Classroom techniques: Listening to pictures (McComish, 1982) 

Goal   

• to practise listening in te reo Māori 

Features  

• lots of listening for ākonga 
• easy to prepare and mark 
• non-threatening task for ākonga 
• information distribution – shared 
• student arrangement – individual 
• language mode – listening 
• student focus – meaning 

Materials  

See Materials that come with this resource to download Listening to pictures (.pdf).

Procedure 

1. Arrange for all ākonga to be able to see the same picture in which several things are happening (individual or shared copies, or on an OHP or other display). 
2. Describe the picture in detail while ākonga look at the picture and follow the description. 
3. Every now and then, give a true or false statement (for example: “The girl in the bedroom is asleep”). 
4. Ākonga say or write tika (true) or hē (false) for each statement. For example: if the picture shows the girl in the bedroom asleep, they write tika. 
5. Check the answers at the end. 

Kaiako considerations  

• Describe the picture in a systematic and predictable way, for example, beginning in the top-left corner and moving across, so that ākonga can easily follow your description and match the picture to your words. (Nation, 1995, p. 13) 
• Tell ākonga where in the picture you will start and how your description will move through the picture. 
• Use language that ākonga can mostly understand but introduce some new language. 
• It is best to use simple questions or true or false statements, rather than ones that require ākonga to make inferences. 
• Choose a picture that features illustrations of words that your ākonga know or have been studying, or that you want them to learn from the description. 
• You can use the same picture several times if you focus on different aspects in your description each time. 
• Most suitable for lower levels of proficiency (for example, levels 1–3 in the reo Maori curriculum guidelines). 

Variations  

• This technique can be used with either fairly simple pictures or complex pictures, so long as the language in the description is detailed and rich. 
• Instead of a simple 'Yes or No' or 'True or False' use 'Yes or No or Make it right' where ākonga have to correct any false statement. 
• Once ākonga know the technique, they could take turns being the one to describe a picture, using pictures that you have already described. 
• This could be followed by picture composition where ākonga write a description of the picture. (They could be helped in this with questions to answer about the picture if necessary). 
• Repeat the task with the same picture and description, but add more challenge by not being predictable about which part of the picture you are describing. Pause between sentences to allow ākonga to find what you are describing. 

Examples

Level 1 – picture of a school scene with people in different locations engaged in various simple actions (achievement objective 1.5 - communicate about location) 

Level 2 – picture of a school scene similar to above or marae scene, but include descriptions of physical characteristics (achievement objective 2.5 - communicate about physical characteristics) 

Level 3 – city scene with people travelling in different ways (achievement objective 3.4 - communicate about how people travel) 

Benefits of this technique 

This technique “involves a large quantity of material to listen to”. (Nation, 1995, p. 13) “The picture helps learners understand the spoken description and allows them to learn the new language items in that description.” (Nation, 1989, p. 21) 

Ākonga are not required to produce any language in this task, which reduces stress and aids learning in the early stages. 

Evaluation of the task  

• Are ākonga able to follow your verbal description through the picture? 
• Can they answer the true/false statements correctly? 

References 

McComish, J. (1982). Listening to pictures. Modern English Teacher, 10 (2), (pp. 4–8.). 

Nation, I. S. P. (1989). Language Teaching Techniques. English Language Institute Occasional Publication No. 2 (p. 21). 

Nation, I. S. P. (1995). Teaching Listening and Speaking. English Language Institute Occasional Publication No. 14 (p. 13). 

This is part of the resource set "Second language learning tasks".