1

Vietnam national university Ha noi

University of language and international studies
English department
***************************************************

Research
on: the first year students’ difficulties in picture
description and some recommended solutions

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Dieu Ha

Students : Vu Phuong Linh
Dinh Thi Nga
class : 09E3

Hanoi, April 2010

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Acknowledgement
This research could not have been completed without the help,
encouragement and support of a number of people who all deserved our sincerest
gratitude and appreciation.
First of all, we would like to give our deepest thank to our supervisor, Ms.
Dieu Ha. Her continual encouragement, careful reading, critical comments and
patient guidance made our work more enjoyable and much easier.
We would like to thank all the students who helped us so much to complete
the questionnaire and provide us with useful experience and advice.
Last but not least, we are grateful to our family and our friends whose
support and encouragements did play an important role in the success of our study.

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table of contents
Page
I. Acknowledgement 1
II. table of contents 2
III. abstract
5
IV. Introduction 6
1. Rationale of the research 6
2. Aims of the research 6
3. Scope of the research 7
4. Method of the research 7
5. Research questions 7
5.1. What are the difficulties in picture description that 7
the 1st year students and teachers have?
5.2. What are some suggested solutions to solve these problems? 7
V. Literature review 8
1. Speaking skill and the importance of it in English 8
2. PET (Preliminary English Test) – the way to test 9
students in 4 skills
2.1. What is PET? 9
2.2. PET and picture description 9
2.2.1 PET 9
2.2.2 Picture description and its importance in using English 10
2.2.3 Criteria for picture description 11
2.2.4 Matters relating picture description activities 11
VI. Data analysis 12
1. Students’ attitude toward the subject 12
2. The time that students spend on the subject 12
3. The first year students’ difficulties in picture description 14

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4. Students’ solution for the problem 16
VII. Application 18
1. Preparation 18
2. Structure and Content 18
3. Pictures in General 18
4 Paintings 18
5 Words for picture description 19
6 Phrases for picture description 20
VIII. Conclusion 23
IX. References 24
X. Appendix

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abstract
Being aware of picture description for first year student – helping them to
improve English speaking skill, we decided to do a research on the first year
students’ difficulties in picture description and some recommended solutions . In
this research, we would like to focus on description skill. Our aims are to find out
the main difficulties in picture students that first year students in English
Department of the University of Language and International Study a always meet
and some solutions they use to solve it. After synthesizing the material from some
reference book and observing the way students present, we conducted a survey to
understand the matters.
Basing on the data collected, we analyzed and had many findings. These
show that picture description is not a difficult subject. The difficulties they often
meet do not come from the study condition but from students’ abilities. There
were many solution applied by students. However, these were just temporary.
Basing on the finding, some suggestions for improving description skill are
also provided.

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Introduction
1. Rationale of the research
Passing information from one person to another is daily activity of human beings.
The effectiveness of communication depends on vocabulary, pronunciation and
other speaking skills we use to interact. Therefore, speaking is more and more
important in studying English.
Years before, speaking has not been concerned to be as important as other
skills in studying English. For the time being, it has gradually been noticed and
become a basic and essential skill for students in universities. A useful way to
help students, especially freshmen, get used to speaking English, is picture
description. This has been applied for first year students and seemed to help.
Picture description is considered an interesting and effective activity. It
helps enrich the vocabulary, broaden the knowledge about many different fields
and enhance sentence structures of students. It also makes students familiarize
themselves with public speaking, reflect quickly to difficult situations and even
show their own idea about whatever they see.
This research is implemented to find out the difficulties which make
students confused and put forward some ideas to solve the problem. It also comes
from our own interest in studying language through picture description. Hopefully,
this research is one of the material which help students develop speaking skill.
For all mentioned above reasons, we decide to choose “The difficulties in
picture description and some recommended solutions for the first year students” as
the topic for our research.

2. Aims of the research

The aims of the research are carried out for some real purpose. First of all, it is to
help learners familiarize themselves with picture description. Moreover, it helps
them realize some problems which are popular when describing a picture so that
they can avoid them and then to consolidate some skills and give them tips to
succeed in studying.

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3. Scope of the research

This research focus on finding out the problems in describing a picture and some
ways to solve them. To the best of our abilities, these matters will be started as
clearly as possible. As far as their usage is concerned, we do not hope to go into
detail all aspect of picture description, only some tips for first year students.

4. Method of the research

Knowledge in this research was gained through reading materials and books. In
this part, data collection and analytical methods are used. Regarding practical
aspect, interview is also a useful method to do this research. We used
questionnaires to know teachers’ and students’ ideas and opinions.
In addition, our supervisor’s comments, advice plays an important role in
the fulfillment of our research.

5. Research questions
5.1 . What are the difficulties in picture description that the 1st year students and
teachers have?
5.2 What are some suggested solutions to solve these problems?

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Literature review
1. Speaking skill and the importance of it in English
When learning any languages, there are four skills: listening, speaking, reading,
writing for learners to practice. Among those, speaking, as it is fundamental to
human communication, deserves much attention (Bygate, 1997). Speaking is
considered a skill with two ways to understand. Those are motor – perceptive skill
and interaction skill. According to the first way, speaking “ involve perceiving,
recalling and articulating in the correct order sound and structures of the language
to convey the right meaning (Bygate, 1997, p.5) and in the second way, it uses
knowledge and basic motor – perception skill, achieve communication” (Bygate,
1997,p.6).
In speaking skill, “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a
conversation in the (target) language” ( Nunan, 1991,p.39). Speaking is the “odd-
on-out” in four language skills which people can not practice alone but with other
people. If students learn how to speak and get opportunity to speak in the
classroom they may be motivated in learning. According to Lawties (2004),
speaking in classroom would become fun and dynamic place-to-be if the right
activities are taught in the right way.
In order to succeed in speaking a second language, students must invest in
their strategy starting at finding their own learning styles and pay attention to
lectures of teachers. Teachers also learn style so as to have appropriate teaching
strategies to each individual and the whole class. It is normal when students first
learn to speak a second language they sometimes feel not good. That is because
the lack of word or structure makes it difficult for them to join face-to-face
communication, which is not the positive effect for the students in the next
communication. If you are a teacher, bringing some relief in that case with
supportive attitude is very important. Encouragement should be given briefly and
frequently to students who are making a real afford, not just those who are being
the most successful (Mary Underwood,1997).
2. PET (Preliminary English Test) – the way to test students in 4 skills

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2.1. What is PET?
According to Cambridgeesol
[http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-english/pet.html], PET is an exam
for people who can use everyday written and spoken English at an intermediate
level. It covers all four language skills — reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Preparing for the exam is a popular way to develop and improve your language
skills because it provides practical language practice in a variety of everyday
work, study and leisure situations.
PET reflects the use of language in real life, such as understanding signs
and announcements, and is accepted by many employers as proof of ability to use
English in clerical, secretarial or managerial jobs. It is also widely accepted for use
in jobs where spoken English is necessary such as tourism, retail, construction,
manufacturing and engineering.
There are two versions of PET available: PET and PET for Schools. Both
follow exactly the same format and the level of the question papers is identical.
The only difference is that the content and treatment of topics in PET for Schools
have been particularly targeted at the interests and experience of school pupils.
(http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-english/pet.html)
2.2. PET and picture description
2.2.1 PET
According to Cambridgeesol [http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/general-
english/pet.html], PET has three papers:
Reading and Writing: 1 hour 30 minutes
Listening: 30 minutes (approx)
Speaking: 10-12 minutes
Candidates take the Speaking test in pairs.
There are four parts in the PET speaking test:
Part 1: general introductions;
Part 2: discussion about a situation;
Part 3: describing photographs; and

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Part 4: discussion about a topic.
2.2.2 Picture description and its importance in using English
Picture description is in part 3 of a PET speaking test. In this part, students
are required to describe a picture. The content of the picture related to one of the
topic they had learnt before.
Picture description plays an important part in learning English, especially in
speaking skill. The first is that it helps us to have better reflection to English.
Moreover, of courser, it helps improve our speaking skill. “Picture description
often interest students at all levels. Students enjoy imaging what happened before
the moment picture, where they are …. In describing a picture, students will also
feel the need to learn English words to express their ideas” (Ngocvan,1999)
Describing paintings or other art pictures (e. g. caricatures) is something for
the advanced learner of English as you also have to talk about the artists intention
and the impression on the viewer [http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-
up/writing/picture-description ].
2.2.3 Criteria for picture description
Describing pictures is a standard requirement of most language ability
testing [http://angolsuli.education.directnic.com/pics.htm ]. While describing the
picture in part 3, students have to manage discourse and use appropriate
vocabulary in a longer turn. In addition, their description can only last in one
minute and involves in a topic.
2.2.4 Matters relating picture description activities
Describing a picture in English seems to be much more difficult than
speaking English only. They meet several problems such as being lack of
vocabulary, being lack of presenting skill, especially the way to start a speech, bad
pronunciation makes the bad description.

