2.3 Children’s Literature and Picture Storybooks
2.4.3 Application of Wordless Picture Books in L1 and ESL Contexts
Wordless picture books have been widely used in teaching writing in L1 and ESL teaching context. Wang (2000) stated that the application of wordless picture books in language teaching becomes popular as the other picture books do. Brown (1988) affirmed, “both experimental and analytical studies have been conducted within the past few decades which have helped to clarify the techniques shown in these books
and make suggestions for their use” (p. 18).
A large number of studies have shown that the use of wordless picture books in the L1 and ESL context enhances oral ability (Avery, 1996), reading strategy (Howell, 1985; Cassady, 1998; Salminen, 1998), confidence (Preston & Ellis, 1983; Howell, 1985), high-order thinking (Hopkins, 1979), creativity (Cassady, 1998), writing ability (Whalen, 1994; Reese, 1996; Cassady, 1998) and creative writing (Carter, Holland, Mladic, Sarbiewski, & Sebastian, 1998; D’Angelo, 1979; Henry, 2003; Reese, 1996;
Salminen, 1998; Whalen, 1994; Williams, 1994).
As for language skill development with the use of wordless picture books, Preston & Ellis (1984) described a cross-age tutoring program, in which each fifth grader worked with another first grader to help stimulate oral language development in the first grader and read for meaning. There were five steps in this program:
knowledge and planning of the use of the wordless picture books, selection of suitable materials, training reading assistants, on-going monitoring and support, and evaluation. The fifth graders help the first graders create a story of their own in their own words based on the wordless picture book they read. Throughout the cross-age tutoring program, the first graders developed some important skills, such as sequencing, predicting, developing vocabulary, determining cause and effect, expanding sentences, identifying pattern repetition, determining main ideas, and making judgments. The fifth graders also benefited from this program. They were more able to be aware of the reading strategies and be more confident in guiding
others to read.
Apart from language skill development, Avery (1996) investigated the values of wordless picture books in enhancing storytelling with a second and a fifth grader. The wordless picture book selected was titled, The Chicken's Child, which was similar to a cartoon style with a simple story line. The findings showed that the second grader demonstrated a good ability in narrating the story expressively. Although there were no use of dialogues or too many adjectives, the second grader were able to use complete sentences and appropriate tenses and grammar. Compared to the second grader, the fifth grader was an even better storyteller. She was very imaginative and was able to tell her own interpretation of the story clearly and expressively. She used
more adjectives to describe the details, events and feelings of the characters. She also
gave characters names and demonstrated a sense of audience while ending the story.
To develop reading skills, Howell (1985) proposed the use of wordless picture books as reading materials for gifted youngsters in kindergarten. Wordless picture books were ideal for reading instruction aimed to foster cognitive development and encourage reading. Throughout the reading of the wordless picture books, children were able to identify the main ideas, predict the following events or outcomes, and
define characters and setting. Teacher’s frequent questioning also help children to develop a viewpoint, analyze characterization, and provide their own evaluation.
Children also benefited from comparison/contrast activities and discussion in groups.
For the development of writing skills, Carter, Holland, Mladic, Sarbiewski, &
Sebastian (1998) conducted an action research for ten weeks on improving students’
(second to fifth graders) writing skills by using wordless picture books. The wordless picture books were used to enhance students’ writing skills, including sequencing, dialogue, describing words, elaboration, and vocabulary development. Students received explicit and implicit lessons on a specific writing skill, told the story orally or in written form in pairs, had conferences with the teacher, and shared stories with students in different grades. Result showed that students improved their writing skills, especially their skills of sequencing, elaboration and dialogues. Besides, it was also
found that students in the lowest 25 percent improved the most.
Moreover, Whalen (1994) pointed out that wordless picture books are valuable not only in enhancing oral language development but also in writing development. She introduced Brinton Turkle's Deep in the Forest to her first graders in class and found that her students were able to make four different stories based on the illustrations collaboratively in groups. She helped them record and organize their narrations, and then she had them present their own stories in the way they wanted it to be. The students presented their stories in the manner of a play, a mural, a booklet, and a recorded tape. The students all enjoyed the task and were able to see language learning as a whole, the interrelationships between listening, speaking, reading and
writing.
