An Application Of Picture Books In English Reading Teaching In Primary School

Reading is both an important way for language input and a crucial part of language teaching.New English Curriculum Standard(2011 Edition)put forward such requirements of English reading for primary school students: 1.Students can learn to read with pictures;2.Students can read the words and expressions;3.Students can understand simple stories or short passages with the aid of pictures,and develop the habit of reading for overall comprehension.However,at present,there are still many problems during the English reading teaching in primary schools,which results in students’ reading ability failing to meet the requirements of the New Curriculum Standard.In recent years,English picture book teaching has gradually attracted educational circles’ attention;more and more teaching practice of English picture books are trying to be carried out in various regions.The vivid pictures and interesting stories in picture books can help students have a better understanding of the content,which is in line with the features of physical and mental development of primary school students,and also matches the requirements of the New Curriculum Standard on primary school students’ reading.Therefore,this research takes Grade Four students as the research object to study the feasibility and effectiveness of English picture books in reading teaching in primary school.Research instruments such as questionnaires,interviews and tests are adopted in order to find out the influence of English picture book teaching on pupils’ reading competence as well as reading interest and attitude.The researcher sorted out relevant resources by using literature review method and got the information of students’ current reading situation through questionnaire method.Then in the fourth grade,106 students from two classes were selected to take part in the three-month reading teaching.It was the researcher who conducted the teaching of English picture books in both classes once a week on the basis of ordinary teaching.Altogether there were 12 selected English picture books,with 6 used as teaching materials in class and the other 6 as extra-curriculum reading materials.During the experiment,the teaching method such as picture tour,sustained silent reading,story maps and jigsaw reading were adopted through PWP mode.And after the experiment,the participants’ feedback towards English picture book teaching were collected through the interview.Besides,the researcher used questionnaires as well as pre-test and post-test to collect the statistics and Excel together with SPSS17.0 to analyze the data.The research questions are as follows:(1)What effects does English picture book teaching have on pupils’ reading interest and attitude?(2)How does English picture book teaching influence pupils’ vocabulary acquisition?(3)How does English picture book teaching influence pupils’ reading comprehension proficiency?According to the research results,English picture book teaching has a positive effect on pupils’ reading interest as well as reading competence.First,the fourth-grade students have already had a level of interest in English reading and picture book teaching is helpful for them to maintain and increase this kind of interest.Besides,English picture book teaching benefits the formation of positive attitude towards reading,especially the cognition and emotion component.Second,English picture book teaching is a really effective way for Grade Four students’ vocabulary acquisition.These vivid pictures and interesting stories in picture books can help students understand and remember new words better;and it can also facilitate the mastery of the words in the textbook.Third,English picture book teaching has a positive effect on improving Grade Four students’ reading comprehension proficiency,especially the ability of making simple references and guessing the word’s meaning according to the pictures and context.During the process of reading picture books,students can deepen their understanding of the content,and gradually improve reading efficiency.At the end of the thesis,the researcher summarized the research outcomes,concluded some teaching strategies learnt in the experiment teaching and also propounded the limitation during the research.