using pictures in the efl classroom

TEACHING ENGLISH

THROUGH PICTURES

ERCILIA DELANCER

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FELLOW

BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN

FEBRUARY 9, 2013

Please take a minute to

do so now

A PICTURE IS WORTH A

THOUSAND WORDS

WARM UP ACTIVITY

• Find your partner for this workshop by

finding the match to the card in your

seat.

• With your partner, come up with a list

of uses for pictures in the English

language classroom.

• You got five minutes for this activity.

WHY USE PICTURES?

• Students like to look at pictures.

• Pictures catch their interest and

imagination.

• Pictures provide a visual description of

the world – including people, places

and things that students have only

heard about.

RATIONALE FOR USING

PICTURES

• Visuals are a good and useful tool for

examination purposes because they

lead the learner to draw out language

from their own knowledge and

personal experiences through

exposure to the stimuli presented.

RATIONALE FOR USING

PICTURES

• They also permit strategies to

organize knowledge into semantic or

associative clusters. Moreover,

imagery is combined with texts to

make subjects more likely to think

about the process of language more

fully.

RATIONALE FOR USING

PICTURES• Visual images encourage the learner

to predict, infer, and deduce

information from a variety of sources.

Images help to bring the outside world

into the classroom, and thus help to

make the situation more real and in

turn help the learner to use

appropriate associated language.

RATIONALE FOR USING

PICTURES• Humans have several distinct

intelligences, and any significant

achievement involves a blending of

intelligences.

• Blending is useful because different

intelligences are valued to varying

degrees by different cultures.

How many uses for

pictures?• There must be hundreds of ways to

use pictures in the classroom

including:

• teach, practice, or review new

vocabulary

• do guided practice (drills)

• practice grammatical structures

HOW MANY USES FOR

PICTURES?

• do writing activities

• practice listening comprehension

• do semi-guided or free speaking

practice such as problem solving

activities, role plays, discussions, and

so on.

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU

NEED?

• Depending on the purpose of the

activity, a task can take up five

minutes at the beginning or end of a

class, or last 20 minutes or more in

the main part of the class.

CHOOSING PICTURES

• Pictures are illustrations that are cut

from a magazine, newspapers or

other sources. They're mostly

photographs, but drawings, collages,

maps or other illustrations can be

used for certain activities. Each

picture should be at least 13 x 18 cm,

but preferably about 20 x 25 cm, i.e.,

almost an entire magazine page.

AVOID TEXT IN YOUR

PICTURES

• Pictures are easier to use without any

printed text on them. You will only be

able to use pictures with text for

certain activities. If pictures do include

text, the text should be in English.

• You can collect the pictures yourself,

or ask your students to bring them in

for you.

GET TO KNOW YOUR

STUDENTS

• Students are good at getting pictures

of famous people, sports and objects

they like, which gives you a good

opportunity to learn about students'

interests.

SORTING THE PICTURES

• Try to identify a structure or function

that can be practiced with each

picture. You should paste the pictures

on letter-sized paper, and punch holes

in them to keep them in a binder. You

can sort them out by level or grade, by

activity or by topic.

LABEL YOUR FOLDERS

• Some topics are: faces, famous

people, clothes, food, actions, sports,

professions, nationalities/cultures,

unusual pictures, cities, interiors,

nature, and so on. You can write

notes on the back of the sheets.

IDEAS, IDEA, IDEAS

• The following is a catalog of ideas we

have put together from a variety of

sources.

• We hope you can add your own list of

ideas to it as well as gather others

from your colleagues.

WRITE A PORTRAIT

• Hand each student the photo of a

person, not a celebrity, and have

him/her describe it using the handouts

for both physical and personality traits,

and the imagination to provide a

suitable job and hobbies according to

the age of the person.

WRITE A PORTRAIT

• Once the portrait is completed,

students can come to the front to

describe their portrait, or can submit it

as a writing assignment.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

• Provide students with a photo of a

dish and have the student come up

with an entire menu for dinner that

day.

• The student/group with the most

detailed menu wins a small prize.

CELEBRITIES

• Write short captions describing the

achievements for each celebrity

picture.

• Hang the celebrity pictures nearby

and have the students match the

caption for each.

“SPECULATION”

• Material: Pictures with unusual

situations (e.g., a man balancing

chairs on his arms, feet and head, a

female executive tied and gagged in

her office, a very muddy Mercedes

parked in the business district of a

city, etc.).

SPECULATION – AN

EXAMPLE

“SPECULATION”

• Elicit question words and write them

on the board: where, why, who, when,

what, etc.

• Tell the students to work in pairs or

small groups and explain the picture,

using the questions words. Do one

picture with the class as an example.

INTERVIEW A CELEBRITY

• Distribute pictures of some of the

students’ favorite celebrities including

sport figures, entertainers, politicians

and writers.

• Have the students complete a list of

questions in preparation for an

interview of their favorite personality.

• The student with the longest list wins.

VARIATION

• Write a caption describing each

celebrity such as their place of origin,

most celebrated accomplishment,

marital status and so on.

• Have the students match the caption

to the photo.

BEFORE AND AFTER

• Provide each student, or group, with

an intriguing picture and ask them to

come up with an explanation as to

what happened immediately before

the picture was taken and right after.

“AN ACCIDENT WAITING

TO HAPPEN”

WHAT’S THE STORY?

• Bring a group of pictures showing

people doing something.

• Distribute one to each student.

• Have the students create the most

imaginative story behind the picture by

emphasizing that there is no right or

wrong answer.

WRITING A SHORT STORY

• Give each student an envelope

containing photos of 2-3 people, a

photo of a landscape (place) and a

particular situation.

• The student writes a short story based

on the materials in front of her/him.

