EFL Elementary School English Teachers’ Strategies During Picture Book Interactive Read-Alouds in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Li, Hsiaoting, 李曉婷
• Other Authors: Yang, Hsinhsin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/86346116417284113271

碩士 === 國立屏東教育大學 === 英語學系碩士班 === 101 === The purpose of the study is to explore 11 elementary English teachers’ strategy use and their suggestions based on related practice. Each teacher’s two reading activities of English picture books were videotaped from July 2011 to December 2012. After each teacher finished two reading sessions, the verbal and nonverbal data was later transcribed verbatim for discourse analysis. Then, the researcher interviewed each teacher during longer break time or sent interview questions by emails when teachers had other classes. The overall data included two parts, the 22 videotaped reading sessions and the interviews with the eleven teachers. The first finding from analyses and the interviews of the teachers is that teachers employed a variety of strategies and had 11 functions of fostering EFL students’ language development. Regarding the responses to student’ non-initiatives, the most commonly used types help students enhance print conventions and foster phonological knowledge. Almost all the teachers used two strategies. Nevertheless, teachers seldom encouraged students to imitate. The possible variables were related to textual (e.g., topics) and contextual (e.g., teachers’ read-aloud styles) factors. In terms of advice or strategies that teachers suggest based on the related pedagogy of reading practice, the suggestions of applying picture books in English curriculum can be categorized into three areas. In addition to the suggestions mentioned above, many of the teachers revealed that they encountered dilemmas before, during, and after the reading activities of picture books. Four aspects were identified based on the interview data. The findings serve as models of teachers’ strategy use in EFL picture book reading sessions. Four implications for English Education in EFL countries can be drawn based on the findings.