The picture narrating activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating.
Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students discuss the picture in their groups, and then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.
For find the difference activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of girls playing in the garden and another picture of boys playing on a field. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in presented pictures.
In newspaper talks activity each learner has to choose a short and interesting article from English language newspaper to present it to the class. The learner must not read the article aloud to the class but should describe the main points of the article. The class should then ask the presenter questions.
Nowadays many researchers, educators and EFL teachers agree that learners improve their speaking by "interacting". Communicative language teaching based on real-life situations as well as collaborative learning serve best to reach this goal. By using this method, learners will have the essential opportunity of communicating in the target language. One of the main requirements is that EFL teachers should create an English speaking environment where students have real-life communication, activities, and tasks that promote oral language. This will occur when learners collaborate in small and big groups to complete a task and to achieve a goal.
When creating or choosing activities which focus on students' speaking, teachers can choose activities relative to different types output and their purposes:
