An ELT Glossary : Describe and Arrange

Describe and Arrange is an information gap activity used in the Communicative Approach, and first popularised by Geddes and Sturtridge in the late 1970s.

One student has a picture which is divided into several sections and which their partner cannot see. The second student has all the sections cut up individually. The student with the complete picture describes it to their partner, who organises the sections until they match the complete picture.

For example : Student A may have a picture of an appartment block. Through the windows you can see what people are doing in each room. The second student has the picture cut up into the individual rooms. Student A would need to say something like : OK, on the first floor, there's an appartment with three rooms. In the room on the left there's a man who's playing the piano, and in the middle room there's a woman who's working at a computer.