A Study On The Current Situation Of Preservice English Teachers’ Visual Literacy

With the development of information technology,visual texts including graphics,tables,animations,symbols and videos,other than the traditional text information,have become an important source of information.In order to better integrate into today’s highly visual society,learners in the 21^stcentury must be equipped with basic visual literacy skills in interpreting and using images.In this context,the Ministry of Education of China has also put forward specific requirements for students’viewing skill and visual literacy cultivation in the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School（2017 Version）.Preservice teachers’visual literacy ability will directly affect the cultivation and development of future students’visual literacy ability.However,the research on the preservice teachers’visual literacy in China is relatively scarce,especially on the preservice English teachers.Under this circumstance,the study focuses on the preservice English teachers and aims to investigate the current situation of their visual literacy.This thesis selects 183 English preservice teachers from a university in Zhejiang Province as the research participants.There are three research questions:1)What is the status quo of preservice English teachers’perceptions of and attitudes towards visual literacy?2)What is the status quo of preservice English teachers’overall level on visual literacy?3)What are the main factors influencing preservice English teachers’visual literacy development?Through questionnaire,interviews and analysis on preservice English teachers’Power Point visual products,this thesis aims to investigate preservice English teachers’current cognition,ability level of visual literacy and its influencing factors.Through the analysis of the collected data,there are following research findings:1)Although preservice English teachers do not have a clear and comprehensive understanding of visual literacy concept,they all affirmed its importance.On the whole,preservice English teachers hold a positive attitude towards the integration of visual literacy in English teaching.They believe that visual literacy is closely related to English teaching,the use of visual resources can better assist English teaching,and the cultivation of students’visual literacy can be integrated into the process of English teaching.2)Preservice English teachers’overall level of visual literacy is above the medium level,but the development and performance of different visual literacy abilities are uneven.They perform best in the ability to find images,and worst in the ability to use images ethically and cite visuals.3)The factors influencing the visual literacy development of preservice English teachers can be divided into internal factors and external factors.Internal factors mainly include unbalanced and insufficient individual visual literacy ability,personal interest and willingness to learn visual literacy,and practical chances to use visual resources.External factors mainly include the guidance of teachers,the influence of peers,the influence of the visual environment,and the support and education from universities.Based on the above findings,in order to promote the development of preservice English teachers’visual literacy,and the integration of visual literacy education and English teaching,this research proposes several suggestions from the following aspects:1)Preservice English teachers should re-recognize the importance of visual literacy,and strengthen their learning of visual literacy theory and practice.2)Teacher educators should improve their own visual literacy,and infiltrate the cultivation of students’visual literacy in teaching courses.3)Universities should improve the environment for visual literacy development,reform visual literacy training courses,and hold lectures or activities related to visual literacy,in order to cultivate and improve students’visual literacy from different aspects.