Picturebook Pedagogy

Introduction

Picturebooks can be used in ELT for three main purposes:

Purely for enjoyment and for the shared social experience of listening to a story together. This contributes naturally to learners´ language and literacy development, for example, as a regular ‘storytime’ event in the class calendar such as once a week
As one of many resources integrated into a teaching and learning sequence. Picturebooks are used occasionally to supplement and complement teaching materials or to link with and develop a subject in the curriculum. Using a picturebook will provide variety and expose learners to the target language in a meaningful way, supporting and extending their acquisition of topic-related language and reaching their learning objectives. Time spent using the picturebook can vary.
As the principal teaching material and source of planning and embodying a picturebook-based ELT pedagogy, where all activities and learning outcomes are structured around the concepts, themes, language or even illustrative style of a variety of picturebooks.

Picturebook as principal teaching material

Picturebook pedagogy is evolving to view picturebooks as multimodal objects, encouraging meaning-making from both words and pictures, and considering the book as a whole, including its design and peritextual features. The use of picturebooks as a prinicipal teaching material involves the total use of picturebooks for:

Short intensive courses structured around one picturebook to constitute a mini syllabus.
Year-long courses structured around, for example, six to eight different picturebooks to constitute a picturebook-based syllabus (see pages 11 and 13 of Tell it Again!). Teaching and learning sequences can cover between 6 – 12 hours around each picturebook depending on time allocated for English language learning. Picturebooks will need to be selected carefully to cover a range of genres, themes and settings or else there is a risk of learners developing highly specialised low frequency vocabulary leaving gaps in their basic vocabulary.

Skills and competencies: Part 1

In order to implement effective picturebook-based ELT pedagogy, teachers need to acquire a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities:

Know the baseline … be familiar with a range of picturebooks, understand the picturebook as an art form, an aesthetic object and a multimodal text and how the words and pictures interact to make meaning, understand the key characteristics and features of picturebooks, including peritextual features, and understand the benefits of a picturebook-based pedagogy.

Select picturebooks… be able to identify picturebooks that are suitable for a particular class in terms of linguistic and cognitive level as well as cultural and age-related needs, and which are suitable for a diverse group of learners. Some picturebooks can also be used to support Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).

Develop materials … be able to draw on existing materials and adapt these to own context as appropriate to plan a programme of work with meaningful and purposeful objectives and outcomes, assess learning, and promote autonomy by encouraging learners to reflect on their learning. See for example e-lessons guidelines and the picturebook lessons series ‘Exploring social issues’ by Ellis and Gruenbaum, and the teaching resources developed by the ICEPELL Project. These provide a solid foundation and starting point for developing materials.

Prepare Context … be able to explain the context (e.g. social, historical) within the narrative of the picturebook, use bias-free language and promote positive values, attitudes and behaviour.

Read aloud … be able to conduct an effective, interactive read-aloud and to use read-aloud talk.

Steps, stages & cyles

The second and third purposes (see introduction) involve the planning of learning sequences around a picturebook which incorporate the before, during and after stages that are associated with skills-based activities. This can include several steps or stages (see for example e-lessons guidelines and the picturebook lessons series ‘Exploring social issues’). Furthermore, a picturebook-based ELT pedagogy can be embedded in a children’s rights perspective by adopting a children’s rights pedagogy.

Ellis and Brewster’s story-based methodology has been seminal in offering a structure to picturebook-based EFL lessons and comprises three components of preparing and teaching a story-based EFL lesson: Plan, Do and Review. This model of reflection can be applied to both individual activities and to the overall structure of picturebook-based lessons.

Teacher Education

Picturebook-based ELT pedagogy requires systematic pre- and in-service teacher education and professional development to develop the specific skills and competencies (see skills and competencies) to implement effective picturebook-based lessons. These can be classified under the main areas of teacher education: attitudes and values that language teaching should encourage and promote, knowledge and understanding central to language teaching and the diversity of teaching and learning, and classroom strategies and skills. Many of these skills and competencies are inter-related and can inform the design of teacher education programmes. Programmes can be designed around a plan-do-review cycle in order to combine personal reflection and experimentation to develop participants’ critical awareness of effective picturebook-based pedagogy. This includes a balance of theory and practical implementation of age-appropriate techniques and materials followed by analysis and reflection which can be achieved via a combination of trainer input, practical demonstrations, experiential learning, problem solving, discussion activities, and creative thinking tasks.

Although teachers may initially find it difficult to imagine how they can implement a picturebook-based pedagogy, once they have experimented with this approach their knowledge and skills will grow, and they will become more experienced and confident. Consequently, they often find it difficult to return to conventional ELT materials which often remain at the mundane and utilitarian level of basic dialogues and daily activities. Picturebooks address universal themes and allow children and teachers to think about and discuss important issues.

Skills and competencies: Part 2

Listen … be able to understand how listening skills can be developed through repetition, rhythm, intonation, and pronunciation, and how listening for general or specific understanding can be developed via visual and audio clues. It is also important to listen to and respect children’s views and personal responses to a picturebook.

Speak … be able to guide picturebook-based discussions. Learners may be quick to interpret images which can influence the scope of a discussion so that oral skills go beyond modelling vocabulary to include clarity, pace, and rhythm of speech.

Read and write … be able to recognise the importance of the written word and encourage learners to develop their reading and writing skills by including various word and picturebook-based individual or group activities.

View … be able to understand how viewing (for example, a picturebook read-aloud or trailer) can help learners acquire information and appreciate ideas and events via auditory and visual modes which provide a multimodal experience to convey meaning and support understanding.

In addition, attention may also need to be given to a teacher’s language proficiency and level of confidence, recognising the interconnectedness between the skills and competences required for effective picturebook-based pedagogy. Teachers may also need to reflect on their own theories and constructions of children and childhood, as well as the power dynamics in the adult-child relationship, to plan for an interactive approach to reading aloud.

References

Ellis, G., & Brewster, J. (2014). Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers. British Council. pp 22 – 24.

Ellis, G. & Gruenbaum, T. (2023). Picturebook lesson series: Exploring social issues. British Council.

Ellis, G. & Gruenbaum, T. (2023). Reimagining picturebook pedagogy for online primary English language education. In D. Valente & D. Xerri (Eds.), Innovative Practices in Early English Language Education (pp. 147-170). Palgrave.

Gruenbaum, T. (2021). Exploring Picturebooks as a Teaching Tool in Initial Primary English Teacher Education in the Netherlands. [unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Institute of Education University College London]. Open Access UCL Discovery.

ICEPELL Consortium, (2022). The ICEGuide: A handbook for intercultural citizenship education through picturebooks in early English language learning. CETAPS, NOVA FCSH.