Linking reading and writing with picture books: A literacy buddy approach in rural Taiwan

Abstract

This study investigated how a literacy buddy approach may influence the English learning and creative writing of adolescent learners in a rural Taiwanese school. A group of seventh‐grade and eighth‐grade students took part in a winter camp, wherein they read and wrote picture books collaboratively. Based on the students’ feedback, this approach stimulated their English reading skills, motivation to read picture books, and creative thinking. Analysis of their creative stories further shows that this approach led them to produce coherent texts and obtain a concept of narrative writing. Moreover, the students integrated the plot structure and key phrases they had learned from the picture books into their own stories, which suggests that reading the picture books might have facilitated their creative writing. Overall, this study shows that using picture books facilitated the integration of reading and writing instruction in the target rural English classroom.

Creative Writing Instruction for Primary Students: An in-Depth Analysis in the Context of Curriculum Reform in Vietnam

“…Additionally, these documents only emphasize handwritten activities and assignments, not aligning with the 2018 LEC Guideline's mandate to enhance students' competencies to work with multimodal texts. To address these gaps, these materials should explicitly provide strategies and methods for guiding students in expressing their imagination and creativity in their texts, sharing and publishing their writings, as well as working with various forms of texts, especially picture books, which is proved to help students understand that they can express their ideas not only with linguistics but also with multimodal elements (Pérez & Vargas-Daza, 2019;Wang & Lin, 2019).…”

“…This gap requires innovative strategies. Some international studies mentioned using picture books as a model for students to follow in terms of ideas, organization, vocabulary and sentence usage, and images (Pérez & Vargas-Daza, 2019;Wang & Lin, 2019). According to these studies, picture books function as a bridge supporting students to apply these certain writing qualities into their own writing.…”

The Complex Effects of Picturebooks on English as a Foreign Language Reading

“…A number of researchers have looked at the effects of using picturebooks in EFL class. For instance, EFL learners were found to gain increased enjoyment in reading (Aguirre-Muñoz & Pantoya, 2016;Birketveit & Rimmerieide, 2017), and experience language practices in reading and writing (Sheu, 2008;Wang & Lin, 2019). However, most current studies are conducted among participants aging above ten years old.…”