The environment of an English as a Second Language (ESL) class can be very challenging...especially for the teacher. Your students can come from all over the world with a variety of native tongues and English-language competency. Because of the many different possible languages, it might be difficult to translate words and concepts for your students. Using pictures in an ESL classroom allows you to reach a greater audience and exercises your students' creativity as well as their language skills.

Turn the pictures into flashcards. Glue the pictures to a sized and cut piece of construction paper or cardboard. Write the vocabulary word of the object, action, place or person on the attached paper. The flashcards can be an individual study tool for the students or a group visual-recognition activity for the class.

Make the pictures into visual clues. To build on vocabulary and comprehension, present the pictures to the students as a whole class. Go around the classroom and have each student describe a trait, like the size or color of a building. Also, have them associate other words that might be related to the picture. For example, if the picture was of a grocery store, then they could talk about food and shopping.

Label the pictures and put them up around the classroom. Affix images of both common and uncommon objects on the walls, with the words for the object and its qualities written underneath. For example, a picture of an apple could have the labels "sweet," "red" and "fruit."

Make the pictures into stories. Show a picture to the class and have students create a story together about what could be going on in the picture. Also, you can separate the class into groups, giving each group a picture with a list of words to use in their storytelling.

Present a series of pictures with the same kind of subject to the class and have students describe each in the series with a list of words. For example, you could show them pictures of people, and have them describe them as young or old, male or female, and tall or short.