There has been an ongoing debate among ESL/EFL teachers whether color pictures and other visual aids can help learners of English improve vocabulary acquisition. As an ESL teacher, I have always been positively sure that color pictures and flashcards are the best way to introduce new vocabulary. Of course the quality of such pictures is very important. They should look fun and entertaining while also being highly education in nature. To my delight, I have recently found a study which proved my guess.

The Institute of Foreign Language Research has conducted a comprehensive survey in order to find out whether there was any improvement in levels of vocabulary acquisition with ESL students who were offered visual aids. The research was conducted in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Russia, and Japan. In each of these countries the researchers divided students in two major groups. With the first group, they used visual aids such as color pictures and flashcards to introduce new vocabulary. While with the second group, they only used conventional vocabulary learning methods and techniques, such as translation and definition.

According to this survey, the students from the first group had a 30% higher level of vocabulary acquisition than their peers from the second group. A feedback from the students has also been collected in the form of individual interviews in which students had to answer the question: Do you believe color pictures can help you learn new words better and faster. 70 % of the students said they loved working with pictures and other visual aids and were having most fun in classes where pictures, flashcards and over visual materials were used.

Leaning vocabulary through visual aids has much to do with learns' psychology and psycholinguistics in general. A lot of prominent scientists believe our consciousness is not language-based, but rather image-based. That is we don't think in words and sentences, we think in images. So it seems a natural approach to learn new words through images. This is the shortest way to the students' memory because there is not wasting time on translation. Upon hearing a new word, students are able to see 'that thing' rather than relate it to a specific word in their own language.

Thus a lot of ESL teachers, and I among them, recommend using color pictures http://www.english-lesson-plan.com/info/97/ with any level EFL students.