‘Pictures for Tasks’ EAL Strategy: Explanation and Rationale

Throughout a lesson, learners are asked to engage in a variety of tasks.

These may involve quite different behaviours, interactions, and outcomes.

There are times when a lesson has multiple transitions and learners must switch between a range of activities, each of which has a set of conventions around how to act and what to do.

For an EAL learner who is coming to terms with the English language, this has the potential to be confusing.

With any group of learners, the change from one activity to another can be ambiguous.

Even with clear instructions repeated verbally and made visible on a whiteboard, one or two learners often need further reassurance or explanation about what is being asked of them.

We can assume that EAL learners in the early stages of language development may also struggle to comprehend what we are asking.

The likelihood is that most of the activities you use in class will fall into a small number of broad categories. For example: discussion, individual writing and group work.

You can signify each of these with a relevant image.

Learners will quickly start to associate your chosen images with the different activity types.

These visual cues will instantly remind them of what the expectations are for the task, and what they need to do to be successful.

Here are three examples of how to use the strategy in practice.

Pictures for Tasks: Example One

Identify a small number of categories into which the activities you tend to use fall.

For each of these, find a picture that can act as a signifier.

For example:

• Discussion activities could be signified by a speech bubble.
• Individual writing activities by a picture of a pen and an exercise book.
• Group work by a picture of a football team training together.

Put these images on your slides whenever you need to signal a change of activity.

Initially, you’ll need to explain them to learners, if only to draw their attention to the change.

Soon after, recognition should become automatic.

Pictures for Tasks: Example Two

Choose the images that will represent different types of activities you intend to use in your lessons.

Print these onto A4-sized paper and put them on your classroom wall in a prominent position.

When introducing a new activity, point to the appropriate poster to make the association.

You can extend this by putting a written explainer or set of success criteria on the poster, beneath the image.

Another option is to laminate the posters and attach then to the wall using Velcro.

You can then create a ‘frame’ next to your whiteboard with the title ‘Our Activity’.

Place a piece of Velcro in the middle of this and then, whenever you start a new activity, you can grab the relevant activity poster and place it in the frame, so it is clearly visible for all learners to see.

Pictures for Tasks: Example Three

Create an aide memoire for your EAL learners.

This should be one piece of paper – A4 or A5 – with all the different activity types on it, alongside the images you have chosen to signify them.

Your EAL learners can have this in their books or on their desks.

When you start a new activity, you can ask your EAL learners to locate the activity type on their sheet, or you can point it out for them.

Another option is to include success criteria on the sheet that your EAL learner can use to get to grips with the activity types.

And a further option is to include those success criteria in the learner’s first language, if appropriate.

(Consider, for example, what a difference that might make for a learner who is early in their English language journey, but who, through your sheet, can now instantly understand what is happening in class and what your expectations are).