HOW DO THEY FEEL?

• Teach or review adjectives describing

moods and feelings: happy, sad,

angry, upset, cheerful, etc.

• Hand out pictures and ask students to

describe how the people feel, and why

they feel that way. What happened

that made them feel this way?

HOW DO THEY FEEL?

• As a follow up, students can present

their descriptions to the group, and

their classmates can add additional

information about the person in the

picture.

• Variation: You may want to use this

activity to have students speculate,

using modals like may, might/might

have, must/must have, etc.

SIMILARITIES AND

DIFFERENCES

• Provide each pair of students with a

set of pictures containing similar, but

not identical items.

• Students sit back-to-back and ask

each other “Yes” or “No” questions to

find out what the pictures have in

common.

WHICH PICTURE IS IT

ABOUT?

• Give each student a picture and have

them write five sentences, all true,

about their picture.

• Pictures are displayed around the

room and each student read their

description while the rest try to guess

which picture is being described.

PICTURE DICTATION

• Picture dictation targets several skills

and learning styles.

• Listening is at the forefront.

• Good enunciation skills are necessary

for the person doing the dictating.

• Both the “artist” and the person

dictating must use good

communication strategies.

PICTURE DICTATION

• Continued….

• Such as circumlocution and

rephrasing to negotiate meaning.

• Haptic learners get a chance to stand

up, move around, and or draw.

LOOKING FOR A DATE

• Put a picture of a person on the board

and ask the students to tell you his/her

name, age and job. Write whatever

they tell you on the board.

• Then ask them to describe him/her

physically (again write what they tell

you on the board). Repeat this

procedure for his/her character and

hobbies.

LOOKING FOR A DATE

• Read the description of the person

and elicit from the students that

he/she is not happy because they are

single and would like to meet a

man/woman.

• Students should provide a portrait of

the type of person the man/woman in

the picture is looking for.

LOOKING FOR A DATE -

VARIATION

• Students get their own photo, describe

it without showing it to anybody else,

leave it face down on the table and

then walk around listening to other

students’ descriptions of their photo

until he/she finds a suitable person for

their own character.

LOOKING FOR A DATE

• After you have given them enough time to

find partners, stop the activity (if they are

being very choosy give them a time limit

and tell them they must compromise and

find a partner). Conduct a feedback session

and ask the students to tell the class about

their invented character and the partner that

they have found. The class can then see

the pictures for the first time and decide if

they think it will be a successful

relationship.

LOOKING FOR A HOUSE -

VARIATION• You can change the context and

replace the pictures of the people with

pictures of houses/flats and ask the

students to be either estate agents or

buyers looking for a place to live.

Again they can write descriptions of

places they want to sell (of varying

standards) and places they would like

to buy, mingle and try to find their

dream homes.

ELABORATE

DESCRIPTION• Students gather in groups of 3-4.

• Teacher hands a picture/postcard to

the student who will be doing the

describing. Famous paintings,

drawings, and sculptures are great for

this activity.

• The student describes and the rest

draw their picture.

ELABORATE

DESCRIPTION• At the end, the teacher gathers the

original picture and the drawings.

• Drawings are displayed and the rest of

the class is asked to guess what the

original picture was.

• If they can guess correctly, the team

wins a point.

PRACTICING

PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE• Students sit back to back and listen as

the teacher describes a picture

containing details about a room: living

room, dining room, bedroom, porch,

etc.

• Each students draws a picture of the

room. At the end, the teacher shows

her picture and students compare

theirs to see who came closest to it.

PRACTICING

PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE

• The teacher distributes a picture to the

student in the pair who will be doing

the describing while the other student

draws.

• At the end, the students compare

pictures to see how well the dictation

went.

COMPARATIVES AND

SUPERLATIVES• Provide students with photos

containing a group of people and have

them practice comparatives and

superlatives by focusing on the

characteristics of the people in the

photo such as age, height, build,

attractiveness, musical talent, sense

of humor and so on.

COMPARATIVES AND

SUPERLATIVES• VARIATION:

• Have the students bring a family

group photo to the class and then

describe each member using

superlatives/comparatives. For

example: My brother Brian was the

tallest while my sister Brooke was the

shortest.

IF I WERE THERE….

• Show students a picture of a location

and have them brainstorm about the

place: where it is, what people

normally do there. Also elicit

vocabulary words related to the

location.

• Ask the students what they would do if

they were there, how they would be

feeling, etc.

“HAVE THAT

CONVERSATION”• Show a sample picture – not the one

you want students to use later. Ask

what the people are doing, what they

are talking about, what some of the

words or expressions are that they are

using. Elicit or teach vocabulary if

necessary.

• Distribute pictures to the students to

create their own conversation.

“HAVE THAT

CONVERSATION?

• As a follow up, you can ask several

pairs to perform their dialogs in front

of the group. The class votes on the

best dialog for the people in the

picture.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

• Bring a collection of landscape photos

to the classroom and distribute one to

each student.

• Students write a description of what

they see.

• Display the photos and description

side-by-side and have the students

match them.

WHAT’S GOING ON?

• Distribute a picture to the student on

the front row who looks at it and writes

an action verb in his piece of paper.

• He/she passes down both pieces to

the next students who adds another

verb and so on to the end of the row.

• The row who finishes with the longest

list wins a point.

WRITE THE CAPTION

• Show a picture on the board and ask

students to create a caption for it.

• Hand each student an interesting

picture and ask him/her to write an

appropriate caption for the local

newspaper.

• Pictures and captions are displayed

around the room and students match

them.

WRITE THE CAPTION-

VARIATION

• For lower level students, compose two

alternate captions for each picture and

have the students select what they

consider to be the appropriate one

working in pairs or small groups.