Data analysis

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1. Students’ attitude toward the subject

Above is the bar chart which shows the students’ attitude toward picture
description. As can be seen, no students think that this subject is very difficult or
very easy. It might lead to the conclusion that students feel they have enough
ability to take part in the lesson, though their performances are not very good.
Also the statistic showed that more than 57% of students who had been asked said
they feel it quite difficult and 35.5% of them find it moderate. This means they are
aware of their ability toward the subject and can do something to make it easier. In
addition, 5% think that it is easy to learn picture description. This proves the fact
57.50%
that picture description can become a suitable subject to many students if they can
find the right way to do it.

2. The time that students spend on the subject

For the latter part of the survey, we have a chart of the time students spend on
describing a picture.

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Describing a
70 picture ( in
60 Vietnamese) %

50
40 Describing a
picture ( in English)
30 before learning
picture
20 description%
10 describe a picture (
in English) after
0 learning picture
0 1 2 3 4 description%
It is clear that though in Vietnamese or English, students only “sometimes”
spend time for picture description. This fact is also proved in the percentage of
students’ choice. 17.5% of them almost have never describe a picture in
Vietnamese, 37.5% almost never describe before learning this subject and 17.5%
almost never describe after that.
According to the statistic, though the percentage of students’ frequency that
describes picture in Vietnamese is not very high, that one in English is still lower.
It might lead to the conclusion that this skill is quite new to students.
Over the expectation of the researchers, time that students spend on
describing a picture after learning the subject increases sharply. From 12% very
often do this before to 22.5% after being taught this skill.

3. The first year students’ difficulties in picture description

The table below shows the difficulties in picture description. Some of the most
popular ones are: being lack of vocabulary (87.5%), being lack of presenting skill,
especially the way to start a speech (40%), bad pronunciation makes the bad
description (42.5%). It is easy to see that these difficulties come from the learners’

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abilities. To tell the truth, it is right to the situation of Vietnamese students.
Students were not taught to speak English well before joining University and they
do not have enough condition to practice it frequently. That causes many problems
for their study English later because they are lack of fundamental vocabulary.
What’s more, not many students think that their difficulties are not
being used to describe a picture. Some even have never described a picture (in
English) before or being under pressures: from teachers, listeners, even marks. It
can be seen that their difficulties do not mainly come from the study condition
now. However, these are in fact the difficulties that are much more difficult for
them to overpass.
Furthermore, no one think that their teachers’ teaching method make
it difficult for them to study. This means to solve the problem, students have to try
their best.

Students’ Choices Number of Percentage

students put a (%)
tick at this
Being embarrassed when having 7 17.5
1 to speak English, especially in crowd

2 Being lack of vocabulary 35 87.5

The time is not enough for you to 5 12.5
3 practice.

Being lack of presenting skill, 18 40

4 especially the way to start a speech.

Bad reflex to different kinds of 12 30

pictures, especially the little detailed
5
pictures.

6 Due to the characteristic of the 7 17.5

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first year student: not being used to using
English in communication.

Not being used to describe a 9 22.5

picture. Some even have never described
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a picture (in English) before.

Being under pressures: from 9 22.5

8 teachers, listeners, even marks

Thinking skills: word by word 11 27.5

9

Not controlling the own words: 11 27.5

10

Bad pronunciation makes the bad 17 42.5

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description
Complicating the simple words. 6 15
12

Your teacher’s teaching method 0 0

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4. Students’ solutions for the problem

Students’ Choices
1 Describing whatever pictures you 19 47.5
meet
2 Possess the describing skill to 10 25
each kind of picture
3 Paying attention to other 27 67.5
describing from other people
4 Taking note the popular mistakes 17 42.7
on vocabulary and pronunciation

5 Not trying to continue with the 4 10

details you are confused at

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6 Focus on the topic with the little 11 27.5

detailed or difficult - to - describe
pictures

7 Noting that the topics of the 4 10

pictures are always printed in the right
corner of the picture.

