Using wordless picture books to promote second language learning Margaret Early This article discusses one approach that I have found successful for teachers with little formal ESL training and few ESL text materials to help their primary-aged ESL students to develop wide and varied uses of English. The approach has proved effective in a situation in which almost half of the school population (in Vancouver, British Columbia) consists of ESL students, and in which, naturally, the great majority of teachers are not ESL specialists. The article discusses how wordless picture books can be used for both oral language and literacy development across a wide range of topics, thinking skills, and text-types. These books and the approach to using them, will, we believe, work well in EFL as well as ESL settings. Background language skills cognitive and skills Wordless picture books tell stories entirely through graphic illustrations. Frequently, people think of these books only in relation to very young children, but more recently the value of wordless books for younger and older students alike has been demonstrated (McGee and Tompkins, 1983). These books, because they lack texts, can be used for a multitude of purposes and a wide range of age and proficiency. Moreover, while text materials for teaching English as a second language may, in some instances, be in short supply, schools and public libraries around the world frequently have a plentiful supply of wordless picture books, or indeed, students and teachers can make their own inexpensive versions of this type of picture book. Several researchers have considered the language skills that children can acquire when working with wordless texts. According to Degler (1979), these texts can be used to develop oral language, and since there are no right or wrong answers in ‘reading’ these texts, they appear to foster positive attitudes towards books. In our own work in Vancouver, we have found that not only are these books a good vehicle to develop oral language, but they are also good for developing particular discourse types. Since the illustrations in the books are generally beautifully detailed, they can be used to develop the language of description. Since they often depict clever, moral tales presented on several levels of meaning, they can be read literally to develop the language of temporal sequence and choice and inferentially to develop the language of prediction, hypothesis, and cause/effect. ELT Journal Volume 45/3 July 1991 © Oxford UniversityPress 1991 articles 245 welcome In addition, by evaluating characters and their actions, the language of judgement can be developed and, by understanding the concepts and the interrelation of concepts, the language of classification and concept formation is likely to be produced. Working within Mohan’s (1986) framework for integrative language and content, the potential for exploiting possibilities to produce different types of oral and written texts from wordless books is considered in Figure 1. Figure 1: Based on Mohan (1986) Classification of Principles Evaluation predictions consequences of actions judge actions General / theoretical (arche)types characters Specific / practical any picture any sequence pictures Description Sequence of any decision picture Choice The reading skills which may be developed by using these books are very similar to those produced orally. They include sequencing, noting detail, determining main idea, making inferences, drawing conclusions, noting cause/effect, and making judgements (Ellis and Preston, 1984). Several scholars have noted that these books can be used to promote the development of a variety of writing skills. Using either a languageexperience approach (Stauffer, 1970) where the teacher acts as scribe, or by allowing students to compose their own writings, a single word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, or extended discourse can be composed from these books (e.g. Flatley and Rutland, 1986). Using the chart in Figure 1 as a guide, writing tasks can be developed which are likely to produce particular discourse/text types. Finally, Abrahamson (1981) suggests that wordless picture books can be good language diagnostic tools, for as the child reads the book the teacher can gain valuable insights into the child’s language competence. While most of the literature on wordless picture books has been in a first language context, Rigg (1977) and Enright and McCloskey (1988) have also suggested the potential for using this type of text with ESL students. Procedures An example story The teachers we are currently assisting report that the following steps are helpful guide-lines, particularly in the initial stages of using wordless picture books. With time and practice, they extend and adapt these procedures to suit their own styles and situations. Drawing on data from one teacher working with one group of eight-year-old ESL children, the steps will be described and the procedures illustrated. The book used in the example is the exquisitely illustrated The Angel and the Soldier Boy by Peter Collington. The story depicted in its pictures is summarized briefly here. A little girl falls asleep with two tiny dolls, one an angel, the other a soldier, on her pillow. As soon as sleep overcomes the child the two dolls come to life. An adventure ensues as a gang of pirates robs the child’s piggy bank and kidnaps the soldier doll in the 246 Margaret Early articles welcome course of his attempt to retrieve their booty. They keep the soldier captive on their tiny model ship until the ingenuous, courageous angel doll braves many obstacles to set him free. The two dolls manage to set all aright and return to the sleeping child’s pillow before she awakens. Pre-reading Step 1 The students and teacher survey the text to get a general sense of what the book is about. The students are encouraged to ask questions for clarification or to request vocabulary items that are of particular interest to them. The teacher, if she chooses, can ask general questions such as ‘What’s happening?