Ratna Rao
“A picture is worth ten thousand words,” it’s said and how true it is! A picture not only makes a child say hundred words but can also make him willingly write a hundred words. A picture can motivate learning, encourage creativity and provide stimulus to a child’s brain and make it fertile.
Teaching languages using only textbooks becomes boring for teachers as well as students. English teachers can add fun to their teaching by bringing different material like songs, movies, stories and pictures to the classroom. Songs and movies in a class require a lot of preparation and technology, but pictures are readily available to all of us. In fact, you don’t even need to spend anything to get pictures. You could use cuttings from magazines, newspapers, or old story books to make a collection. The ways in which pictures can be used can be varied; the more innovative a teacher is the more ways she/he can find; and discussed here are some of them. Selecting an appropriate picture is the key to the success of the activities given here.
The author is a teacher at the Calorx Teachers’ University. She can be reached at ratnar_p@yahoo.co.in.