8 Others 2 5
The above table shows the solutions which students use in describing a
picture. As can be seen, most of the students choose Paying attention to other
describing from other people (67.5%), Describing whatever pictures you meet
(47.5%) and Taking note the popular mistakes on vocabulary and
pronunciation(42.7%) to be their solutions. It is clearly that students choose to
observe people around them: their friends and teachers. They are attempting to
solve the problem by not only paying attention to the lesson in class but also
applying what they have observed to improve their own skill.
On the other hand, some solutions which require high skill of thinking are
not chosen by most of the students. For example, not trying to continue with the
details you are confused at (10%), noting that the topics of the pictures are always
printed in the right corner of the picture (10%). It can be seen that they are not
expert and active enough in this subject.

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Application
Some suggestions in describing a picture
1 Preparation
Have a close look at the picture and decide on how to structure your picture
description. What is important or special? What should the viewer pay attention
to?
2 Structure and Content
It's not easy to follow a picture description if the writer jumps randomly
from one point to another. Therefore, make sure that your picture description is
logically structured, for example:
from left to right (or from right to left)
from the background to the foreground (or from the foreground to the
background)
from the middle to the sides (or from the sides to the middle)
from details to general impressions (or from general impressions to details)
Which structure you finally choose depends on your taste and the picture
you want to describe.
3 Pictures in General
short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)
details (who / what can you see)
background information (if necessary) on place, important persons or event
4 Paintings
name of artist and picture, year of origin (if known)
short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)
details (who / what can you see)
impression on the viewer
artist's intention
perspective, colors, forms, proportions etc.
5 Words for picture description
Kinds of pictures and perspectives

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viewer
picture, image
painting
photograph / photo
portrait
landscape painting
worm's eye view
bird's eye view
Structure
foreground
background
in the upper part
in the lower part
in the left part
in the right part
in the central part
in front of
behind
next to …
on the right
on the left
in the middle
from front
from behind
from above
from below
the second from left/right
Others
artificial light
daylight

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subdued light
light colours
dark colours
loud colours
contrasty
vanishing point
vanishing line
6 Phrases for picture description

Information on artist and year of origin

… (image) is a painting by … (artist), painted in … (year).
… (image), painted in … (year), is a work by … (artist)
… (artist) painted … (image) in … (year).
… (image) is a famous painting by … (artist).

Describing the scene

The picture was taken in … (place).
The photo was taken at … (party).
The picture shows a scene from …
It's an image of … (place, person, scene).
The picture describes … (scene).
The picture shows … (place, person, scene) from a distance.
… (place, person, scene) is shown from … (a bird's eye view/…).
You look at … (place, person, scene) from … (above/behind/…).

What can you see?

In the picture you can see …
… (position: on the left/right/…) there is / are …
… (position: on the left/right/…) you can see …
… is … (position: on the left/right/…)

Impression
… gives the impression of depth.

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… (person) seems to look at the viewer.
His / Her eyes seem to follow the viewer.
The figures look as if they exist in three dimensions.
The viewer has the impression that the people in the picture are alive.
The viewer's attention is focused on …
To the alert eye it will become apparent …
The viewer finds it difficult to withdraw his eyes from …
The painting is vivid / happy / expressive.
The picture makes the viewer feel … (sad/happy)
The picture inspires the viewer to think about …

Intention
The artist mainly uses … (colours/forms/…)
Important elements are highlighted.
The artist / photographer / painter uses … to express …
He / She (probably) wants to criticize / express / show …
It is obvious that the artist wants to criticize / express / show …
What the artist / photographer / painter wants to criticise / express / show is …
What the artist / photographer / painter wants to point out is …
I think / believe / am sure that …
It seems / appears to me that …
The problem illustrated here is …
… symbolises …
… is typical of …

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Conclusion
This research has presented systematically, including all common difficulties
which first year students often meet and some suggested solutions for them. It was
implemented in an effort to help students have an overview of picture description
they study in the first year.
The purpose of this part is to make it easier for students to understand how
to describe a picture fully as well as enhance their knowledge about speaking
through this activity.
With the help of our supervisor, we have tried our best to present our
opinions on this aspect. We do hope that this research will be of some use for
students who might be interested in learning English and the best way to
communicate as well. Despite our attempt in collecting the data and completing
the questionnaire, the research can only focus on finding and solving the problem
when describing a picture.
This paper may be considered to be our first step in research so mistakes
and shortcomings are inevitable. We would be pleased to receive comments from
teachers and friends to improve in further steps.

