In Images, Jamie Keddie (2009)  lists a number of reasons why pictures can be a useful resource in the classroom:

1.  Combining words with images may help learners remember the language connected to the images. Images can also act as a stimulus for language and conversely, a picture can be constructed from a text.
2. Images can help students engage with a text. Many images are powerful and affecting. He believes that ‘if you really want to move people, don’t use words, use images’.
3. ‘Whereas a text supplies the language explicitly, an image implies it and thus creates a void to be filled’. This view describes how different learners react differently to various images and have different information and ideas related to the image, creating a natural information gap ready to be exploited.
4. Nothing really conveys the meaning of a concrete noun more easily than an image. Teachers who now have Google Images permanently set up on their IWB, no longer need to worry about bringing in realia, miming, or trying to draw the picture on the board. Although old habits die hard. As well as using images to explain individual words, grammatical structures and texts can also be conveyed by a single image. Using pictures and diagrams to explain grammatical items has the advantage of starting with meaning before focusing on form. I remember in my TESOL teacher training, my tutor dividing the board into two halves. On the left-hand side, she drew a picture of a house with various features needing attention such as a broken window and an unkempt lawn. On the other side of the picture, the house looked neat and tidy and there was smoke coming out of the chimney. This picture did not require any artistic talent to replicate and was an excellent way of conveying the present perfect, in this case, being used to talk about what Leech (cited by Scott Thornbury) would describe as the resultative past.
5. Activities which involve multiple images are a good way of providing agency in the classroom. As learners are able to choose which image they wish to interpret, they therefore have a say in the content of a lesson.
6.  Any teacher with access to the internet has an abundant resource of authentic images from which to base a lesson on. Classrooms with an IWB, Wi-Fi and where the students all possess smartphone or tablets, can use images in a number of ways. For example, by manipulating them and sharing them using a variety of different applications.
7. Using images on the IWB or monitor reduces the need to photocopy. Images are also easier to store on a memory stick or in the cloud than in a ring bound folder.
8.  Visual communication is an international language. There no need to grade an image so that it can be understood. Teachers working abroad can easily use authentic images from local media in their classes.
9.  Using images can help enhance visual literacy skills as we practise our ability to look at images critically. I believe this is becoming increasingly important if we are to resist the power of advertisements, propaganda and social conditioning that bombard us daily. Being able to analyse images will combine elements of ‘psychology, graphic design, photography, semiotics, journalism, advertising, public relations, stereotyping and ethics’.

One of his ideas I used in the teaching and reflection module is called Doubling pictures. ‘Doubling’ is a process used in psychodrama where someone provides the voice on behalf of the protagonist. In this lesson, students role play interviews with people (doubled by students) who have accomplished strange or interesting feats and in doing so practise question formation. I used four pictures of Guinness World Records holders. One picture was of Lee Redmond whose nails cumulatively measured 28 feet. Another was of Ashrita Furman, who ran the fastest mile with a milk bottle balanced on his head. The third picture was of Jordan Michael Geller, who has the largest collection of Nike Air trainers in the world and finally I found a picture of Kazuhiro Watanabe, who has 1.13 metre mohawk.

Another idea that I liked, probably because I studied A-level history of art, involved learners reading a description of a piece of art with multiple examples of sentences containing prepositional phrases such as in front of, next to, in the foreground and so on. The picture he uses is Velazquez’s Las Meninas. First students speculate about what is happening in the painting, then students are giving out a text and have to identify the people in the painting, using the prepositional phrases contained in the text to help them. This activity could be extended and personalised if students brought in their own pictures of their favourite paintings and used prepositional phrases to describe them. The following pictures were found using a creative commons search engine and could be used for this activity along with descriptions from the internet.

One of his lessons (a personal picture), takes advantage of the fact that most students carry around a selection of personal photographs on their phones, or can access photographs through Facebook and Instagram. First, the teacher shows a personal photograph on the IWB or monitor and talks about it. The teacher then asks the students to do the same either at home or in class and hands out a written version of their talk to provide a model. The points students need to cover are also written on the board such as; where and when did you take the photograph? What were you doing when you took the photograph? Who were the other people or animals in the picture? Is there any technical photographic information you would like to share and why do you like it?

The advantage of this lesson is that it again personalises the activity. It could be possible for students to record their descriptions for homework. The photos could then be displayed on the wall and using an augmented reality app such as Aurasma, students would be able to hear the audio descriptions of the photos when they placed their phones over the image.

Finally, the last lesson I thought I’d mention as I think it has the potential to be engaging is called, where in the world?

Here the teacher displays a selection of images, from around the world, around the classroom. Students then have to guess where the pictures were taken and in doing so practice modals of deduction. Afterwards, the teacher can either read out descriptions of the pictures for students to match or hand out different texts to each group of students, who then have to identify the image and present the image to the class.

In conclusion, there were some useful ideas in the book that I look forward to trying out when I get back in the classroom.

Bibliography:

Keddie, J. (2009) Images. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thornbury, S, (1997) About Language: Tasks for teachers of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.