Daily Archives: 09.01.2016
Fun with Pictures for ELT by Simon Mumford
The weekly column Article 17, June 2000
Introduction: What Kind of Pictures?
We all know that picture flash cards are useful for language teaching, for instance using pictures of people for teaching the language of clothes or appearance and pictures of rooms for prepositions are familiar, as is using pictures to teach vocabulary or pictures of actions for practicing verb tenses. However I have found that with a little more imagination they can be used in many more teaching situations, especially if you have a good number of pictures, say, 30 or so. The pictures should be large enough to be seen by the whole class, backed by pieces of cardboard. These can be cut from magazines, and the more variety the better. I have a mixture of people, places and objects. I live in Turkey so as well as pictures of young fashion models, I have older men and women, some in traditional Turkish clothes, cut from a local travel magazine. These usually cause some amusement, especially when compared to the former. Such pictures may take time to find and mount, but I hope the following activities will persuade you that it is worth the effort. After all, as the cliché has it, a picture is worth a thousand words.
