LICHUNG YANG (UNIVERSITY OF TAIPEI)

SHARING PICTURE BOOKS TO MAKE SENSE OF TEYL IN TAIWAN’S CLASSROOMS : TEACHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This presentation describes and analyzes student teachers’ use of English picture books for interactive read-aloud with young EFL learners in Taiwan. Picture books are commonly assumed to be easy, but student teachers need support in learning to engage with the books critically and analytically. They also need to be given opportunities to explore using picture books as springboards for EFL instruction. For this to happen, an integrated approach was adopted to guide student teachers to use picture storybooks to teach English to young learners (TEYL). The participants in the study were first-year TEFL student teachers, and the investigation spanned three months (between October and December 2023). Central to the investigation were 4-week learning-to-teach interactive read-alouds, targeting seven-year-old EFL learners in a socio-culturally disadvantaged community. The investigation employed multiple data collection tools, including student teachers’ learning portfolios, videotaped lessons, individual reflections, feedback from homeroom teachers who observed the lessons, and interviews with in-service teachers who habitually read picture books with those children. Results indicated that interactive read-alouds with young children positively impacted student teachers’ recognition of the significance of materials selection and teaching procedure and the importance of picture storybooks in elementary EFL. This study suggests that using picture storybooks with young EFL learners enabled student teachers to recognize interactive read-aloud as a holistic endeavor, a series of well-connected lesson stages that seek connections between the young learner and their real life, which, in turn, provide young learners with opportunities to learn to use English through the read-alouds.

Lichung Yang is a Professor in the Department of English Instruction at the University of Taipei, Taiwan. She investigates the relationship between picture book reading and literacy practice in the context of English language learning. Her recent research focuses on the role of picture books as cultural mediators in cross-cultural contexts.