Learning English creative writing through photographs pictures free interactive ESL EFL worksheet lesson plan printable download quizzes exercises activities grammar English as Second Language Foreign Language for Filipinos Philippines

Learning English and creative writing through the use of photographs: discussions and interactive exercises

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” More than the mechanical recording of events, photography has the power to convey a mood or share our insights with others. It has the power to capture not only our perfect moments of love and happiness, but also searing images of cruelty and poverty. It has the power to preserve in a rectangular frame the beauty of a thousand sunsets, the joys of parents seeing their child just learning how to walk on its own, and the sublime happiness of students graduating after years of hard work and sacrifice.

Photographs (whether your own, those of others, or cut out from newspapers and magazines) can be a very effective way of teaching and learning the English language. Joep van der Werff, in his very informative article entitled “Using Pictures from Magazines” from The Internet TESL Journal, discusses how pictures can be a good source of material for practicing speaking, listening, writing, vocabulary and grammar. In this article, van der Werff relates the inspiring story of how one student overcame his shyness and reluctance to participate in the English class through an activity involving pictures.

We will be posting pictures in our blog “A picture is worth a thousand words.” As a good way of learning how to write in English, you can write descriptions, narrations, dialogue, expositions, etc based on your thoughts and feelings about these pictures. For a good discussion on how to describe pictures, please read the article “Picture Description” from www.ego4u.com.

You can compose short essays about any of the pictures, e-mail them to us, and we will publish them in the blog. Other ESL and EFL teachers and students from around the world can then read your essays and give their comments on your grammar, coherence or unity of ideas, style of writing, and areas for improvement. We will just publish your essays without your name or e-mail address to protect your privacy and prevent spam. You can just give a general description about yourself like nickname, age or school level, gender, country, etc.

Below are some pictures you can use as a starting point. For other pictures, please go to the blog “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If you are an ESL or EFL teacher, you are free to use these pictures in your classroom activities. You cannot however use these pictures commercially, post them in the Internet, or publish them in yearbooks, newspapers, magazines or any other publication. The proper credits must also be given. The pictures below were taken by Atty. Gerry T. Galacio and have been published in the yearbooks of Rizal High School, Pasig City, Philippines from 1989 up to 1996. If and when you use any of these pictures, the credit must read, "Picture by Atty. Gerry T. Galacio, www.betterenglish.org.ph".

Instead of photographs, you can use silent movies to teach your students to write descriptions, narration, dialogue, analysis, etc. You can use, for example, this compelling and chilling award-winning animation by Rodrigo Blaas.

Listed below are some discussions and activities on the teaching and learning of English through the use of pictures.

Notes:

Online journalism training, from JPPROF the website for teaching journalism (by Prof. James Glen Stovall of the University of Tennessee): Discussion of skills (reporting, writing, editing, graphics design, photojournalism,, web journalism, opinion writing and broadcasting), issues (news, practices, law, history, ethics), industry (newspapers, magazines, radio and television, news web sites), and with grammar exercises for students.

Typical English mistakes by speakers of other languages, by Language Project, (approved by the British Council; more examples available upon registration): Arabic speakers; Chinese speakers; Japanese speakers; Korean speakers; Portuguese speakers; Spanish speakers; Czech speakers; French speakers; German speakers; Greek speakers; Italian speakers; Polish speakers; Russian speakers; Swedish speakers; Turkish speakers.

English for Business, Work and other Special Purposes, from about.com ( Adult Education English for special purposes including Business, commercial, financial, legal, insurance and human resources sectors as well as help with resumes, job interviews and cover letters; resources include Business English Writing for esumes, letters and documents, Business Reading comprehension exercises, Business Speaking Skills for the workplace, English for Medical Purpose, Business English Vocabulary, Business Meetings and Presentations, Business English Lesson Plans for ESP and Vocational English, Job Interviewing, and Business English Role Plays - Dialogues, and Business English Level Test, a 100 question test to discover your business English mastery level)

Postcript is a self-study magazine for learners of Business English by Marcus Evans Linguarama with exercises on reading, writing, grammar, pronunciation, style, vocabulary and usage. Each exercise has an answer key so that you can correct your work yourself online. Each issue has a theme on which many of the exercises are based, for example, Sales, Personnel or Banking.

Free resources from englishmedialab.com include the following: Business English ESL Quizzes and Business English Listening (business meeting and interactive listening quiz for job interviews); Online Grammar Exercises; Vocabulary Videos; Pronunciation; Quizzes for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Level English Learners.

