TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Bushra Alshakhly Instructor of English Cambridge KET/PET

Examiner Laureate College of

Excellence, Mecca, KSA

June, 2015

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Photos and pictures can be used effectively in teaching TESOL.

Teachers can use them as a warm-up to elicit some ideas about what is going to be presented.

They can be used to illustrate an ideas that is hard to explain.

They are appropriate for all students’ levels and all ages.

Teachers can made endless stories using these images

They help students elicit descriptive language that is hard without prompts.

Students can react in many different ways to the question: What do you see?

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

What do you see? Do you see two faces, or a

vase? You can ask the students to

come to the screen and talk. You can pair students up or

divide students to groups and ask one of them to talk for the group.

Students enjoy the freedom of choice when they feel unthreatened

Give low level students some clues to use, such as, face, vase, draw, or a picture.

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Students can remember important adjectives about the weather, for example.

Or they can talk about their favorite season and the words associated with them, such as, cold, hot, snow, swimming, coats, etc.

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Students can talk about facts. This is the level that students are still in their comfort zone. Questions such as: What are the five

continents? In which continent is your

country located? How many oceans and seas

are there around your country?

Where are the deserts located?

And so on.

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Images can be used to review vocabulary and prepositions; for example: _ Where is the dog in A? _ The do is on the chair. _Where is the cat in C? _ The cat is behind the TV. _ Where are the books

shelves? _ They are between the

two cats. And so on.

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Elicit a higher level, basic conversation to make sure the know the “wh” questions. The answers have to be in simple present tense.

Ask the students to pair up to write a small paragraph describing the woman for example. Write about her name, age, job, or describe her and her clothes

Sample questions: What do you see in the picture? How many people are there? What are they doing? Where are they? Do you think they are friends or a family? Where do they live? What time of year do you think it is? Is it

cold or hot? What are they wearing? Give me one sentence that one of them

maybe is saying in this picture.

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Talk about the place: They are sitting in a café, in the city, at home, in the park…

Describe position: On the right, on the left, in the middle of the photo, in the background, next to, behind, in front of…

Describe people’s age: They are in their twenties, they are about twenty…

Describe people’s clothes: They are wearing… (use one or two adjectives to describe the clothes: pattern, color, material…)

Describe people’s actions: They are reading the newspaper, cooking…

Describe people’s roles: He is probably a waiter, a student… Describe people’s feelings: He seems sad, frightened, happy… Your opinion: In my opinion the photo is very funny, sad,

interesting…

Describing a photo is a higher level thinking task. It is usually the (Part 3) of Cambridge Test (PET).

Two students are each given a color photo to talk about it in details for almost one minute.

Look at this picture and tell me what you see.

On the right, under the picture, some hints of what is expected from the students to talk about.

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Students need to learn how to think freely. They need to know some methods to express their need of time to think, and strategies for hesitation, such as:

Well, Um, …… Let’s see I mean…. I guess….. Ok, You know….. So, …… Just a moment, ….. I’m not really sure, ….. What else? ……. Well, let me think, …… (All) right, ……. You see what I mean? ……

Remember In this photo I can see… Talk about… place position people’s age people’s clothes people’s actions people’s roles people’s feelings Your opinion

TESOL: ELICITING CONVERSATION THROUGH IMAGES

Now let’s practice. In this photo I can see… Talk about… place position people’s age people’s clothes people’s actions people’s roles people’s feelings Your opinion