‘, ‘Do you know any other stories about pirates?‘, ‘Have you ever done something brave?’ to tap the students’ previous experiences and to get some indication of their understanding of the story and their ability to express their knowledge in the second language. Step 2 Key vocabulary items are introduced. Either the teacher can pick five to ten words related to the story, or the list can be compiled from those words requested by the students when the text was surveyed. In practice, a combination of the two has usually applied. Students often request quite difficult words (e.g. glowing, braided, frightened, rescue). We have found that in the context of the story they acquire these words quite readily. The teacher, then, using the illustration as a support context, naturally models the use of these words as they apply to the picture (e.g. the angel is going to rescue the soldier, or the angel is frightened by a large mouse). The students - either as a class, a group, or in pairs - are then given opportunities to ask questions or compose oral sentences containing the key words in the story. The teacher, or the students’ peers, support individual efforts through a process of ‘scaffolding’ (Bruner, 1973, where the child is supported in achieving an intended outcome. Thus, in the pre-reading stage, the teacher has an opportunity to establish, validate, and evaluate the students’ prior knowledge and understanding of the story generally, and the students have an opportunity to get a sense of the overall story, to ask clarification questions and to request and expand their knowledge of new words. Reading Step 1 The teacher surveys the text to identify sections (plots and subplots) into which it might naturally be divided. (Subplots are sometimes inserted graphically in the margin, for example, of the main illustration.) Step 2 Mohan (1986) has developed a set of questions a teacher can ask when analysing material related to any given topic. We have found these questions useful in helping to develop a wide range of language around each section/episode depicted in the book. (See Figure 2 for a variation of this idea.) 247 Using wordlesspicture books articles welcome Figure 2: Based on Mohan (1986) Classification Principles Evaluation General / theoretical: What universal, timeless themes are in the topic materials? What are the concepts, ideas What is the moral? How are the concepts related? What values hold? What counts as good or bad? Specific/Practical: What would a film show about the topic? Who? What? Where? What persons, objects, actions, settings? What happens? What happens next? What is the plot? What are the choices, conflicts, dilemmas, personal decisions? Step 3 Usually, we work through each section of the book, first asking specific questions of description, sequence, and choice. Once these have been discussed fully, with the teacher modelling, scaffolding, and/or extending the students’ use of language, the teachers introduce an inferential ‘reading’ of the text and draw the students to see moral themes. One way to explore theme in tales is to elicit from the class topics, ideas, and concepts on which the story depends (e.g. friendship, ‘good guys’, ‘bad guys’, courage, theft, bravery, etc.). The teacher then explains that a theme must connect at least two ideas within the story. Then, in pairs, students work to develop a theme statement incorporating at least two of the topics. The results from our adventure story included: ‘It is bad to steal’, ‘You can be brave to help your friend’. Step 4 These morals can then be shared with the class as a whole and the universality of their truth-value discussed and judged. This raises the possibility for the development of the language of critically reasoned choice. Step 5 The story might then be ‘re-read’ one more time, straight through, for pleasure. Children do not appear to tire of the re-readings. Writing The teacher must decide what type of writing (e.g. description, sequence, choice, cause/effect, etc.) she wants the students to produce from the book and whether or not she wants to act as scribe for group or class compositions or have the children compose the text themselves. In the classroom from which these examples are drawn, the teacher had the children working in pairs or individually. The children had to choose a character or setting for describing; and a subplot for reporting. Their choices were then turned into written descriptions and short narratives. Examples of students’ work Below are texts produced around The Angel and the Soldier Boy picture book by a group of ESL children who have been learning English for less than a year. The first two examples are of three students’ efforts to produce the language of description. Examples 3, 4, and 5 display the 248 Margaret Early articles welcome texts the children wrote as their linguistic realizations of various parts of the plot. Example 1: The Angel The angel looks like a young girl. She has a yellow glowing halo over her head. Her hair is long and braided. She has white wings on her back. She is wearing a white dress with long sleeves. Her socks and shoes are also white. (Betty and Denise) Example 2: The Setting The pirate ship is very big. It has tall sails and many guns. Inside the ship the pirates sleep in hammocks. They sleep with their swords and daggers. They look tough. It is dark and quiet in the ship. It looks scary. (Kenji) Example 3 A mother is reading a story to her daughter and the story is called Treasure Ahoy the mother gave the girl a kiss and then the girl was hugging in her hand the soldier and the angel and the girl was thinking of something and then she went asleep. (Denise) Example 4 The pirate climbed up the cord to the top of the table at the bed. Then the pirate pushed the piggy bank. The soldier heard a strange sound so he woke up. He saw the pirate. He left the angel asleep then he started walking. (Carolyn) Example 5 The pirate took the money. The soldier say stop. The pirate got his gun and pointed at the