Speaking Activity Using Pictures
(Park, City, Market, Kitchen, Living Room, etc.)
Objective: Help students improve their speaking and descriptive skills by guiding them to describe different parts of a picture.
Instruction for the Teacher
- Provide each student or group of students with a picture. The pictures should depict different settings like a park, city, bustling market, kitchen, living room, etc.
- Ensure that the pictures are clear and contain a variety of objects, people, or activities to describe.
- Introduce the Activity:
- Explain to the students that they will be describing a picture. Their goal is to give detailed descriptions of different elements in the picture, using as much vocabulary as they can.
- Encourage them to focus on objects, people, actions, and settings in the image.
Guide on What to Describe:
- Setting: Have students start by describing the overall scene. Ask them:
- “Where does this picture take place? Is it indoors or outdoors?”
- “Is it a busy or quiet place?”
- Example: “This picture shows a bustling city street with tall buildings and lots of cars.”
- Objects: Encourage students to describe specific objects in the picture.
- “What can you see in the background or foreground?”
- “Describe any objects, buildings, furniture, or natural elements.”
- Example: “In the park, there are tall trees, a playground with swings, and a bench near the pond.”
- People: Ask students to describe the people in the picture.
- “How many people are there? What are they doing?”
- “Can you describe their appearance, clothes, or actions?”
- Example: “In the kitchen, there’s a woman cooking. She is wearing an apron, and she looks like she is stirring a pot.”
- Activities: Guide students to describe actions or activities taking place.
- “What is happening in the picture?”
- “Are people talking, walking, playing, or working?”
- Example: “In the market, people are shopping. Some are buying vegetables, and others are carrying bags.”
- Weather/Atmosphere: Ask students to describe the weather or the overall mood of the scene.
- “Is it sunny, rainy, or cloudy?”
- “What’s the atmosphere like—busy, calm, or cheerful?”
- Example: “In the city scene, it looks like a busy day, and the sun is shining brightly.”
- Provide Sentence Starters:
- To help students begin, provide sentence starters such as:
- “In the background, I see…”
- “In the foreground, there is…”
- “The people in the picture are…”
- “It looks like…”
- Encourage Vocabulary Expansion:
- Encourage students to use descriptive adjectives and varied vocabulary. Prompt them to think about color, size, number, and position.
- Example Prompts: “What color are the buildings?” “How many people are there?” “Where is the tree located?”