Online Teaching Games | Describe the Photograph or Picture (in 1 minute + tips) | Speaking Activities for ESL
This is a perfect speaking activity to improve your students’ fluency and help prepare them for English speaking tests in the future such as IELTS, toeic, fce, toefl.. They have 1 minute in total to describe the photograph the best they can. You can make it more fun by not allowing them to stop talking. If they do just cut the time short.
Here are our top tips for describing a photo or a picture in an exam.
Do:
Look at your picture carefully and take a few moments to think before you start talking.
Talk for all the time you are given. If you have one minute to do the task, use every second.
Practice the useful language below so you can explain which part of the picture you are talking about.
Don’t:
Panic if you don’t know the words for all the things in the picture. You don’t need to know all the words for everything in the picture if you know what to say when you don’t know an exact word.
Get distracted and start talking about something else. Focus on the photo or picture.
Panic if your mind goes blank. Take a deep breath, look at the picture and start again.
If you are asked to describe a photo or a picture in the exam, here is some language you can use:
What is in the picture?
In the picture I can see …
There’s / There are …
There isn’t a … / There aren’t any …
Say what is happening with the present continuous
The man is …ing
The people are …ing
It’s raining.
Where in the picture?
At the top/bottom of the picture …
In the middle of the picture …
On the left/right of the picture …
next to
in front of
behind
near
on top of
under
If something isn’t clear
It looks like a …
It might be a …
He could be …ing
Maybe it’s a …
Any requests for future ESL games or online teaching games to help get your students talking, please write in the comments below!
Cheers!
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Online Teaching Games | Describe the Photograph (in 1 minute + tips) | Speaking Activities for ESL
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