Playing with Words and Pictures: Using Post-modernist Picture Books as a Resource with Teenage and Adult Language Learners

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been an upsurge of interest in the use of literary texts to promote English language learning in classrooms (see, for example, Carter and McRae, 1996; Duff and Maley, 1990; Hall, 2005; Paran, 2006; Parkinson and Reid Thomas, 2000). While much of the academic literature and many classroom materials have generally conceived of literary texts as poems, short stories, novels and plays, Paran (2006) argues that many classroom practitioners are making use of a much wider range of genres than previously, including fairy tales, popular songs, popular literature, autobiographical narratives and children’s literature. Children’s literature has either been integrated into teacher education programmes in order to develop both teachers’ linguistic competence and pedagogic skills (McNicholls, 2006; Martin, 2006), or been used with children to promote their language development, particularly in the case of picture books (Enever, 2006). While Ho (2000) makes the case for the value of using children’s literature in general with adult learners of English, the potential for using picture books with teenage and adult learners of English does not appear to have been considered. There are some obvious reasons for this.