Visual vocabulary uses images to represent words and their meanings, and can be used to reinforce written vocabulary. It is becoming more important in a visually-oriented world, but some debate whether it can surpass written language. While images cannot be “read” like words, they can be a powerful form of communication when used with written vocabulary.
Visual vocabulary consists of pictures or images that represent words and their meanings. In the same way that individual words make written language possible, individual images make visual language possible. The term also applies to a theory of visual communication that says pictures and images can be “read” in the same way as words. As the modern world becomes more and more image oriented, visual communication may become more important than written communication. Educators are already using visual vocabulary to learn and reinforce written vocabulary.
The idea of learning vocabulary visually isn’t entirely new. There are, for example, flash cards used to teach words to children. There may be a picture of a cat on one side and the word “cat” on the other. Images can also be applied to more complex words. Adjectives such as “sleepy”, “angry” or “confused” can be conveyed in the images.
Pictures can be used to learn a larger vocabulary when associated with lesser-known or difficult-to-remember words. For example, expanding the image of drowsiness can lead to learning the word “soporific,” something that makes a person sleepy. An image showing a person looking confused or uncertain can be associated with the word “bewildered”. Such image and word associations are now being sold as study aids in the United States for the vocabulary portion of college placement exams. Visual thesauri are also available.
There seems little disagreement that the world has become increasingly visually oriented. Among young people, particularly in industrial and Western cultures, interest in written communication has declined. There is still debate as to whether a visual vocabulary can, or even can, surpass written language as the primary form of communication.
One theory is that culture is increasingly visual. The world is understood through images and not by reading words. In the future, words may only be used for certain types of business and government transactions. Traditional printed books will be read by a minority of individuals. Some predict that by the end of the century nearly all words and images will be transmitted over the Internet.
Linguistic theorists point out that images are representational and cannot be “read” like a sentence or a book. The brain “reads” an image differently, and there’s no way to devise rules that work for images the way grammar and spelling rules apply to words. With written language, even a nonsense sentence makes sense when used as an example of a rule violation: “John apple a red ate.”
A more cautious approach recognizes the growing importance and status of the visual vocabulary. Emphasize that pictures and words together can sometimes be the most powerful form of communication. However, images still necessarily depend on written vocabulary. A picture may be “worth a thousand words” but is only remembered by thinking about it with words.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
