Image-based Language Lessons

A few years ago I wrote about using CAPL (Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon) as a resource for locating images to use in language lessons. Over the weekend Larry Ferlazzo wrote about CAPL's Pictolang service which prompted me to look at it again.

CAPL now supports thirteen languages. Browse through the CAPL collection if you're looking for images to use in a world languages lesson. To find a Creative Commons licensed image to use in your lessons visit CAPL, click browse, then select your language to search for images that represent common words in that language.

Pictolang is a CAPL service that offers four image-based language learning activities. The Visual Word Trainer is simply a flashcard activity that shows students an image and the word or words that picture represents. The Picture Match Game shows students one word and they have to find the picture to match it. Word Match Game shows students one picture and they have to find the word to match it. The Analyst Game is probably the most challenging of the activities. The Analyst Game shows students a picture and they have to identify where that picture came from.

Applications for Education
The Pictolang games could help students study languages on their own. The CAPL galleries could be helpful in locating images to use in developing your own language learning activities. You could also have students use CAPL to create language learning games to use with their own students.