From Images to Words

Pictures generate talk, a fact well appreciated by all teachers. This post hopes to review some well known ideas as well as give you some new ones on using images to develop your students’ oral skills and foster communicative interaction in your lessons. The activities can be adapted to suit a variety of levels and can also be used for oral interview practice for those exams that require this. There are many activities in ELT methodology books to get students talking. Most of them involve creating an information gap between player A and B in a pair or amongst the members of a group. Here are a few you may already know of and may have used in your classes:

‘Describe & Find the Differences’   with images which are very similar but also have a number of differences or  ‘Describe & Find the Similarities’ – an activity somewhat easier and more suited to younger pupils. Here is an example from our school files :   

Sample folders A & B

 DO NOT OPEN THIS FOLDER UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW

F I N D    T H E    D I F F E R E N C E S

      PLAYER A

1. Without opening then, take one folder yourself and give the other one to your partner.
2. There is one picture in each folder. The pictures are similar but not identical.
3. Talk about your pictures until you have found as many differences as you can within the time you are given
4. DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR PARTNER’S PICTURE AND DO NOT SHOW THEM YOURS!
5. When the time is up, compare your pictures and discuss any difficulties you had finding the differences‘Describe & Find the Similarities’ – an activity somewhat easier and more suited to younger pupils

 Instructions printed outside folder for student A (who leads the activity)

‘Find the pairs’ A number of images are the same and in the same positions

 DO NOT OPEN THIS FOLDER UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW

F I N D    T H E    P A I R S 

PLAYER A

1. Without opening then, take one folder yourself and give the other one to your partner.
2. There are 6 pictures in each folder. 3 of your pictures are the same as your partner’s. The rest are different. The identical pictures are in the same position in each folder. 
3. Talk about your pictures until you are sure which ones are identical. 
4. DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR PARTNER’S PICTURE AND DO NOT SHOW THEM YOURS!
5. When the time is up, compare your pictures and discuss any difficulties you had finding the differences

 Instructions printed outside folder for student A (who leads the activity)

‘Find the Order’ where the teacher cuts up the images of a story in pictures, gives out one to each student in a group and asks them to describe, put in order and create a story

‘Describe & Arrange’ with player A receiving a number of images in a grid and player B getting the images cut up – player A describes the order to player B who must arrange them

‘Describe & Draw’ in which player A describes an image to player B who must draw it

DESCRIBE & DRAW

 PLAYER A

1. In the folder, you will find a picture.  DO NOT SHOW IT TO PLAYER B.
2. Tell player B that he must take a pencil, a rubber and some paper.
3. Describe your picture to player B. Give him/her a general description of the picture first, then focus on detail. 
4. Tell then to draw what you describe.
5. DO NOT WATCH PLAYER B WHILE DRAWING AND DO NOT GESTURE OR POINT. 
6. Tell player B that h/she can ask you questions and, if they do, answer them. 
7. When s/he has finished drawing, show your picture. Compare the two pictures and discuss any successes or difficulties and what language caused them. 

 N.B. Instructions sheets adapted  from an old BC publication called ‘Take 5 (authors and date untraceable)

Some Newer Activities

Find out by reading the original blog post here.