Material of Realia

1. Definition In education, realia (/riˈeɪˌliˌə/ pron. ree-ay-lee-ah) are objects from real life used in classroom instruction by educators to improve students' understanding of other cultures and real life situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen students' associations between words for everyday objects and the objects themselves. In many cases, these objects are part of an instructional kit which includes a manual and is thus considered as being part of a documentary whole by librarians.

 2. Role in instruction
Using Realia in Role-play Don't stop at using realia to learn vocabulary or grammar. Use objects in role-plays to make the situation more realistic. This could be something as simple as a mobile phone or your train tickets. Using realia is only limited by your imagination: here are some ideas on how to use realia in your lessons.
 - Use your country's flag and a map to show students where you live and to help them learn the names of foreign countries.
- Stage a fashion show after learning the vocabulary for items of clothing.
- Utilise toys such as plastic animals and toy cars in games for young learners.
- Bring in items such as biscuits and plastic cups to practise ordering drinks.
- Timetables, tickets and pedestrian maps of London are great for practising role-play scenarios such as asking for directions, or buying tickets.

 3. Principle of Realia
1. Object ( realia or pictures) help student understand the target language .
2. Teacher should demonstrate, not explain or translate.
 3. Students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible.
4. The purpose of language learning is communication.
5. Pronounciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction.
 6. Self-correction facilities language learning.
7. Conversation activities should be given.
8. Grammar should be taught inductively.
9. Writing is an important skill to be developed from the beginning.

4. Example
-To illustrate and teach young learners vocabulary for animals, clothing, fruit for example, I use actual objects or facsimiles thereof (pieces of clothing, toy animals, plastic fruit). For young learners, it's a very useful tool in making the abstract concrete.
 -To introduce my students to Canada, I use a Canadian flag, a map of the world, and photographs of Canada. What realia allows me to do is create a picture of my country, introduce and practice target vocabulary and sentence patterns (I'm from Japan), and serve as a springboard to compare and contrast Canada with Japan (Japan is part of Asia. Canada is part of North America.)
 -Realia is useful in teaching prepositions of place (such as on, in, under, next to, in front of, over). Objects can be placed on a desk, in a desk, under a desk and so on.


 5. Tools
  Toys and doll.