Using images and captioning

A picture is worth 1000 words. For this reason, they can be invaluable in the ELT classroom. But where to find appropriate images to use in class?

ELT Pics is a collection on Flickr that is supplied by English teachers all over the world. The images are under the Creative Commons license, which basically means that they can be used freely for non-commercial purposes. Each week on Twitter, a topic is proposed and teachers send their own pictures to be added to the collection. This means that the images are categorized in a way that is helpful to English teachers, and many offer endless possibilities for language. To see how you can contribute, visit Sandy Millin’s blog.

How can we use these images? They can be a good real-world reference of any topic you’re studying in class. As a teacher you can search for images to support your lessons, or you can ask your students to search for photos to illustrate concepts. Why not ask them to make a collage of  insects, images representing happiness, or English-speaking places?

Caption your images. Try remixing the photos by adding text that suggests the conversation or thoughts of the people, animals and objects pictured. You can do this easily online at Big Huge Labs’ Captioner. Upload a photo, add speech or thought bubbles, and save the result to your computer. You can choose one photo for students to add to, or allow them to choose their own, and have fun!

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