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References
Ego4u. (2009). Picture description. Retrieved December 29,2009, from
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/writing/picture-description.
Goodale, M. (1987). The language of meetings. American: Thompson learning
Inc.
Lucas, F. (1995). The art of public speaking. American: Monotype Composition
Company.
Dang, Ng. V. (1999). Teaching English vocabulary to 11th form students.
University of Languages and International Studies.
Quatrini, J. (1996). Speaking by doing. American: National textbook Company.
Strong,W. & Lester, M. (1993). Writer’s Choice. American: Glencoe/McGraw-
Hill.
Le, Th. Tr. (2007). A study on techniques to develop speaking ability of first year
Students at ED, CFL,VNU, HN. VNU, ULIS
To, Th. Ng. Ng. (2006). Nghiên cứu các hoạt động phù hợp và hiệu quả nhằm
phát triển kĩ năng đọc cho sinh viên năm 2 khoa NN&VH Anh Mĩ. VNU,
ULIS.
Hoang, Th. X. H. (2005). Nghiên cứu các nguyên tắc xây dựng chương trình bồi
dưỡng năng lực NCKH cho sinh viên khoa Anh trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
- ĐHQGHN. VNU, ULIS.
Nguyen, Th. H. (2007). Nghiên cứu việc xây dựng các thủ thuật ( strategies) học
tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm hai khoa NN&VH Anh Mĩ. VNU, ULIS.
Writefix. (2009).Describe a picture. Retrieved December 29,2009, from
http://www.writefix.com/pet/
.

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Appendix
Questionnaire
For first year students who have just learnt picture description in University of Language and
International Study. We are Linh and Nga, from class 09E3. We are carrying out a research on
“The first year students’ difficulties in picture description and some recommended
solutions”
This aims to help you improve the picture description skill by finding out the situation,
difficulties that you are having and some solutions which are being used. We hope you can help
us by filling in this questionnaire.
1. How do you feel about picture description? Put a tick at the right answer
A – very difficult
B – quite difficult
C – moderate
D – quite easy
E – very easy.
2, Please use this range to find you answer
0 for never
1 for almost never
2 for sometimes
3 for very often
4 for always
2.1 How often do you describe a picture ( in Vietnamese)?
………………………………..
2.2 How often do you describe a picture ( in English) before learning picture description?
………………………………..
2.3 How often do you describe a picture ( in English) after learning picture description?
………………………………..
From question 3 to question 4, please put a tick at the right answer!
3, What are your biggest difficulties in picture description?
1 – Being embarrassed when having to speak English, especially in crowd
2 – Being lack of vocabulary
3 – The time is not enough for you to practice.
4. - Being lack of presenting skill, especially the way to start a speech.
5 - Bad reflex to different kinds of pictures, especially the little detailed pictures.
6. Due to the characteristic of the first year student: not being used to using English in
communication.

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7. Not being used to describe a picture. Some even have never described a picture (in English)
before.
8. Being under pressures: from teachers, listeners, even marks
9. Thinking skills: word by word
10. Not controlling the own words:
11. Bad pronunciation makes the bad description
12. Complicating the simple words.
13 – Your teacher’s teaching method
4, What are the solutions which you have used?

1.Describing whatever pictures you meet

2. Possess the describing skill to each kind of picture

3. Paying attention to other describing from other people

4. Taking note the popular mistakes on vocabulary and pronunciation

5. Not trying to continue with the details you are confused at

6. Focus on the topic with the little detailed or difficult - to - describe pictures

7. Noting that the topics of the pictures are always printed in the right corner of the picture.

Others? (please specify)……………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………………….

Thank you for your help!

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