2 Picture stories
Pictures and picture stories can be in a book or handout, drawn on the board or
OHP, on flashcards or on posters. Traditionally they have been used a starting
point for writing exercises, but they are also very useful for focusing on specific
language points or as material for speaking and listening activities. Most picture
stories seem inevitably to involve practice of the past simple and past progressive.
Look at this picture story.
We could approach this material in a variety of ways. I’d like to contrast two
broadly different approaches: ‘accuracy to fluency’ and ‘fluency to accuracy’.
Accuracy to fluency
This heading suggests that we start by looking at the language involved in the
story and Work on getting this understood and correct before we move on to work
on telling the story. Thus We could follow this route:
1 Introduction of topic/subject;
2 Focus on interesting or essential lexis, grammar or function;
3 Look at the pictures and discuss; possibly more language focus;
4 Tell the story;
5 Writing exercise.
In the spaceship example, the lesson with a high-level class might be as follows:
1 Ask ‘Do you believe in UFOs?’ or ‘Would you like to travel to another planet?’
Students discuss.
2 Draw a blank UFO-shaped frame on the board, hand out board pens and
invite students to fill the frame with words connected with space and space
travel. Students are encouraged to discuss Words; to check meaning, to look
Words up in dictionaries, and correct mistakes. Occasionally add words
yourself. By the end of the activity, the board may look like Figure 16.1.