The value of English picture story books

Sheu Hsiu-Chih

This paper presents a study investigating EFL teachers views on the educational values of English picture story books in Taiwan. Ten teachers with experience of using the books with primary school children participated in this study. The results suggest three main educational values perceived by the teachers: (1) linguistic value, (2) the value of the story, and (3) the value of the picture. A pattern of how the teachers presented the books also emerged from the data: the majority of the teachers perceived themselves as a mediator whose job was not to transmit the meaning of the book to the students, but to encourage participation and interaction.

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Introduction

With the introduction of English lessons to E F L children in many countries, the use of English picture books has attracted much attention from E F L researchers. For example, some researchers suggest that stories are a rich resource for E F L teachers to revise or introduce vocabulary and sentence structures in a memorable and meaningful context (Brewster et al. 2002; Ghosn 2002) and have the potential to transfer E F L learners from mechanical language learning to a more personal involvement context (Collie and Slater 1987). Some point out that pictures in picture story books can serve to clarify the text and facilitate language learning (Smallwood 1987; Johnston 1994). These researchers have provided important insights into understanding the rationale of using English picture story books in the EFL classroom, whereas research concerning how EFL teachers themselves perceive this issue has hardly been discussed at all. This study attempts to investigate the use of English picture story books from the aspect of E F L teachers in Taiwan to understand how they perceive the educational values of using English picture story books with children. The present study applied semi-structured interviews to understand E F L teachers views on the use of English picture story books in E F L teaching. This was a follow-up of a questionnaire study that was carried out to understand E F L teachers general attitudes towards English picture story books. Forty EFL teachers with experience of teaching children English in primary schools and private language schools in Taiwan participated in the questionnaire study. The study was designed to pursue key issues that emerged from the questionnaire data so as to add detail and depth to the teachers views on
E LT Journal Volume 62/1 January 2008; doi:10.1093/elt/ccm077 The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.

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these issues. Ten E F L teachers with the experience of using English picture story books with children participated in this study. Seven of them have previously participated in the questionnaire study and were willing to participate in the follow-up interview. The three teachers who had not participated in the questionnaire study, were asked to ll in a questionnaire before the interview, so as to help them to gain a general idea of this study. Of the ten teachers, seven were teaching in an urban area and three were in a rural area.

Findings and discussion

The interview results suggest that the teachers views on the educational values of using English picture story books can be broadly categorized into three areas: (1) linguistic value, (2) the value of the stories, and (3) the value of the pictures. The interview data revealed that the way that picture story books can provide a meaningful context for language learning was perceived by eight out of the ten teachers as the primary linguistic value of using English picture stories. The majority of the teachers pointed out that picture story books allowed them to help children review words and sentences they had learnt in the textbooks in a meaningful context. The following statements are typical examples: Reading picture books with them gives them an opportunity to review words or sentences they have learned from the textbook and they will know the same word can be used in different kinds of situations. Picture books provide all kinds of situations so that students will know how a word can be used in all sorts of situations. (T3) In story, children will know in what kind of situation a sentence can be used, so childrens books are highly applicable to learning vocabulary. Picture story books help them to practise sentence patterns and to know how to use a sentence in certain kinds of situations. (T5) From situation to how to use, the above statements suggest that both teachers were aware of the role that meaningful context played in language learning, and the potential of English picture story books for providing the context. Therefore, in order to know how to use the language to express the meaning, learners need to be exposed to different kinds of situations as pointed out by Littlewood (1981: 2) that just as a single linguistic form can express a number of functions, so also can a single communicative function be expressed by a number of linguistic forms. Comments made by the teachers suggest that they believed the meaningful context embedded in the books helped the E F L learners to have a deeper understanding of linguistic forms and their functions. The linguistic benet of reading English picture story books was mentioned by T9 from a different aspect. T9 regarded stories as an effective reminder that can be used to trigger students memory of certain words or phrases they have encountered in stories. She remarked: When using picture books, if students forget a word they have learned from one of the stories, I would remind them by saying: Do you