English for the medical professional, from HospitalEnglish.com (free resources for medical professionals like doctors, nurses, physical therapists, radiologists, physician assistants, pharmacists, etc, studying English and medical printables for teachers; with medical vocabulary builders and pronunciation guide, patient counseling activities, disease state directors, healthcare professional articles, medical flashcards, hospital lesson plans, and ESP worksheets)

Learn English Professionals (British Council) can help you reach your professional aspirations by developing your English skills and helping you prepare for English language exams with its online test to see what level your English is according to the six levels outlined in the European Framework. Various sections include Maritime English, English for Engineers, English for Journalists, English for Finance, Legal English and English for Tourism. You can also practice your English with grammar movies or listen and watch Sanjeev use English in the workplace with the J@m movies, its cartoon series practicing English through work in a web design company. With the Specialist vocabulary builder (choose between Medical, Legal, IT, Marketing and Financial words), you can learn or test yourself on up to 100 words in each category). Choose the level of difficulty and start learning. Specialist Vocabbuilder uses the Collins Cobuild dictionary to create exercises just for you; the exercises are different every time. Start Specialist Vocabbuilder now.

Qedoc is a learning object repository, documentation centre and forum for author collaboration. The learning object repository has free, editable, redistributable, interoperable educational resources, based around interactive quizzes, with1,210 articles currently available). Qedoc Quiz Maker - a desktop application for making quizzes and interactive educational materials. Qedoc Quiz Player - a desktop application for playing back quizzes and interactive educational materials. eLearning resources include English, Mathematics, Geography, History, Languages, Science, Medicine, Computing and Business. e-learning resources are available in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.

Handheld English is a complete English course with MP3 lessons downloadable directly to your mobile phones; This course can be used by university students, professionals, and others who want to speak English well. If you practice one or two hours each day with the audio lessons, you should be able to speak simple English within six months. However, learning English fluently will require hard work each day. This course can be used by both beginning and advanced English students. The lessons are neither too difficult for a beginning student nor too easy for an advanced student. They can be used in an established school or when studying alone.

Testing your level of English proficiency (online diagnostic, assessment and practice exams)

Free Online TOEFL, English and Multi-Language Vocabulary Test, from FreeTOEFL.net

Online Assessment Tests, from World English

Diagnostic tests / Assessment tests on English grammar, from www.english-at-home.com

Assessment Tests, from Churchill House School of English Language

Test your English now (vocabulary, grammar, listening and reading (cloze test)

365 various quizzes to test your English knowledge, from Road to English Grammar

Free online, interactive exercises in grammar, vocabulary and discourse, from Language Project (approved by the British Council)

Free online practice tests for learners of English, from Exam English (managed by Steve Chadwick); also available in French and Spanish

"The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia has become a beloved classic the world over. Four children walk through a seemingly ordinary wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia. A fantastic adventure begins to unfold as Aslan the Great Lion is pitted against the evil White Witch. Battles are fought, heroes are made, and one of the children has committed a crime that demands the death penalty... What will happen? Take off on an adventure you never imagined ...

Listen now to The Narnia Story (narration by Ray Comfort and introduction by Kirk Cameron) or download the MP3. If you have trouble extracting a zipped file, you may need to install a free program. Just click this link to download a free copy of ZipReader.

This free-to-copy English language CD ROM by Roofbreakers.org is being used and distributed around the world by a whole range of people. Besides the free CD, also available for download are (1) The Hope ESL Software Curriculum Guide in PDF; and (2) A few Simple ideas for New Language Learners and Old Ones Needing Some New Life. You can find the Mandarin and Indonesian support version of Hope ESL in the root directory of each CD. You can also freely download the complete Hope ESL software (an UltraISO file).

Currently Roofbreakers.org has a specific focus on utilizing the massive global English Language opportunity to develop and distribute resources which teach and inspire students. This software project had its origins in Vietnam where an Australian English teacher developed the educational concept. Later, in partnership with mars-hill productions, Roofbreakers.org was able to produce the Hope ESL software curriculum as a free-to-copy CD ROM including the full Hope film.

Free DTP book download from www.effectivechurchcom.com by Yvon Prehn “Back to Basics” foundational communication skills for church communicators
Part 1: introduction, planning, grid and templates, writing for DTP (6.42 mb)
Part 2: continuation writing for DTP, typography, graphics (3.97 mb)
Part 3: continuation graphics, photography, layout and examples (4.43 mb)
Part 4: continuation layout and examples (3.92 mb)
Part 5: continuation layout and examples, DTP management (5.06 mb)