A picture is a drawing, painting, or photograph. Pictures are the cheapest and easily available teaching aids. Pictures, photographs, art pictures can be used to present grammatical structures, vocabulary or content. Certain words and expressions can be easily explained with pictures. For example, a picture of a house, dog, tiger, mountain, river, etc.can be used to present new words in English.

  Pictures can be effectively used to teach cultural contents in English. A phrase or a sentence written under the picture is shown to them. These pictures can be shown to present the cultural experience of the native people so that students can have a full understanding and use of the language.

1. Pictures enliven the class. Students pay greater attention to the pictures. Pictures are useful in the creation of an English atmosphere in the classroom.


2. Pictures are necessary for a proper understanding of a group of words and expressions in English. They are the best aids, next only to concrete objects themselves. They are the cheapest and most readily available visual aid.


3. They reduce the use of the mother-tongue in the English class for purposes of explaining the meanings of words and thus save a lot of time.


4. Pictures illustrate actions that cannot be performed in class. They explain much of the background of a language.


5. Pictures are useful in the teaching of all kinds of person of lesson – informative, descriptive, narrative or reflective. They develop taste and artistic imagination.

Pictures in language teaching

Teachers can use picture in the class to teach vocabulary and grammar effectively. Pictures can be used for oral activities in the class. For example, the teacher can show a picture in the class and ask questions about the activities the person doing in it. For example, the present continuous tense can be taught by asking questions in the picture, like this:

1. Tr.What is the man doing in the picture?


2. Lr. He is reading a newspaper.


3. Tr.What is the woman doing in the picture?


4. Lr. She is watching T.V.


5. Tr. What are the children doing in the picture?


6. Lr. They are playing with dolls.


7. Tr. Where is the cat sleeping (in the picture)?


8. Lr. It’s sleeping under the table.


9. Tr. What is the boy doing?


10. Lr. He’s looking out of the window.

Students may be asked to bring their own collections of pictures and use them in the class for any specific learning activity.