ELT Journal

The value of English picture story books

Sheu Hsiu-Chih
ELT J 62:47-55, 2008.
doi:10.1093/elt/ccm077

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 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.

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.

Method 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 47

ª The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
 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 fill 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 The interview results suggest that the teachers’ views on the educational
discussion 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.

Linguistic value 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 children’s 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 benefit 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

48 Sheu Hsiu-Chih
 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 first language, or in some language-
independent 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 benefited from English picture story books. A
comment made by T4 provides a vivid example:
There are some situations I don’t 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 significant 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
efficiently 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 proficiency in productive skills (speaking and
writing) weaker than those in receptive skills (listening and reading). The
gap in their proficiencies led the researcher to suggest that there is a need for
the governments in these countries to consider how to improve teachers’
proficiency 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.

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)

Using English picture story books 49

 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 influence’ (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.

50 Sheu Hsiu-Chih
The value of the In terms of the value of reading the picture, two main points were
pictures 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 don’t 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’ confidence 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:
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 don’t treat pictures as a main subject in my class. I hope when
students read a picture, they are attracted by it and won’t 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 children’s 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)

Using English picture story books 51

 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 another’s 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 defining it fully. Since they have not been defined 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
children’s imagination, T6 answered:
Pictures. When a teacher is using picture books, she should not just read
the words. A teacher’s job is not to read the story, but to tell the story. She
should lead the students to look at the picture first. . . . 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 author’s.
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 other’s 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 significance 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

52 Sheu Hsiu-Chih
 imagination by reading pictures first, rather than reading words and
sentences first and being led by language only. By reading pictures first,
they might have their own interpretation, then read the book and
compare the difference. (T6)
The idea of teacher’s 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 confirm 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 fit 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

Using English picture story books 53

 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 children’s 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.
Final revised version received December 2005

Note Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative Language

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
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Butler, G. Y. 2004. ‘What level of English proficiency
do elementary school teachers need to attain to teach
EF L? Case studies from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan’.
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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:
172–8.
Johnston, R. 1994. ‘Of dialogue and desire:
children’s literature and the needs of the reluctant L2
reader’. Australian Journal of Languages and Literacy
18/4: 293–303.
Kress, G. and T. V. Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images:
Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.
Teaching: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Nodelman, P. 1988. Words about Pictures: The
Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books. Atlanta, GA:
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Richards, C. J. and T. S. Rodgers. 1986. Approaches
and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
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Rosenblatt, M. L. 1970. Literature as Exploration.
London: Heinemann.
Schwarcz, J. H. 1982. Ways of the Illustrator: Visual
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Smallwood, B. A. 1987. ‘Children’s literature for
limited English proficient students, ages 9–14’.
(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 Children’s Literature at the
University of Reading. Her interests are in E F L
teaching, children’s literature, and reading images.
Email: hsiu_chih_sheu@hotmail.com

54 Sheu Hsiu-Chih
Appendix: Ahlberg, A. and J. Ahlberg. 1989. Each Peach Pear Plum. London: Puffin.
English picture story
Carle, E. 1974. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. London: Puffin.
books used by the
teachers Carle, E and B. Martin. 1994. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
London: Puffin.
Carle, E. and B. Martin. 1995. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
London: Puffin.
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-Mifflin.

Using English picture story books 55