Linguistic value

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remember we have learned this from the story of . . . ? It is a good reminder. (T9) The way that picture story books can help young learners trigger the memory of another text and make a link with the prior knowledge has been discussed by Cameron (2001) who points out that when listening to a story in a foreign language, E F L learners are able to recall the meaning of some words or phrases in the foreign language. Although the story may be told in the foreign language, the mental processing does not need to use the foreign language, and may be carried out in the rst language, or in some languageindependent way (Cameron 2001: 40). As stories are able to engage learners in using their existing language resources and knowledge of the world, readers are able to understand the underlying meaning and remember some phrases. It should be noted that a few teachers reported that from a linguistic aspect, they themselves also beneted from English picture story books. A comment made by T4 provides a vivid example: There are some situations I dont know how to express in English, but picture books let me know how to explain a situation in simple English. This kind of learning gives me a lot of happiness. (T4) A signicant implication here is that T4 believed that English picture story books were able to provide the functional and communicative aspect of language learning, and helped her to learn how to communicate more efciently and economically. This important point not only echoes the concept of the communicative approach (cf. Richards and Rodgers 1986), but also suggests the potential of picture story books to help teachers enhance their productive skill. A recent study conducted by Butler (2004) revealed that teachers of English in primary schools from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan perceived their prociency in productive skills (speaking and writing) weaker than those in receptive skills (listening and reading). The gap in their prociencies led the researcher to suggest that there is a need for the governments in these countries to consider how to improve teachers prociency in productive domains, especially when primary E F L teachers in these countries are all facing the growing need to develop communicative abilities in their students. Findings in this study suggest that, to some extent, picture story books might be a rich source for E F L teachers to improve their productive skills.

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The value of the story

The interview data indicated that nine out of the ten teachers reported that stories have the potential to motivate learning. T4 and T8 provided vivid examples: A lot of students are happy to hear the story and they would ask Could you tell us a story again? I think it is highly related to the content of the story. (T4) A good story will always attract students. They like to read pictures, but for a story to be attractive to students, the story itself is very important. The ending had better be very dramatic. Something they could not expect. My motivation to use English picture books is very simple. I just want to use stories to motivate students to learn English. (T8)
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Both teachers pointed out students enthusiasm for stories, and suggested it was the content of the stories that naturally drew students into the narrative. This corresponds to what has been suggested by Brewster et al. (op. cit.) that stories could provide an ideal introduction to the foreign language as they are presented in a context that is familiar to the students. For E F L children who have acquired the conventions of narrative they have learnt from their mother tongue, stories have the potential to help them make the links with their prior knowledge, and to make the foreign language classroom less foreign. T9 and T4 also provided their opinions about the power of the story in engaging readers in the narrative. When we are teaching children, we use textbooks, which are either full of grammatical rules or dialogues. Books like these are dull, as the topics in these books mainly talk about everyday life. However, when you are reading picture books, you feel like you are watching a TV program. They provide you with all kinds of TV programmes, so it is a more fruitful and special learning. (T9) It is the idea and the content. Some stories are very interesting, so when you are reading them, you feel as if you were reading a Chinese book, not an English one. (T4) As noted by Rosenblatt (1970: 193) literature offers an important source of awareness of possible alternatives and, this kind of vicarious participation in different ways of life has a liberating inuence (p. 194). The above statement seems to echo the idea as comments made by both teachers implied that the focus of reading stories was more content-based, rather than grammar-based. Key words used by teachers such as stories, the content, Chinese books, TV programmes, indicate that picture story books can bring readers an alternative world that is more pleasurable and engaging, compared with reading textbooks. Another issue brought up by a few teachers in this section was that they believed that English picture story books can be used not only to motivate learning, but also to sustain the reading process. For example: Because of the use of plots in a picture book, apart from learning vocabularies, students can be interested in the story and go on reading sentences without being aware of it. (T5) Students show great interest in the story. They are amazed to know that there are different ways of learning English. It is fun . . . For me story telling is like an activity. A teacher plants a seed there. It might help students to realize there are different ways of learning English. (T1) Both statements suggest that literature allows readers to shift from mechanical language learning to a more personal meaningful context (Collie and Slater op. cit.). The statement given by T1 also indicates that she believed that English picture story books can provide an alternative way of learning English, which is different from the textbook-based formal teaching.

