While effects of picturebooks on reading were examined in higher grades (e.g., high school students) (Ajayi, 2009), little is known about the emerging English as Foreign Language (EFL) Kindergartens to 4th graders (i.e., K-4) students in China. Language institutes are critical phenomena for EFL K-4 education in China (Shi, 2019). Aiming to test the hypothesis that picturebooks have positive effects for reading, this study adopted within-subjects and between-subjects design to examine the effects of picturebooks on EFL reading comprehension of K-4 students in a language institute in China. Thirty-two participants were assigned into two groups to complete multiple choice and ordering tasks. The results showed that students reading with picturebooks outperformed in the two tasks than those who did not, especially on answering literal questions. With pedagogical implication as a goal, we suggest that EFL teachers need to (1) provide scaffoldings in class such as activating students’ prior knowledge, (2) make connections to students’ experience in the reading process. (3) select picturebooks considering the complex relationship between pictures and texts.

Some critics argued that the quality of teaching and learning process tends to be inappropriate that does not relate to industry needs, current technology and innovation, and provides inadequate basic generate skills to students, particularly in learning English (Himpun, 2015; OECD, 2015; Serdyukov,2017). Grounded in CIPP evaluation model proposed by Daniel L. Stufflebeam, this study evaluated the effectiveness of English  study program which was rarely examined. The results suggest that the goal achievement of English program was significantly affected by teachers’ and students’ activities; teaching and learning materials; and school environment. However, school facilities as one of the pivotal elements have not significant effect on English program where the facilities were not used properly to support teaching and learning process. Thus, the implications of this study would be of interest not only for educational practitioners, but also educational policy makers in implementing English-medium education in vocational school. Keywords: Teaching and learning, English program, CIPP model, Evaluation study, Vocational High School.