listen and draw

This is a listening activity for practicing describing a person, object, animal or place and drawing according to the details described. It is also possible to describe an imagined person, object, animal, or place using this activity.

Preparation

Write a description of a person, object, animal, or place, keeping in mind that the learners will be asked to draw it. Make an enlarged copy of the description to display

Procedure

1.       Read a description of a person, object, animal, or place. First of all, ask the learners to listen to the     

      whole description without drawing. For example:

      Teacher:

      My neighbor is a very tall, thin woman. She wears a T-shirt. She wears narrow trousers. She has 

      big fee, very big feet. And she wears big black boots. She has a square face and a long, pointed 

      nose. She has two small eyes right in the middle of her face. She is always miserable and she has a 

      long, miserable mouth. She has a lot of hair. She never combs her hair. It is full of birds. She has     

      long thin arms and always carries her little cat in her arms.

2.       Then read the description again, slowly, and ask the learners to draw what you describe. You may 

      decide to encourage the learners to ask you questions for more clarity. Be willing to read the descriptive 

      several times.

3.       Display all the pictures drawn by the learners and display an enlarged copy of the text you have used. 

      Check the pictures against the text to see if the details are correct.

4.       Let the class vote for the top five most accurate pictures

5.       Consider asking the learners to do similar activity in pairs or groups.  Descriptions and pictures can then 

       be displayed.

Notes

a.       This is a classic ‘communication game’. There is an information gap: the speaker has the information and 

       the learner does not, and must listen to understand it. The drawing shows, non-verbally, how well he or 

       she understood.

b.      If the teacher describes, then it is a listening game for the learners, but if the learners describe, it is also a 

      speaking game. The art of describing is a very necessary art in daily life. 

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