In fostering high-order thinking, Hopkins (1979) noted that advanced learners can exercise their thinking skills through interpreting the hidden meaning in the pictures. Carty (1983) also advocated that to develop the story through interpreting the illustrations in wordless picture books, children learn to think critically and elaborate imaginative ideas. Since there is no written text, the details in the pictures help students from the ideas, supportive conceptions and predictions (Whalen, 1994).
In addition, Smith (2003) stimulated students’ critical thinking by using wordless picture books. There are five steps suggested to develop critical thinking skills. First,
students’ prior knowledge should be activated and they should be asked to predict what the story might be about before reading the book. Second, during reading, questions for discussion, such as questions about the setting, the characters, or the events, should be provided. The third step is optional. Students can be asked to produce sentences to complement the pictures in the book. The fourth step is focused on characterization. Students should be encouraged to analyze and describe the characters’ actions, and review or summarize the story by acting out or role playing.
The final step is also optional. Some extensional activities can be introduced, such as
creating a new story for the character.
Thus far, the use of wordless picture books on the language skills development has been reviewed. Previous research has also explored the use of wordless picture books with learners of different levels and backgrounds. Cassady (1998) claimed that wordless picture books are excellent teaching materials for struggling and reluctant readers as well as linguistically and culturally different readers. A teacher was mentioned to introduce The Snowman by Raymond and Briggs in her sixth-grade classroom. The teacher began by showing the students the beautiful illustrations and describing what happened in the story in the first few pages. She then invited her students to read the following pages. The students were very interested and volunteered to share their own interpretations with their classmates. She then had the
students worked in a pair to write a story based on the pictures for two more class periods. She witnessed that her students working collaboratively, building up
confidence, developing their writing abilities and vocabulary, and enjoying the story.
Wordless picture books are also found useful for the writing development of young learners. Reese (1996) revealed that even very young student can write stories through wordless picture books. She developed students’ sense of story, higher-level thinking skills, and writing skills by having them write descriptive sentences to accompany the pictures in the wordless picture books. She carried out a six-month writing program which contained three stages: whole class (eight books), partners (twelve books), and individual work (twenty-four books). In the beginning, the teacher led the whole class to discuss the story, examined the details of the illustrations, and write sentences to describe the pictures in the wordless picture books. Then the students would share their story with other classes and gain feedback from them. They gradually improved their writing ability and more willing to revise their story. They were more able to write from different perspectives, use linking words, write in complete sentences, use correct verb tenses, personalize their story by giving characters names, better describe
the pictures, and pay attention to writing conventions.
In conclusion, wordless picture books have been successfully used to support the development of oral ability, vocabulary, self-confidence, creativity, story writing, and
higher-order thinking of learners of different levels and ages. However, compared to the studies in L1 and ESL context, the studies on the effect of using wordless picture books in developing learners’ language and literacy skills in EFL contexts are relatively few, let alone studies conducted in the context of Taiwan.
2.4.4 Application of Chinese Wordless Picture Books in Taiwan
This section will examine the previous studies on the features of wordless picture books and their applications with different learners in different contexts, at home or at school for either L1 and L2 development or the development of other skills, such as observation skill, aesthetic literacy, oral abilities, and creativity.
2.4.4.1 Using Wordless Picture Books to Explore Visual Literacy
Lin (2009) explored how children interpret the illustrations and construct meaning during wordless picture book reading by examining the children’s reading process, their drawings after reading and having semi-structured interviews with them. It was found that children have a keen observation of the illustrations, including the color, line, shape, size, movement, long/close-range view, point-of-view, frame, and so on.
However, their understanding of the images is influenced by their background knowledge and experiences on the topic.
