterated the benefits of this and his statements below serve very well as a conclusion of the paper. (2002:133)

After the course ended, the classroom teacher and I agreed that students’ motivation, thinking, and language (spoken and written) benefited from their study of advertising. From the outset, students were confident in using English to express their thoughts, feelings and questions about advertising, as well as about their own culture and social issues. In their second language, students articulated abstract, incomplete thoughts about complex issues, such as gender and culture. This in turn often elicited further thinking and language from others, creating an authentic, social context for growing ideas, for developing language and literacy skills.