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The value of the pictures

In terms of the value of reading the picture, two main points were suggested: (1) pictures increase comprehension, and (2) pictures stimulate imagination. The use of pictures to increase students comprehension of the story was reported by all the teachers. The statement made by T7 is a typical example: Pictures arouse their learning interests. If you give them a pictureless book, they would say they dont understand the story. However, if you give them a picture book: on the right page, it says a book; on the left page, it has a picture of a book, they can understand it very easily. It motivates their learning. (T7) T7 considered that picture books could facilitate English learning and boost students condence as reading pictures increases their comprehension of the text. A similar comment was made by T9 as he pointed out that reading pictures helped students to obtain a broad idea about the development of the story:
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They would look at the pictures and get a broad idea about what is happening. Then, they look at the language to see what exactly is happening in the story. The purpose of using picture books is to help them with their language learning. Pictures are just a learning aid and I use them to attract learners attention. I am not an art teacher, so I dont treat pictures as a main subject in my class. I hope when students read a picture, they are attracted by it and wont forget the meaning of the words. (T9) As pointed out by Schwarcz (1982) language discloses its content in time, whereas pictures confront the viewers all at once. Nodelman (1988) also notes that our understanding of language starts with details and moves towards the whole, whereas our understanding of pictures starts with wholes and breaks down into details. This feature of pictures allows beginning E F L readers to apply a top-down reading model when reading picture story books. As for beginning E F L learners whose limited English ability might constrain them from conducting a top-down model, pictures, to some extent, provide a source for them to form their own interpretation of the story by activating their prior knowledge. With regard to how pictures can stimulate childrens imagination, the interview result suggested that seven out of ten teachers considered pictures in picture books had the potential to stimulate students imagination. For example: Pictures are very different from texts. Readers can create the meaning of pictures. A picture could have many interpretations. I might ask: What do you see? They will raise their hands and tell me all kinds of their thinking. Different ideas bump into one another. Each will see something different because they have different views. The mediator, the teacher, gives rise to an idea and students expand it. In the beginning, students might just see one point, but, after the discussion, they will be able to see things they have never seen before. So when you ask if picture books can stimulate imagination, I think so. (T4)

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Two important points are made by T4. First, she believes readers could have their own interpretation of the pictures as pictures could allow students to express their thinking and stimulate one anothers ideas. The way that pictures allow different interpretations can be linked with the characteristic of iconic representation proposed by Bruner (1971), who points out that any domain of knowledge can be represented in three ways: enactive representation, iconic representation, and symbolic representation. The use of pictures is categorized as iconic representation that can stand for a concept without dening it fully. Since they have not been dened fully, they allow readers to speculate, guess, imagine, and generate different interpretations. Second, in discussing the meaning of pictures, T4 regards herself as a mediator whose job was not to provide answers or lead the conversation, but to stimulate their imagination through engaging them in the discussion. The idea of teachers as a story teller to mediate the meaning of the stories and pictures to children was mentioned by a number of the teachers in this study (T1, T3, T5, T6, and T8). This not only suggests a change of the teaching pedagogy from a conventional teaching approach that is more teacher-centred to a more interactive way of teaching that allows students to develop their own thinking, but also highlights the role of teachers in conveying the hidden meanings in the story books to the children. The potential of pictures to stimulate imagination was further elaborated by T6. When she was asked in what way picture story books can stimulate childrens imagination, T6 answered: Pictures. When a teacher is using picture books, she should not just read the words. A teachers job is not to read the story, but to tell the story. She should lead the students to look at the picture rst. . . . It is not just about reading a book. It is about leading children to expand their imagination and to realize the difference between their own thinking and the authors. Students might have different opinions toward the progress of the story, which is a good opportunity to let them know that we are all different, so we have to respect each others opinion. (T6) Several important points were made by T6. First, through discussing and sharing different interpretation of pictures, students were likely to increase their tolerance towards different opinions. Second was the signicance of leading students to look at the pictures, rather than just read the words, because pictures could encourage multiple interpretations and could expand readers imagination. T6 believed the potential of pictures in developing students ability to appreciate arts and expanding their imagination, and also highlighted the important role that teachers played in the reading process. Having mentioned the potential of pictures in stimulating students imagination, she also pointed out that this ability did not come naturally. Students needed to learn the ability and teachers played a crucial role in helping them to develop the ability to read pictures: I am not a visual-oriented person, so I tend to place all the emphasis on reading words. This kind of education handicaps my ability to appreciate art, so I hope my child and all the children can learn how to expand their
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imagination by reading pictures rst, rather than reading words and sentences rst and being led by language only. By reading pictures rst, they might have their own interpretation, then read the book and compare the difference. (T6) The idea of teachers learning style emerges here. Despite the fact that T6 considered herself not a visual-oriented person, she was well aware of the feature of pictures in generating various interpretations, and the potential of pictures to expand the students imagination. The idea about encouraging children to create their own interpretation, and help them to compare different versions of interpretation echoed what has been discussed earlier by T4 about the role of teachers was not a meaning provider, but a mediator who facilitated the discussion and learning. A few teachers suggested that pictures have the power to stimulate readers and liberate them from their own perspective and improve their perception of the world. Statements made by T9 and T10 seemed to suggest this point of view. When a child reads a picture, such as someone drawing a curtain, he would use his prior knowledge either to agree or disagree with the description. This is a type of stimulation . . . Children would look at the pictures and wonder why they draw the picture like this. (T9) Generally speaking, I think Chinese children are dull. They are not very creative, so when they read something creative, it expands their perspective of the world and stimulates their imagination. (T10) Both statements imply that reading pictures illustrated from different cultures might provide students different perspectives to look at life. The comment made by T9 about how students used their prior knowledge to form a set of expectations about the picture, and then conrm or reject them, seems to correspond to the top-down reading model. The gap between EFL learners prior knowledge of the world, and the world represented in the picture story books might be one of the reasons that picture story books could be used to stimulate readers imagination. This point is elaborated by Kress and Van Leeuwen who suggested that the challenges of reading pictures might be an opportunity for children to exercise their imagination: Visual enigma can challenge parents and children to exercise their imagination. To include in their thinking elements that do not easily t in with the traditional order of things, to tolerate some ambiguity, to allow the inclusion of the other in their construction of the world. (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996: 26) According to Kress and Van Leeuwen, pictures can encourage tolerance and thus help to increase understanding of other culture. Even though Kress and Van Leeuwen do not particularly refer to the E F L context, this ability to learn how to include, tolerate, and allow different elements in the interpretation is especially evident for E F L learners. From the aspect of different cultures, it can be argued that for children who are reading pictures illustrated from another country, the challenges may be greater than reading pictures from their own country. However, the challenges, to some
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extent, can be perceived as an excellent opportunity for them to raise their cultural awareness. Teachers comments in this section suggest that the different convention embedded in the picture, to some extent, have the potential to stimulate EFL childrens imagination. However, it was through the discussion, that students learnt how to be tolerant of different ideas and increase their understanding of the pictures.