2.4.4.2 Using Wordless Picture Books in Teaching Context
To understand the use of wordless picture books in preschools, Lin (2006) conducted a study to survey the use of wordless picture books in kindergartens and daycare centers in Tainan, including wordless picture book selection, settings, discussion on wordless picture books and teaching activities. The result suggested that most teachers like to use wordless picture books in class, and they use them in class from time to time. However, most teachers do not know how many wordless picture books are there available at school. They receive information about wordless picture books from bookstores. In addition, teachers and caregivers with a wider selection of wordless picture books available at school are more able to choose more suitable wordless picture books for their students. Besides, teachers and caregivers with more experiences in using wordless picture books are more able to discuss the story content, arrange the seating, and present activities while using them in class. Extended
activities usually include role plays and artistic creations.
To investigate the effect of using wordless picture books on the aesthetic literacy, Hung (2005) conducted an action research with children in kindergartens. The result showed that children develop their aesthetic literacy while sharing and discussing the story and illustrations. They become more interested in artistic creations and more willing to share their creations with others. Besides, due to the lack of text in wordless
picture books, they are suitable materials to develop not only aesthetic but also visual
and language literacy for children in kindergartens.
To examine how a wordless picture book teaching class was carried out, Cheng (2003) investigated how the kindergarten teachers led their wordless picture book storytelling class using the book 7 Sector by David Wiesner. Three stages, pre-reading, during reading and post reading activities were looked into. The result showed that most teachers use regulation skills which are not related to the topic of the book as a warm-up activity, such as singing songs or arranging the seats. During the reading, some teachers prefer to discuss the plot with the children page by page, while others like to browse through all the pages and then discuss the plot. Teachers motivate the students by asking questions about the cover, character, or relate to the children’s experiences. Also, most teachers tell the story from the third-person perspective. The teachers discuss the event or plot with the children and respond to their questions and reactions. Most teachers respect the children’s ideas and encourage creativity. After reading the book, teachers conduct a variety of extended activities,
such as storytelling, artistic creation, discussion, naming the story, outdoor activities.
Wordless picture books have also been used to develop learners’ observation skills and imagination by Cheng (1997). The teacher included wordless picture books teaching with second graders by arousing their interest and reading motivation,
guiding them to read, discussing, and carrying out extended activities. To arouse their interest and reading motivation, the teacher relates the book to the students’ personal experience or background knowledge. Before reading, the students are encouraged to make predictions about what will happen in the story. When guiding the students to read, the teacher asks the students to pay attention to the setting, characters, plot, style, topic and consistency in the illustrations. After guided reading, the teacher and students can discuss some important points in the story or talk about the illustrations to enhance students’ observation skills, thinking skills and imagination. Last, the teacher can carry out some extended activities, such as role-play, storytelling or writing activities. The researcher concluded that the use of wordless picture books develop thinking skills, reasoning ability and keen observation. By posing questions and interacting with children during reading, children were not only able to get the main idea of the story but also pay attention to details in the story. Also, extended activities based on the wordless picture books also stimulated children’s creativity and imagination. Later, Cheng (2004) further explored effects of the use of wordless picture books and videotapes on students’ inference skills with the book Snowman by
Raymond Briggs. However, there was no significant difference found in their use.
As for its effect on stimulating creativity, Ho (2008) conducted a study to investigate how the wordless picture book teaching influenced Taiwanese elementary
students’ creativity. In the study, the researcher intended to investigate the effects of the use of wordless picture books on children’s creativity, to look into children’s attitudes or feeling about the teaching, and demonstrate a possible wordless picture book teaching method at the elementary school level and recommend for teaching implications or future studies. The participants were 54 junior students in an elementary school in Taichung County, 27 in control group and 27 in experimental group. Fourteen wordless picture books of various topics were selected for reading.
Data were collected from children’s pre- and post-test and from teacher’s observations and interview with the students. The study lasted for two months. The results showed that the use of wordless picture books enhanced elementary school children’ verbal creativity on their verbal fluency, originality and flexibility. Also, their figural creativity on figural fluency, originality, flexibility and elaboration improved after the intervention. Finally, most children in the experimental group showed positive attitudes toward the wordless picture book teaching, and they believe this enhanced their creativity. At the end of the study, the research recommended that a more qualitative study was needed to have a more in-depth understanding of their creativity development. For example, the time of the intervention could be longer, and data from a wider range of sources should be included, such as interviews with the learners or their parents, peer evaluations, or third-person observations.
