Why Info graphic Interpretation?

Overview

According to the learning capability of students, a classroom can be tentatively divided into 3 levels of learners namely auditory, visual and kinaesthetic. As per the development in ICT, technology conditions the brain to pay attention to information differently than reading. The term “Infographics”, a portmanteau of “information” and “graphics,” are used in the current study as an instructional assignment in an introductory curriculum course. The presentations that contain both text and images are found to be more engaging, informative, and captivating. Some researchers have shown that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. In addition, our eyes can register 36,000 visual messages per hour, and can process images that last for just 13 milliseconds. Various colours, different fonts, and creative shapes can all be used together to help students to learn more efficiently, but they can also help educators keep their students focused on the topic at hand. Students respond better to visual cues, rather than hearing their teacher drone on and on. Use of visuals like infographics can be quite beneficial to both students and teacher. They allow you to create your lessons around a central image, something that the entire class can focus on as you speak. Basically, an infographic is visual content designed to be perceived as eye-catching and appealing. It is a combination of words, numbers, pictures, charts, illustrations, even colours – all designed to describe or explain something quickly, clearly, and in extremely effective and engaging way. A journal of Education and Human Development published by American Research Institute for Policy Development (September 2017, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.112) asserts:

“—infographics are effective for improving students’ achievement in learning course content and that infographics have considerable potential in education to enhance students’ intellectual, life skills, and affective development. These outcomes may provide solutions for faculty who teach complex or abstract concepts that are difficult to explain solely using written text and orally presented material because infographics represent alternative instructional tools.”

One of prominent English language specialist and teacher trainers (Doctorate of Education from The George Washington University) Mrs. Lottie Baker claims that visual literacy can be integrated with different content areas. Activities with images make an especially effective contribution to language learning. Undoubtedly, this kind of oral and written interaction is truly communicative which is a crucial part of language learning.(English Teaching Forum,vol. 53.No. 4,pp 3) Baker underscores:

“Exploring visual images can stimulate extended linguistic production. The way we perceive pictures depends on our existing schema, a product of memories and past experiences unique to each of us. Because interpretation of what we see is subjective, analysing images provides opportunities for meaningful student-to-student interaction.”

Interpreting an infographic is an outcome of visualizing and brainstorming. Therefore, the government of Nepal, Curriculum Development Centre has designed a course of infographic interpretation to be assessed under guided writing at grade 10 in English. It is interesting to note that the existing curriculum inspires students to be proactive in bolstering their lingual proficiency via visualizations. Despite exceeding teachers talk time we can instigate the apprentices to be creative learners. As a part of curriculum, you can let your students think. Just you can do is to abridge them with some chunk of information on developing correct structures. Here are some sorts of infographics to be practised in high school level in Nepal.

Some Significant Infographics:

1.1 Bar Diagram

1.2. Pie-chart 

1.3. Maps

1.4 Illustration

1.5 Line Diagram

1.6 Process Diagram

Format of Infographic Interpretation:

The following expressions can be used in the standard interpretation of a visual information in school level education. Mostly the students struggle on selecting right diction and phrases. In various guided writings including pie chart, bar diagram, line diagram, flow-chart, process or illustrations, the learners deliver incoherent sentence structure. It is good idea to brainstorm about visual and make an outline as a pre-writing phase. The second phase of writing is speed writing where students tend to balance their persistence within the time frame. The final phase of writing is rereading, revising and editing. These three steps will assure students on time management. The concerned teacher must be careful on handling mechanics of creative wiring such as task achievement (content and coverage), grammatical range and accuracy, lexical resource and coherence and cohesion. Moreover, we must inspire students to follow some of the significant key expressions as mentioned below:

1. Some Useful Expressions

Opening

1. The table shows how……..
2. The pie chart provides data….
3. The charts below depict……
4. The charts compare…
5. The graph gives figure…
6. The figure illustrates….
7. The pie chart/ bar-diagram gives information…
8. It can be clearly seen that……
9. The bar graph gives information……..
10. According to the…

Overview

1. As an overall trend, I believe that it is…….
2. An overview of this chart shows that ………is exactly …..times larger.
3. Overall,……………………
4. It can be clearly observed that…
5. It is worth noticing that…
6. It could be plainly viewed that…

Coherence and Trend

1. After that it rose gradually…..
2. The number of staff/employee fluctuated…..
3. Both the ….-……and …….-…….group shared the same rate…..
4. It slowly decreased……
5. It increased substantially at the beginning of the year.
6. It is interesting to note that…..
7. It stays the same
8. It has no change.
9. It remained identical
10. ……….do/does not fluctuate.
11. …….follows the same pattern.
12. Getting back to the details…
13. It dropped swiftly to……
14. Now, turning to the details…

Compare and contrast

1. However, this certainly does not mean that….
2. On the other hand, some of the people favour that
3. As is presented in the diagram(s)/ graph(s)/ pie chart(s)/ table…
4.  As (is) shown in the illustration…
5.  As can be seen in the…
6. As the diagrams suggest…
7. Categorically speaking…
8. The diagram reveals that…
9. It is interesting to note that…
10.  It is apparently seen that…
11.  It is conspicuous that…

Conclusion

1. We can reach in the conclusion that…
2. All in all…….
3. Finally……..
4. Eventually……..

2. Interpreting Fractions

• 4% = A tiny fraction.
• 24% = Almost a quarter.
• 25% Exactly a quarter.
• 26% = Roughly one quarter.
• 32% Nearly one-third, nearly a third.
• 49% = Around a half, just under a half.
• 50% Exactly a half.
• 51% = Just over a half.
• 73% = Nearly three quarters.
• 77% = Approximately three quarter, more than three-quarter.
• 79% = Well over three quarters.

3. Proportions

• 2% = A tiny portion, a very small proportion.
• 4% = An insignificant minority, an insignificant proportion.
• 16% = A small minority, a small portion.
• 70% = A large proportion.
• 72% = A significant majority, A significant proportion.
• 89% = A very large proportion

4. Percentage, Portion and Numbers

10% increase, 25 percent decrease, increased by 15%, dropped by 10 per cent, fall at 50%, reached to 75%, tripled, doubled, one-fourth, three-quarters, half, double fold, treble, 5 times higher, 3 timers lower, declined to about 49%, stood exactly at 43%

Eventually, guided writing has turned out to be one of the best tools to foster students creative writing skills. It not only develops students’ writing skills, but also enhances cognitive skills via projected infographics. Use of infographics can be a useful mechanism to display information in visual manner in different ways on which you can create images in young learner’s mind. Consequently, infographic interpretation in high schools of ESL or EFL classes is pathway to creative writing.

References

Alrwele, Noura Shabak.2017, Effects of Infographics on Student Achievement and Students’ Perceptions of the Impacts of Infographics. Journal of Education and Human Development (6):112.

Baker,Lottie.2015.How Many Words Is a Picture Worth? Integrating Visual Literacy in Language Learning with Photographs. English Teaching Forum 53(4):3.

Liss, Rhonda.,and Davis,Jason.2015.Effective Academic Writing.2^nd ed. 149.Oxford.Oxford University Press.

Sashidhar Baral

Lecturer: Department of English

Pokhara College of Management,

Pokhara

©baralsashi@gmail.com