soldier. The pirate said stick up or die. The boy dropped his gun. The pirate kidnapped the soldier. The deck washer got the money. The pirates was gone with the money and the soldier and the soldier left his sword behind. (Kehn) Later, the teacher will help the children merge their descriptions into narrative texts, and make sure that each major section of the plot has been written up by a child or group; then the teacher will help the children compile and edit a class text around the story. If the teacher so chooses, the major conflicts, dilemmas, and choices which the characters face can be discussed and written up also in detail to enrich the recounting of the tale. The students can now read and re-read various sections or the complete manuscript of different types of texts produced by their group or individually. Students may read their own texts aloud for their classmates or publish their texts on bulletin boards or in class anthologies for their classmates to read. The teacher (as described above) may give various sections of the book to different pairs or individuals to generate a text; these texts may then be compiled, edited, and illustrated to form a ‘textured’ class version of the wordless book. If several groups, or different classes, produce different versions of the texts, these may be compared to raise students’ awareness Using wordlesspicture books 249 articles welcome of different possible linguistic realizations of the graphics. The students may read their stories onto a tape so that others may read along either with the wordless picture book or the students’ ‘textured’ version. Students can also review each others’ books, thus creating opportunities to develop the language of concepts, principles, and evaluation. Follow-up activities Conclusion There are many possible follow-up activities. A few are offered as a starting-point. The students can act out the entire story or simply their favourite part of the story. They may, if they choose, introduce twists in the plot and act out what they think might have happened if something had gone differently in one of the events; for example, what would have happened if one of the pirates had woken-up during the rescue operation. They could write letters to one of the characters in the story. If these letters require a reply, then another child may imagine that he or she is the character to whom the letter is addressed and take on the forming of a suitable response. The students may also take on the roles of their favourite or most despised characters and another child can interview them about their actions, motives, and emotion in the story. News reports, either on television, radio, or in a newspaper, can also be prepared and released, reporting the key events in the story. In addition, these books can act as a springboard for a wide range of related activities (e.g. making model ships; researching pirates; finding similar heroic tales; making dolls or other artefacts found in particular texts). Each of these activities brings its own potential to develop a wide range of related text-types. In sum, these books, because they tell stories without texts, stimulate thinking and language use across modes and text-types. And because they are generally beautifully illustrated, clever tales, they motivate learners and hold their interest. With their built-in story structure, these books encourage students to produce longer, more detailed, coherent, and cohesive texts, which in turn fosters linguistic confidence in the students. In short, these inexpensive materials have great potential for language development. They ensure that students work with quality graphics, good content, fine ideas and at the same time have some fun. They provide an excellent means by which teachers without too much effort can design tasks which afford their second-language learners an opportunity to develop a variety of discourse structures across modes and situations. Received August 1990 References Abrahamson, R. F. 1981. ‘An update on wordless picture books with an annotated bibliography’. The reading teacher 34/4, 417-421. Bruner, J. 1975. ‘The ontogenesis of speech acts’. Journal of child language 2/1-40. Collington, P. 1987. The Angel and the Soldier Boy. 250 Alfred A. Knopf/Borzoi Books. Degler, L. S. 1979. ‘Putting words into wordless books’. The reading teacher 32/4: 399-402. Ellis, D. W. and F. W. Preston. 1984. ‘Enhancing beginning reading using wordless picture books in a cross-age tutoring program’. The reading teacher 37/8: 692-698. Margaret Early articles welcome S. and M. McCloskey. 1988. Integrating MA: Addison-Wesley. Flatley, J. K. and A. D. Rutland. 1986. ‘Using wordless picture books to teach linguistically/ culturally different students’. The reading teacher 40/3: 276-281. McGee, L. M. and G. E. Tompkins. 1983. ‘Wordless picture books are for older readers, too’. Journal of reading 27/2: 120-123. Mohan, B. 1986. Language and content. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Rigg, P. 1977. Reading ESL, in Fanselow, J. and R. Crymes (eds.) On TESOL ‘76. (pp.203-210), Washington, DC: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Stauffer, R. G. 1970. The Language experience approach to the teaching of reading. New York: Harper and Row. Enright, English. Reading, The author Margaret Early (PhD, University of California, Los Angeles) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Language Education at the University of British Columbia and co-director with Bernard Mohan of a large-scale language and content project in the Vancouver School District. She was previously the Provincial Co-ordinator for English as a Second Language and Multi-Cultural Education for the Province of British Columbia and Co-ordinator of ESL programmes for the Vancouver School Board. Her research interests are in the planning and implementing of programmes for school-aged ESL children. She is particularly interested in considering increase ESL students’ academic ways to achievement. Using wordlesspicture books 251 articles welcome