Realia’ in EFL terms refers to any real objects we

use in the classroom to bring the class to life.

In this tip I’d like to offer a few suggestions for activities using realia and to consider why we may
want to bring things into the class.

Why use realia in class?

The main advantage of using real objects into the classroom is to make the learning experience
more memorable for the learner. To give a couple of simple examples, if you are going to teach
vocabulary of fruit and vegetables it can be much more affective for students if they can touch,
smell and see the objects at the same time as hearing the new word. This would appeal to a wider
range of learner styles than a simple flashcard picture of the piece of fruit or vegetable. (With very
young learners, classroom management can become trickier if you bring in real objects as
excitement levels tend to rise. Last year one of my students bit into an onion we were passing
round. I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten that class!)

A second example would be if you are going to teach some functional language for asking for the
timetable for a train. You could use a fictitious timetable or you could use a real one from the local
train station, one from the internet, or if you’re really organised, some you brought back from
your last trip to the UK. This way you expose students to more language than simply the times and
destinations. They will see information about prices, discounts, bank holidays etc.

Here is a selection of activities involving realia.

Tourist information

Gather some city/town maps from the tourist information bureau wherever you are. Use them to
create role plays that could happen with English speaking visitors to their town or city. Give
students a scenario for them to build a role play out of. If you had trouble finding your way around
their town/ city when you arrived use your own experiences to create situations.

Collect brochures of places of interest (in English if possible but not vital) and ask students to use
them to plan a trip for a group of students who are coming to their town for a week. They can plan
the itinerary, work out the budget etc,

Concentration

See the games archive for instructions on how to play this game:
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/concentration
Instead of using students’ names put an object, such as an item of clothing or a classroom object,
in front of each student and that is what they say instead of their names to pass the turn around
the circle.

Recycling race

(Depending on the recycling facilities in your country you will need to adapt the task accordingly)
For this you just need a bag of rubbish (clean items out first) that you are about to recycle like
tetrabriks, glass jars, cereal boxes, tins, old newspapers etc. To introduce the idea of recycling ask
students what all the objects are and which container they’d put them in to recycle them. Draw a
picture of each of the possible containers and get students to come and choose an item and tell
the class where they’d put it to recycle it and why. You could make this into a team race by giving
each team the mission of collecting all the items for their container one by one. You could then
use the recyclable material to make a poster with your students about recycling.

For older students elicit the vocabulary for the items and materials and lead on to a discussion or
class survey about recycling.

Island survival

Bring in a selection of items such as a coat hanger, a corkscrew, a packet of dental floss, a clothes
peg, a plastic bag, a wooden spoon, some swimming goggles, elastic bands etc. Put the students
into groups and tell them they have been ship wrecked on a desert island with their group. Luckily
there are some random items on the island they can use to help them survive. Reveal the items
one by one and elicit vocabulary. Then tell students they have ten minutes to think about how
they are going to use the items to help them survive. At the end, listen to each group’s ideas and
vote on which group you think would survive the longest.

Identity envelopes

(Thanks to Lucy Mardel for this activity.) Get three or four envelopes and fill them with bits and
bobs you find around the house such as foreign currency, shop receipts, postcards, photos,
buttons, etc. Put students into groups and ask them to have a good look at the objects and to
decide who they belong to. They should be able to build up the identity of a character from the
objects. You could say they are all suspects from a crime and they have to decide who did it, or
simply create the characters to use in a role play.

About me

Gather some bits and pieces that you have in your bag, purse and around the house such as used
cinema or concert tickets, train or bus tickets, cards you’ve received, passport photos, shopping
receipts etc. Stick them on a piece of card or on a cork board. Get students to ask you about the
items to gather information about you. As a follow up, ask students to do the same and bring in
some bits and bobs they have for their classmates to ask them about.
These are just a few ideas to get you started - I hope you enjoy them!

Further reading

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Mumford-Relia.html This article will give you some wacky ways to use
realia in the classroom.

http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000228.html More about realia.

The Internet TESL Journal

Using Creative Thinking to Find New Uses for Realia

Simon Mumford

simumford [at] yahoo.com

http://semumf.tripod.com

Izmir University of Economics (Turkey)

The use of realia is well known to teachers. However, this article suggests different ways of using
realia. By thinking creatively we can find new teaching uses for the everyday objects that surround
us, by relating them to language and looking at them in new ways.

Introduction

We like using realia, i.e. objects in the class because it adds interest and relates language to the
real world. I have found my use of realia fall into three main areas, first for descriptions, and
second as props in drama and another type of activity is a creative thinking exercise, finding
different uses for an object, e.g. a ruler could be a weapon, musical instrument, a symbol of
authority and so on. However, there is another possibility suggested by this last use. If we ask our
students to find other uses for everyday objects, why shouldn't teachers find uses for objects for
teaching? This means making a connection between objects and language. Here are some ideas,
looking at specific grammar points, drills, and free speaking.