2.4.4.3 Using Wordless Picture Books to Examine English Narrative Ability
Wordless picture books have been used to explore English narrative abilities of children in Taiwan (Lin, 2008; Chang, 2005; Sung, 2004). Lin (2008) explored the narrative abilities both in Chinese and English of preschoolers and elementary school children in English-immersion schools. The researcher concluded that preschooler were less able to sequence the events in correct order, produce complex sentences or formulaic expressions, perceive the psychological states of the characters and they tended to provide erroneous information and content. Both preschoolers and elementary school children provided more incorrect information and repetition in their English narratives than in their Chinese narratives since Chinese is their native
language which they are better at.
Sung (2004) investigated 30 sixth graders in Taiwan in terms of the L1 influence on the referential skills in their English narratives based on wordless picture books.
The participants were asked to narrate a story based on a wordless picture book in Chinese and English, so that their referential skills in both languages could be evaluated and compared. The result indicated that the children were able to use a full set of Chinese and English referential strategies to make clear reference in their narratives. However, although the participants in this study have learned English for
around four years, they still made some mistakes in choosing appropriate references.
The mistakes, according to the researcher, may be due to their L1 interference or overgeneralization errors. Besides, the researcher pointed out that their L1 may have beneficial effect on their acquisition of L2 referential skills if the referential strategies
in the two languages are transferable.
Later, Chang (2005) investigated the two wordless picture books with special illustration strategies, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs and Don’t Forget Me,
Father Christmas by Virginia Mayo, and its effect on four children’s Chinese
narrative performance and content. In these two books, sometimes a set of smaller pictures are devoted to describing a single movement or event; while other times, only a single picture present a movement or event. It was found that different illustration strategies can lead to different narrative performance and structure. Besides, the children were able to produce a well-structured narrative including initiating events, attempts and reactions based on the two books. For the setting, they all included the description of the characters, and some of them did not mention the time or locale in
their narratives.
In addition, Cheng (2005) conducted a study to look at how a kindergarten child narrated a story in Chinese based on another famous wordless picture book Tuesday by David Wiesner. When narrating a story based on the book, the child tended to pay
attention to the movement and changes in appearance; while they are likely to ignore the feelings or emotions of the characters. Sometimes the child incorporates his experience and background knowledge when narrating the story. The construction of meanings is achieved by observing, questioning, and finding clues in the illustrations.
Linking words, like “and” or “then”, is used extensively and the child used “here” and
“there” to replace the place.
In conclusion, previous studies in Taiwan have looked into the feature and narrative art of wordless picture books, children’s interpretations and responses to them during reading, and the use of them at school, at home and to examine both L1 and L2 narrative development. However, its effects on language learning or specific development of skills have not been explored deeper yet. Besides, studies done to inform teachers or practitioners of the use of wordless picture books in the EFL teaching context are still insufficient.
2.4.5 Application of Wordless Picture Books in Writing Development in Taiwan
In Taiwan, a limited number of studies have been done to investigate the effects of wordless picture books on the writing development of EFL learners; as a result, studies on picture-elicited narratives have also been reviewed in this section. The effect of using wordless picture book has been investigated by Ho (2008), Huang(2009), Tsai (2008) and Chang (2007), and the use of picture-elicited writing has been investigated by Chiang (2003), Liu (2007), Chien (2007), and Tsai (2008).
2.4.5.1 Writing about Wordless Picture Books
The effect of wordless picture books on the writing development of college school students in Taiwan has been investigated by Huang (2009). In this study, 40 freshmen from the Department of Applied English in one university of science and technology
The effect of wordless picture books on the writing development of college school students in Taiwan has been investigated by Huang (2009). In this study, 40 freshmen from the Department of Applied English in one university of science and technology