Abstract

English picture books with its exquisite pictures, concise texts, rich imaginations have become the enlightenment books to the majority of Chinese children. Picture books are the reading materials which combined visual and verbal narratives. Because of that characteristics, English picture books are now being widely used as reading materials in primary school. Nowadays, reading teaching has played a vital role in primary school. For many teachers, it’s necessary to know how to use picture books appropriately in reading class. The study, through adopting the questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews, aims to solve the following two questions: first, what problems do teachers have when they use picture books as textbooks; Second is what teaching strategies do teachers have to deal with these problems. The study has found that the vast majority of primary school English teachers have awareness to use picture books in English class, but they are still uncertain about how to combine picture books with reading teaching in primary school.

Key words:  Picture book;  Reading teaching problems;  Teaching strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Research Purpose-2

1.3 Significance of the Research-2

1.4 Structure of the Thesis-3

2 Literature Review-4

2.1 Picture Books-4

2.1.1 General Introduction to Picture Books-4

2.1.2 Picture books and Pupils Cognitive Development-5

2.2 Reading Teaching in Primary School-7

2.2.1 General Introduction to English Picture Book Reading-7

2.2.2 Researches on Picture Book Reading Teaching-8

2.3 Teaching Methods Adopted in Reading Class-9

3 Methodology-11

3.1 Research Questions-11

3.2 Participants-11

3.3 Research Methods-12

3.3.1 Questionnaire-12

3.3.2 Classroom Observation-13

3.3.3 Interview-14

3.4 Data Collection and Analysis-14

4 Findinga and Discussion-16

4.1 The Problems that Teachers Have When They Use Picture Books as Textbooks.-16

4.1.1 The Choice of Picture Books-16

4.1.2 Monotonous Teaching Method in the Application of Picture Book-17

4.2 The Teaching Strategies During Picture Books Teaching-18

4.2.1 Pre-reading: Setting Students-oriented Teaching Objectives-19

4.2.2 While-reading: Inspiring Students’ self-learning Strategies-19

4.2.3 Post-reading: Retelling and Role-play-20

5 Conclusion-22

5.1 Major Findings-22

5.2 Implication of the Research-22

5.2 Limitations of the Research-23

Bibliography-24

Appendix-25

Acknowledgements-26