1. Specific Grammar Points

Scissors and the Present Perfect Tense

Write three sentences representing different uses of the present perfect tense on the board. Hold
the scissors pointing up, so the class can see, with one hand on each handle. Open the blades by
moving the left hand up, keeping the right hand still. Now say the first sentence, 'I have lived in
London all my life', slowly closing the blades with your right hand. Open the scissors as before,
read the second sentence: 'I have seen that film three times', but this time stop the blade three
times on the way, to represent the three times. For the last sentence, 'I have just had lunch', open
the scissors slightly then snap them shut. Note: The upright blade represents the present and the
moving blade represents time moving between the past and present. By moving the blades you
can show that all three sentences have the connection between past and present in common,
even though the last sentence is dealing with a very short time ago. As you are facing the class,
you should move your left hand, not right, so that the students will see the 'past' blade moving
toward the present, from their left to right.

A Corkscrew, a Bottle Opener, Action and State Verbs

The different ways of opening wine and beer bottles can be related to state and action verbs.
Explain that when you open a beer bottle the bottle is either open or closed, i.e. it is in one state
or the other. Compare this to the opening of a wine bottle. This is a process which you can see, as
the screw is pushed in and pulled out. Hold a corkscrew in one hand and a bottle opener in the
other. Say a verb and hold up the appropriate instrument (bottle opener for state verb, corkscrew
for action verb). Get volunteer students to do the same. (NB some verbs e.g. 'think' can be both,
so you may need a tool that does both!)

A Pencil Sharpener and Reduced Relatives Clauses

Again, metaphor can make the unfamiliar more familiar. Students may not be familiar with
reduced relatives such as 'The man (who was) killed in the accident was my neighbour' where the
words in brackets can be omitted. Explain that by taking out the two words, you make the
sentence better, more economical, and sharper, as a native speaker would. The metaphor of a
pencil sharpener works like this: you cut off something to make the pencil sharper and more
efficient.

A Tie and Prepositions.

Show the students how to tie a tie. 'Put the tie round your neck. Cross the ends in front of you,
then pull the smaller end under, then over, then under again, over again, then up, behind the
knot, through the knot, then down. Pull the knot up.' Get the students to tie the tie, (real or
imaginary) with you, chanting the prepositions as they do so.

A Stapler and Relative Clauses

Write two sentences on the board, an object and a subject relative clause, as follows: 'The man
that I saw was crying.' 'The man that cried was taken to the police station.' Point out that the first
sentence has two pronouns (personal and relative), 'that' and 'I', and the second has one, 'that'.
Now take two pieces of paper and staple them together twice. This represents the first sentence.
Staple two more pieces of paper, just once. This represents the second sentence. Remove one
staple from the first two pieces of paper and they will still be joined together. However , if you
remove the staple from the second pair of pieces of paper, they will come apart. The conclusion?
The relative pronoun is unnecessary in the first sentence.

2. Drills

A Whistle and a Pronunciation Drill

Write the vocabulary that you want to practise on the board. Mark the stressed syllable(s). Now
use the whistle to demonstrate which word you want the students to repeat by blowing the
syllable pattern, e.g. blow 'long short short' to elicit 'confident' and 'short short long short' for
'population'. You need a variety of word lengths and syllable patterns for this.

A Ruler and a Drill

Use a ruler or any similar object to 'conduct' a drill as follows: Write a sentence on the board.
Practise the sentence, marking the stressed syllables. When the students can remember it, go to
the back of the class, and ask them to turn and face you. Now conduct the drill, using the ruler as a
baton. Looking at the board, beat the stressed syllables with the ruler while the students take
their cue from you.

An Empty Bottle and a Drill

Say a sentence into a bottle. Screw the lid on and tell the class that the sentence is in the bottle.
Now open the bottle and let the sentence out one word at a time, that is, students repeat the
sentence one word at a time. Put another sentence in the bottle, and tell students to pass the
bottle round the class, letting one word out at a time, one word per student. Then let students fill
the bottle in the same way. The point here is to get students to listen and focus on word order.

3. Free Speaking Activities

Discussion and a Microphone

This is suggested by television programme hosts, who control conversations by the use of the
microphone. Put students in groups, and give one student the microphone (imaginary, or a real
microphone, disconnected, or something to represent a microphone). Say a group of six students
are talking about 'holidays', the person with the microphone can move around the group giving
different people the chance to speak, ensuring everyone gets an equal chance to contribute.

Tennis Balls and Conversation

A tennis match can be a metaphor for a conversation. Put students in pairs facing each other, as in
doubles tennis. They should be about 1 meter apart. Give one student a tennis ball. He starts
talking about a subject then throws the ball to someone on the other team, who should continue
on the same subject, before returning the ball to someone on the other team. They should keep
the conversation moving swiftly. You can have a referee to penalise slow turns, 'foul' throws and
dropped balls, and keep the score as in tennis, e.g. 15 love.
Conclusion

Classroom aids are all around us, but sometimes we need to think about the best ways to use an
object. 'Mapping' the use of an object onto a language point, or finding a language related use of
an object are two ways of using realia in class. Have look around the staffroom. The teaching aids
you need may be closer than you think.