Summary

The results of this study suggest three educational values of using English picture books perceived by the teachers in Taiwan. Through analysing these values, an important pattern about how teachers used the story emerged; more than half of the teachers emphasized the importance of teachers as a mediator during story reading, especially in discussing the meaning of the pictures. An important point made by teachers about how pictures can allow readers to make their own interpretations and to encourage discussion provides some insights into understanding the educational value of picture story books in E F L teaching and learning.
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Final revised version received December 2005

Note The term picture story books is taken to mean a book that uses pictures and written texts to tell a story, and both media play equal roles in telling the story. References Brewster, J., G. Ellis, and D. Girard. 2002. The Primary English Teachers Guide. London: Penguin. Bruner, J. 1971. Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Butler, G. Y. 2004. What level of English prociency do elementary school teachers need to attain to teach EF L? Case studies from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. T ES O L Quarterly 38/2: 24574. Cameron, L. 2001. Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Collie, J. and S. Slater. 1987. Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ghosn, K. I. 2002. Four good reasons to use literature in primary school E LT. E LT Journal 56/2: 1728. Johnston, R. 1994. Of dialogue and desire: childrens literature and the needs of the reluctant L2 reader. Australian Journal of Languages and Literacy 18/4: 293303. Kress, G. and T. V. Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge. Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nodelman, P. 1988. Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Childrens Picture Books. Atlanta, GA: The University of Georgia Press. Richards, C. J. and T. S. Rodgers. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rosenblatt, M. L. 1970. Literature as Exploration. London: Heinemann. Schwarcz, J. H. 1982. Ways of the Illustrator: Visual Communication in Childrens Literature. Chicago: American Library Association. Smallwood, B. A. 1987. Childrens literature for limited English procient students, ages 914. (ER IC document reproduction service no. ED: 356647). The author Hsiu-Chih Sheu is an assistant professor in Dayeh University in Taiwan. She has completed a PhD in Educational Studies at the University of York in England and an MA in Childrens Literature at the University of Reading. Her interests are in E F L teaching, childrens literature, and reading images. Email: hsiu_chih_sheu@hotmail.com

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Appendix: English picture story books used by the teachers

Ahlberg, A. and J. Ahlberg. 1989. Each Peach Pear Plum. London: Pufn. Carle, E. 1974. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. London: Pufn. Carle, E and B. Martin. 1994. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? London: Pufn. Carle, E. and B. Martin. 1995. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? London: Pufn. Shannon, D. 1998. No David. New York: The Blue Sky Press. Wescott, N. B. 1980. I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Boston: Houghton. Wiesner, D. 1991. Tuesday. Boston: Houghton-Mifin.

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